Thursday, March 25, 2010

Reading between the lines...

As you may know, most basements have cracks in the cinder blocks that look similar to stair cases due to the house settling or maybe some type of movement underground. No matter how well the floor and walls of a basement are done, they always crack, even with steel rebar and fiber mesh. It's just the nature of concrete as it shrinks while curing, and subsequent loading and movement of the structure. The cracks may not be visible, but they are there. Even without any shrinkage or stress cracks, there is always the cold joint between the floor and foundation that can, as I have seen, allow seepage.
So for the cracks in my basement I was considering how to cover them up. After reading online, there were a few solutions. Using what is called Drylok or Some type of hydraulic cement. I chose to go with the hydraulic cement that I already had left over from my previous large crack i dealt with when I had a horizontal crack across a whole wall. That wall was the one I put up the heavy 2x6s on.
Hopefully this will limit the amount of moisture seeping through the walls. I also have in my basement a sump pump, and a de-humidifier. I may just hook those two up to work together in the storage room, so that the rest of the basement can stay relatively dry. This also will help since I'm not completely finishing the storage room.

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