Basement walls and floors aren’t the only places that allow water into the house. A basement stairwell can be the easiest thing to forget, but when you think about it, that’s a downward slope connecting the basement door with the outside. This means that moisture in the ground and excess rainwater can just freely flow from the ground into the basement, unless the stairwell has some sort of waterproofing plan in action. Similarly, window wells can have flaws and holes that allow water from outside to seep into the home, leaking into different areas of the home, and down into the basement where it collects. As Quality Dry Basements owner Charles Pellaton knows, waterproofing stairwells and window wells all complement waterproofing the basement, as the entire home must work together to stay dry. All rooms and all components must keep water out, because it only takes one point of entry to create a moisture problem in the house.
A window well has a few different jobs to perform, and some of them make each other more difficult. They must seal out air and moisture from the home, so cold air doesn’t get in during the winter and hot, humid air doesn’t get in during the summer, and moisture doesn’t get in all year-round. However, they also need to provide ventilation for the furnace in many cases, depending on how the home is built. If built properly, this well should be able to seal the home off from outside air and moisture but still offer ventilation throughout the piping that travels down to the furnace, so it does not overheat. In many cases, however, the window well will perform one of these functions better than the other, and often when the piping is built to ventilate the furnace channel, it allows unwanted air and moisture inside. This brings dampness into the home, and it will collect in the basement. If this is happening, that ventilation should be capped and sealed, first completely and totally sealing off all points of entry for water and damp air. Then, furnace ventilation can be independently created by adding in a separate screen of ventilation on the furnace duct itself.
The problem of runoff and water seeping down the basement steps and inside can be solve by creating a sort of dyke, or some kind of blockade that will stop the water from entering the basement without rendering the stairwell unusable. This dyke system can be worked into the floor and walls surrounding the stairwell, and will catch the groundwater and damp earth before it can make it inside. Your contractor will help you devise a plan to make this happen, since it can a bit complicated to seal the stairwell off from water but leave it totally functional. It’s completely feasible, but just requires some planning.
If you have found moisture in the basement and you call contractors for an estimate for basement waterproofing, it’s a good idea to have them look at the rest of the home. Otherwise, you can spend the time and money having the basement waterproofed, only to still have a moisture problem in the house. Save yourself days of wandering around desperately wondering where that water can be coming from. If you have the contracting estimator inspect the house and find these problems, it can all be added into one job, nice and simple. Everything will be waterproofed in one job, under one quick timeline and one package price. That way, after this one renovation process, your entire home is completely waterproofed, and moisture has nowhere to enter or accumulate.
