We constantly strive to educate and coach our team as to the importance of water in our industry. Not the shortage of drinking water, but the dangers of what water can do to a house. Homes are being hit from at least 4 directions including groundwater/hydraulic pressure, vertically from the sky, horizontally with the wind, and internally from burst/leaking pipes. The potential for damage is the worst kind of damage, and that’s why they say when one has a house fire it’s usually the water from the fire hose that makes a home a total loss, not the fire itself.
This post offers a little insight into one of the never seen elements of building a custom home, and that is waterproofing the subterranean parts of the foundation. Over the last week we’ve been doing exactly this for our 2021 NW Idea House.
There are a number of products and applications on the market, but in terms of foundations, and especially with daylight basements, the key is getting that water quickly down to the footing level and exported to an intended location via piping and washed rock. Here we’ve done a heavy millage elastomeric polymer modified asphalt emulsion based spray (say that fast!) on the concrete with a continuous Delta Drain 6000 HI-X matt over. This black matt mechanically fastens to the top of the foundation and allows for a continuous vertical air gap between the sprayed waterproofing on the concrete and the sandy dirt backfill taking any moisture straight to the 4” perforated footing drain wrapped in 1-1/2” washed rock surrounded by silt fabric at the foundation footing which then carries the water away from the foundation and house.
