Don’t let basement waterproofing costs keep you from making your home safe and dry. A waterproofed basement can mean the difference between a dry, healthy basement (and home) and a house riddled with dampness, mildew, mold, and structural damage. The process is involved, but it’s also essential!
Your home is where you keep your family safe, and knowing what you can do to keep out the negatives of water damage can go a long way toward ensuring everyone stays happy and healthy for years to come. Waterproofing is worth every dollar, and then some. Here’s everything you need to know about the average cost to waterproof your wet basement through necessary interior and exterior steps.
What is Waterproofing?
While there are many options available to fix a leaky basement or crawl space, there are several that are commonly used and accepted as industry best practices to waterproof your home. These options generally fall into one of two categories: exterior waterproofing and interior waterproofing. Let’s take a quick look at how these options work.
Exterior Waterproofing Solutions
Waterproofing your home from the outside prevents water from going into your basement from the start, thereby reducing the chance for moisture to create issues in your foundation, walls, basement floor, window wells, and other interior surfaces. The last thing you want is standing water in your basement, and proper exterior drainage and waterproofing can help you make sure moisture stays outside where it belongs.
Solutions in this category include:
- Grading the land around your house, so water flows away from your foundation.
- Installing a better gutter system to drain storm water away from your home.
- Installing a barrier around the outside of the basement walls to direct water away from the wall.
- Creating a French Drain to prevent soil erosion and allow water to drain properly.
The idea is to create a waterproofing membrane around your home that stops moisture for getting in through cracks, an improper drainage system, and other issues. This involves paying attention to proper installation of gutters, French drains, and other tactics (depending on your home’s situation) to keep your home waterproof.
Interior Waterproofing Solutions
Although you always want to fix any causes that may be creating problems from the exterior, it may be easier to fix your water problems from the inside of your basement. Some of the most common interior basement waterproofing solutions include:
- Coating the walls with a waterproof paint or sealant.
- Using an epoxy injection or sodium bentonite.
- Repairing existing cracks or any spots that are starting to crack in your basement walls.
- Installing a sump pump to remove water from your basement and pump it outside where it can drain away from the foundation.
- Monitoring for damp, wet areas to ensure no additional leaks are allowing moisture in.
Basement waterproofing requires a holistic approach to remedying the problem, and that includes working both inside and outside to improve drainage, remediate cracks in concrete (both floor or wall issues), pump out standing liquid using a sump pump or other solutions, and regularly checking the foundation to ensure your water and other vapor barrier systems are working effectively.
When to Waterproof a Basement
Is your basement waterproof? If you notice any of these warning signs, then your basement’s waterproofing system is either failing or nonexistent.
- Water pools on your basement floor after heavy rains.
- Your basement floor and walls have watermarks on them.
- Your basement concrete walls are cracking.
- Mold and mildew are growing in your home.
- You see active leaks or dripping from window wells, foundation corners, or other creases.
Waterproofing solutions are diverse, which means the costs can vary greatly depending on which is needed. Although you may be tempted to save money by doing your waterproofing yourself, it is actually more cost effective to hire a professional to handle the job for you. That’s because a lot goes into a waterproofing solution, and expert waterproofing contractors will be able to:
- Tell why water is coming into your basement.
- Identify what it will take to keep it out.
- Create a basement waterproofing system that will work best for your home’s specific needs.
Get your basement waterproofing done right the first time by hiring experts from waterproofing companies, so you won’t have to worry about it again.
How Much Does It Cost to Waterproof a Basement?
Factors that play into the cost of your waterproofing project include the size of your basement, the extent of the water damage, whether there is an existing waterproof solution in place, and the method used to fix it. Understanding your basement problems can help you understand how much it will cost per linear foot to fix them.
1. The Size of Your Basement
One of the biggest factors in the cost of your waterproofing solution is the size of the area that needs to be waterproofed. HomeAdvisor estimates that the average homeowner spends about $4,400 to waterproof a basement. How can you tell how much your basement will cost? Expect to spend somewhere between $5 and $10 for every square foot of your basement.
2. Where the Water is Coming In
The source of your leak will be a clue to the extent of the damage in your home. An expert can get an estimate for the cost to waterproof your basement once he or she figures out where the water is entering the basement. The scope of the issue largely determines the overall price: A waterproofing contractor digging up the soil around your basement walls to install a moisture barrier will cost more than repairing a few cracks in a poured concrete foundation, for example, and it will also incur more labor costs. Related to that, if the source of the leak is easily accessible, your costs will be lower than if the source is difficult to access.
3. The Existing Waterproof Solution
Your basement may already have a waterproof solution in place. If that is the case, your waterproofing contractor will evaluate the reason that solution isn’t working. It may only need a simple patch or epoxy injection to get your home back to water-tight. In other cases, the moisture or vapor barrier may need to be completely redone, which would raise your overall basement waterproofing costs.
4. The Chosen Waterproofing Method
There are advantages and disadvantages to any waterproofing method. For example, exterior waterproofing keeps water from ever entering your home, which is better for the overall integrity of your structure, but the exterior methods often involve more labor. This costs more money. Interior waterproofing methods are more cost-effective and efficient, but they don’t have the same lasting power that many exterior solutions have.
Let’s look at some specific solutions, and approximate costs:
- Cement applied directly to the exterior of your basement wall costs about $1,000 to $1,500.
- Installing a waterproofing membrane around your basement walls requires excavation and more expensive materials. It may cost up to $15,000.
- Concrete sealers applied to the interior of your basement will cost about $3-$9 per square foot.
- Normal waterproofing paint costs about $40 per gallon and covers about 75 square feet. A professional grade waterproofing paint can cost up to $130 per gallon.
- Rerouting the water from the inside of your basement to the outside may cost from $700 to $2,600.
- An effective gutter and downspout system costs an average of $1,000.
- Resloping your lawn so the water drains away from the foundations could cost between $900 and $3,000.
- Fixing cracks in your foundation costs about $500 to $1,000.
If your basement waterproofing system is nonexistent or has completely failed, you’re looking at a much higher cost to remediate the problem (think adding up many of the costs above) than if you were to merely have some cracks repaired. You’ll want to move water away from the foundation by using French drains or choosing to install gutters if the issues are resulting in a wet basement, leaky window wells, or other issues.
Time to Call in Professional Waterproofing Contractors?
When it comes right down to it, waterproofing your basement is about keeping your home safe and your family healthy. That means you’ll likely want to do whatever it takes to ensure moisture stays outside where it belongs, even if that means incurring a cost to make sure your family is healthy.
LUX Foundation Solutions has more than 25 years of experience in the waterproofing business. When we come over to inspect your basement, we’ll let you know exactly what is happening and how we can fix it. The inspection and estimate are free of charge, and you can be sure we’ll choose a waterproofing solution that will work for years to come.If you have any questions concerning basement waterproofing costs, do not hesitate to contact the experts at LUX Foundation Solutions today. We’re here to help!
