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Leaky Basements and Ways to Fix Them
Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor are full of beautiful old houses. Unfortunately, many of these beautiful old homes have problems with water leaking into their basements. There are a variety of reasons this is undesirable but this page focuses on possible solutions.
The first solution is full basement waterproofing. While this is quite effective, it can be incredibly expensive. It consists of excavating down to the footer of the foundation, repairing footer tile and water proofing the inside and outside of the foundation using paints and tars. However, there are other options that could keep water from entering the basement for a fraction of the cost.
Typically, leaky basements occur because of water pooling against the house during heavy rains due to grading issues and down spouts draining too close to the foundation. This can be fixed by 1) connecting drain tile to downspouts that carry water away from the building and 2) adding top soil against the foundation of the home. While this is not 100% guaranteed to stop basement leaking, it is worth a try before taking on the price and hassle of full basement waterproofing. Furthermore, if water is not leaking into a basement yet, it does not hurt to employ these methods now to prevent future issues.