This approach to waterproofing a basement will trap water within the foundation walls which will lead to the accelerated deterioration of your foundation walls. Note: The application of tar, rubber, or cementitious coatings on the inside surface of your exterior foundation walls is, in our opinion, a big mistake. Note: as this type of repair is done on the negative pressure side of the wall (the inside), it will not withstand the test of time therefore, even if you manage to stop the leak, you still need to have this professionally repaired as soon as possible. Be sure to use protective gloves as the cement will become surprisingly hot as you work with it also, the pot life is very short (2-3 minutes) so you have to work fast. Hydraulic cement can be purchased at hardware stores such as The Home Depot, Rona, and Canadian Tire. If your basement is finished you will have to open the drywall or remove panelling in order to see the foundation wall and the exact source of the leak.įor a quick concrete block leak repair, or poured concrete foundation crack repair, you can apply hydraulic cement over the leak it is only a temporary measure but an effective one. Step one, of course, is figuring out where the water is leaking into the basement from. While you may be able to stop the leak completely, you still need to have it repaired professionally otherwise you will end up trapping water in the wall which will lead to the accelerated deterioration of your foundation walls over time. If you have a basement leak (from the walls only) that seems to be out of control, to avoid staying up all night mopping up water, you will want to try to stop the leak until it can be properly repaired (or you can call us to properly repair the leak on an urgent basis). Our basement is flooding and we’ve been up most of the night, is there anything we can do? While many home improvement and repair projects can be undertaken by the average person who has spent sufficient time researching tricks and techniques, repairing basement leaks and fixing cracks is not straightforward and forgiving as some Do-It-Yourself book / DIY crack injection kit vendors would have you believe. Much like plumbing and welding, fixing basement leaks and foundation waterproofing is a specialty.

Therefore, you need to know how to fix a foundation leak properly, and you need to have the right tools, if you hope to fix a wet basement yourself.

DIY projects are naturally very attractive to homeowners hoping to save money when it comes to DIY basement waterproofing however, much like do-it-yourself plumbing, errors are typically very frustrating, destructive and costly.

Basement wall crack repair kit