Basement Waterproofing Before & After Photos

This home was in the middle of being constructed in Greer, SC. The home owner had had work done by All-Dry of the Carolinas in his old home and was wanting to protect his new home from the start. Instead of waiting for something to happen once the home was built, the homeowner called us at All-Dry to install a total encapsulation of the crawlspace as preventative action.

                Our All-Dry of the Carolinas team started the project by installing our Silver Glo insulation. Silver Glo was installed as insulation for the crawlspace to prevent heat from leaving the house. Since heat moves from more to less, the Silver Glo works to keep the heat inside the home to keep the crawlspace and floors above warm. But Silver Glo isn’t your typical insulation; it is EPS foam with graphite infused into the foam to raise the insulation value by 24% over the standard EPS foam. Along with the graphite infused foam, it is covered in a shiny radiant barrier that reflects head back inside.

                Once the Silver Glo was installed our All-Dry team wrapped the crawlspace with CleanSpace. CleanSpace is a 20 mil thick liner that is laid across the crawlspace floor. This liner works as a barrier to keep moister that is produced from the ground out of the crawlspace.

In addition to the CleanSpace a TripleSafe Sump System was added to the crawlspace as a way of pushing excess water that enters from outside. The TripleSafe System has two different pumps along with a battery backup UltraSump. If the first pump fails or cannot keep up with the flow of water, the second pump will kick in to help out making sure that the water is getting expelled from the crawlspace. In the case of a power outage, the UltraSump battery backup will kick in until power is restored to the system.

                To finish up the process our All-Dry team installed a Aprilaire dehumidifier. The Aprilaire pulls the moisture from the air and pushes it into a condensate pump where the water is flushed from the crawlspace.

                Together with all of these products our All-Dry of the Carolinas team was able to install a perfect prevention plan to keep this new home safe and dry.

This Spartanburg, South Carolina home reported a huge moisture issue in its basement. In particular, the home owners were having a lot of trouble with the walls of the basement. Unsure of how to deal with the issue, they decided to give All-Dry of the Carolinas a ring.

When the homeowners called us over, our Design Specialist found a bit of a mess.  See  the “before” picture.  If we take a closer look at the walls, we can see a ghostly, dried substance. That’s called efflorescence, or dried water; it’s what is left behind when water has been into the space. It’s evidence. It makes the otherwise handsome walls appear dirty and old. It also leaves behind a musty smell no home owner wants. Part of the reason this happens is the fault of the material. Concrete blocks are porous. They’re excellent tunnels for which water droplets to slip through into your home. The best way to fight this is to put CleanSpace Wall into place. It prevents water from drying on the walls, and it is secured using multiple methods so it won’t “just fall down” without provocation.

Pictured in the ‘after’ photo, you can see how the CleanSpace Wall can make a difference. The space is brighter; it looks cleaner and there is no evidence of that mischievous water residue. The space is, in a word, transformed. Along the edge of the CleanSpace, you can see evidence of newly poured cement. Those dark strips highlight where we’ve laid WaterGuard. This is an effective piping system placed on the inside of the home. It’s placed against the wall, catches excess water, and sends it to the Triple Safe Sump pump to be carried out and away from the home. You’ve got to admit, this is now one spiffy looking basement.

During heavy rainstorms, this Spartanburg, South Carolina basement would leak in one corner. The water intrusion, of course, would come in and ruin the floors. The homeowners had actually contacted All-Dry of the Carolinas a few years ago, but they needed to hold off. Four years passed and they reached out to us again, now at their wit’s end.

We sent out our Design Specialist, Alex Rogers, to take a look around. He prowled around the basement—checking every crack and corner. After a thorough investigation of the space, he concluded that the home needed a SuperSump pump, our WaterGuard system, and a Lawnscape.

These three items work in conjunction to collect the water, funnel it away, and direct it out of the basement. Together, these items solved the owner’s water intrusion issue.

While these photos may not seem like this basement was in that bad of condition, a case study that was also done on this home will show you a much different story. Areas in this basement were starting to crumble because of how much water had been coming in and damaging the area. The sump pump that we installed will certainly help keep this area from flooding and causing problems.

The "before" picture shows an area that had been severely damaged by all of the water that had come through over the years. Interestingly enough, even though the homeowner had a sump pump, the damage and issues were not taken care of. This is because in most cases the problems won't go away just because there is a sump pump. The water can still raise the relative humidity level and begin to grow mold.

The "after" picture looks almost like a different home. The work that our crew was able to do in this basement was incredible. While the main focus of this post is the TripleSafe sump pump, you can also see the CleanSpace and the ThermalDry Flooring that we installed, both products that help to keep the water from staying in the basement. However, the TripleSafe is the best sump pump system that we have, and is called the TripleSafe because of its three separate pumps. One of these pumps runs on the DC power provided by the battery back-up, which you can also see in the after picture.

Basements can be dark, scary, and wet places, but they don't always have to be! Basements are much more likely to be affected by water intrusion because they are below grade and water can get into the basement through the floors and walls much easier. This can began to cause serious damage to different areas of the basement and be detrimental to the health of the home and any occupants. 

The "before" picture shows what the crawlspace looked like when our System Design Specialist went out to the home to figure out what could be done to help this homeowner out. The photo gives a pretty good look at the condition of the basement in general. However in this photo there is quite a bit of water that has soaked into the floor near the back wall. This is a pretty clear indication of water intrusion, so our Specialist knew exactly what to do.

The "after" photo shows off the basement once the crew had began working on it. At this point in the installation process, three main products have been installed; WaterGuard, CleanSpace Liner, and ThermalDry. The CleanSpace liner is the white liner that can be seen going around the bottom of the wall, this helps to catch water and drain it to the WaterGuard. The WaterGuard then drains the water straight to the sump pump which pumps out the water. The last product that can be seen is the ThermalDry floor. This isn't a product we use too often, but it helps to serve as insulation for the floor.