Does your home have a crawl space foundation? A crawl space can be a mysterious and sometimes daunting place, seeing that it is located down and under the recesses of the bottom of your home. You might have decided to section off your crawl space from the outside with foundation blocks or siding. This will not only help with the aesthetics of the crawl space from the outside of the home, but will do a little more to keep the outside elements out. The only way, however, to keep your crawl space safe from moisture in the surrounding earth and air is to either encapsulate it (which we recommend), or to have a crawl space drainage system professionally installed.
If you have standing water in your crawl space, it is important to note that the majority of it is most likely coming from outside the foundation walls. This moisture seeps into the soil from the elements outside and comes up from underneath the footer on the other side. A sump pump alone cannot collect all of the intruding moisture. A waterproofing system, comprised of a series of drain tiles, perforated piping, and a sump pump make up the solution that gives you the ability to expel unwanted water from your home’s foundation.
The footer of the structure of your home is the focal point at where our team of Waterproofing specialists do their work. After first excavating the dirt away from the footer wall of the foundation, a layer of waterproofing membrane material is applied directly to the surface, sealing out moisture. This layer of material will act as the last line of defense against any moisture trying to intrude the foundation walls.
The next step is to install a drainage board up against the waterproofing membrane. This drainage board will allow gravity to do a majority of the work by draining moisture from the surrounding soil down and away from the home. Our drainage board is built with materials that have been tested and proven to last a lifetime.
After this, a drain tile is installed on top of the footer, up against the drainage board. This keeps any moisture from the surrounding soil that the drainage board has not captured and, once it reaches footer level, drains it away from the home as well.
To wrap things up for maximum effectiveness, the drain tile is then wrapped in a combination of gravel and drainage fabric, containing a perforated pipe to expel any of the remaining moisture next to the home.
Does your home have a crawl space foundation and is in need of a crawl space drainage system? Give Barrier Waterproofing Systems a call today at (615) 257-1060 | (931) 536-1168.
