Perma Dry Waterproofing Blog
Do you have water in your basement or crawl space? Is there mold or mildew affecting the air quality in your home? It's likely you need basement or crawl space drainage. Perma Dry offers a wide variety of common sense solutions to your wet basement or crawl space problems. Learn more here in our blog. When you're ready, give us a call and schedule an appointment.
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The Best Maintenance Ways for Sump Pumps
Sump pumps work hard and are a very low maintenance appliance. They are critical to keeping unwanted water out of your basement. By checking your sump pump at least once a year, you will be able to help prolong the life of the sump and ensure it is ready to pump water efficiently when you will need it most. August and September are the perfect time of year to perform your maintenance and prevent common catastrophes caused by a failing pumps in the winter.
If you want to avoid coming home to a basement full of water, perform scheduled maintenance on your sump pump every six months. Mark it on your calendar to help you remember. If you don’t feel comfortable doing your own pump maintenance and parts replacement, you can always contact Perma Dry Waterproofing for our pump and system maintenance services.
Functional Check
Run the pump until there is almost no water left in the pit. Turn off the backup battery and unplug the pump. Remove the sump pump from the discharge pipe pipe by using a screw driver to loosen the rubber coupling that joints the pump to the discharge water pipe. Clean the bottom of the pump and replace the check valve (rubber coupler) or clean in a kitchen sink thoroughly.
Battery Check
You will want to make sure that your battery backup system works. Unplug the main pump and see if the battery is triggered. You may need to fill the sump basin with water to test it. Once you know that the sump pump is working correctly on battery power, plug it back in.
Debris Check
Next, remove the valve completely and clean it thoroughly. You should also remove all sand, dirt, and debris from the sump pump. This will drastically increase the life of your sump pump.
Foreign matter will decrease the efficiency of your equipment and lead to water in your home. Regular cleanings will also prevent the check valve from jamming.
Dirt Check
You will need a cup or an old mug for the next step. The dirt at the bottom of the pit needs to be scooped out and emptied into a nearby bucket. Some pits do not have concrete bottoms. To make sure that your pit has a bottom, use a screwdriver to poke through the layer of dirt. If it does not have a bottom, just scoop out as much dirt as you can. If you remove more than a foot of dirt, you should stop.
If there is no solid bottom for the basin, place the pump on a landscape stone or concrete pad to keep it out of dirt and debris as much as possible.
Final Check
Reattach the check valve and reconnect the sump pump to the pipe. Turn on the backup battery and plug the machine back in. Test the sump pump to make sure everything is working properly, and then congratulate yourself on a job well done.
If at any point during your checks you notice something is broken or malfunctioning, call Perma Dry Waterproofing for professional maintenance.
By taking the time to do this twice a year, your sump pump will last longer and work better. You don’t want to end up with water in your basement when there is a simple way to prevent it.
Foundation Crack Repair In Seattle / Tacoma
Foundation Crack Repairs
In the greater Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue area, foundation wall cracks are common. Fixing them to never leak again is not as easy as slapping concrete on the inside wall. Leaking walls can form for a variety of reasons and come from a verity of sources and not all repairs are the same or as reliable.
Wall cracks typically form when there is stress on the concrete foundation wall. Either shifts in the earth that cause the house to move or settle ever so slightly, around the bottom corners of windows, or in drop down foundations built into hill slopes.
Rock pockets (clumps of stone and rock that can run horizontally across a wall) existed when the foundation wall was built, but it was a matter of time before water found a pathway through the rocks the water entered your basement.
When to repair from the outside or inside?
Access! That’s right, it is all about the access to the repair area.
Injection from the inside of the house, pushing a urethane flexible material to the exterior of the home is designed to fill the entire crack and coat itself on the outside of the wall. This is handy and requires NO OUTSIDE digging or removal of landscaping or hardscapes to access the repair area. It is 100% guaranteed to work and because it never lets water even to enter the crack in the first place, there is no loss of the concretes structural integrity. It is both a common and widely used when performed by trained technicians with proper training. Urethane also flexes and move with changes in temperature and small movements of the house.
Outside the house. Some cracks are easier to access and require very little digging. And like the interior injection, coating the wall from the outside repairs prevents water from getting to the wall and to the crack to let water in to the basement. The dirt is removed from the outside repair area, the wall should be cleaned and dried, and then multiple applications of exterior waterproofing foundation emulsion applied by hand, with an additional drain mat covering the coating to help ensure longevity of the material. Water test your workmanship! Then back-fill the native soils.
Question other solutions!
Interior patching with concrete. No matter how hard you try, success will only be temporary. Concrete on concrete patches never bond to one another, and while effective in the short term, it is simply a plug on the inside wall and time and movement of the structure will break the seal and the wall will leak again.
Tube install. Some companies open the crack wider to install a tube or foam matting over the crack, and direct water into an interior drainage system. While it prevents the water from being seen inside the basement, it still allows the water to pass all the way through the wall. The water damages and softens the concrete (concrete is porous and can absorb water), with the potential for future damage to the concrete integrity. It is more work and more damaging to the foundation than is needed.
If you are looking for permanent solutions to pesky wall and foundation leaks, call today for a free no obligation inspection and quote. 800-584-9118
Crawl Space Water in Bellevue – Where does it come from?
Prevent water build under your home with quality services from Crawl Space Professionals.
Your crawl space under your home may be the last place you would think there could be a home repair issue to deal with, but your crawl space is a major and integral part of your home. You live, sleep, and enjoy the comforts of your home over your crawl space every day. Keeping the space dry, neat and clean to prevent water, moisture and mold issues in your home is just as important as closing the front door in the winter time….it just makes common sense.
Where does crawl space water come from?
Crawl spaces typically take on water from only two sources; the roof drain pipes (or lack there of) or seasonal rain driven ground water. Either the roof drainage around the property has failed, clogged or broken and water from the roof leaks around the foundation entering the crawl space. In this case new roof water downspout tight lines should be installed and your crawl space restored from the water damage.
Crawlspace Water in Bellevue, Seattle & Tacoma
The more common issue in the Bellevue, Seattle, Tacoma crawl spaces is seasonal rain water that saturates our yards and soils around our homes. Ground water has no where to run except under your house. Don’t believe what you read on the internet! Funny to say as we post this on our blog, but grading soils and adding yard drainage and all the helpful hints and tips typically don’t do the trick. Most crawl spaces will benefit most from a properly installed full perimeter interior crawl space drainage system with a gravity fed discharge line leading away from the house (or sump pump).
Once your crawl space is dried out, new plastic and insulation can be re-installed with peace of mind that the process will not have to be repeated. All our workmanship is backed by a long term company guarantee to ensure your home and families health.
If you have wasted enough time worrying about the water and moisture under your home, call today for a free inspection and estimate 1-800-584-9118
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