Wet basements

Wet basement solutions for Columbus homes

Damp walls, flaking paint, white crust and a smell that never leaves. A basement does not need a puddle to have a water problem.

(380) 261-2333 Free inspection

Damp fieldstone basement wall in a pre-war Columbus house with peeling paint and white mineral crust

Read the walls

A wet basement leaves clues before it floods:

White powdery crust (efflorescence): salts left behind as water passes through masonry and evaporates.
Bubbling or peeling paint: moisture pushing out from inside the wall.
A dark band at the base: water wicking up from the floor joint.
Tide lines: water that stood on the floor and dried.
Rusty nails, rotting sill plates: long-term dampness.

Clogged gutter overflowing in the rain and dumping water beside the foundation of a brick house — An overflowing gutter dumps a roof's worth of water at the wall.

Basement window well with a clear cover and a clean gravel base beside a brick house — A covered window well with a gravel base.

Start outside

A surprising share of wet basements start on the roof. A 1,000-square-foot roof sheds roughly 600 gallons in an inch of rain, and a clogged gutter or a short downspout puts that against one wall. Window wells without drains fill like buckets. Soil that has settled toward the house sends runoff straight at the foundation. These are cheap fixes, and we check them first.

Then the wall itself

If gutters, grade and wells are right and the walls still stay wet, the water is coming through the soil. Pre-war Columbus homes with fieldstone or block foundations are especially prone, because every mortar joint is a path. That is where interior drainage or exterior waterproofing comes in.

Get a damp basement checked

We call back the same day to set a time. The inspector walks the basement and the outside grade with you, then you get the price in writing before any work starts.

Water in the basement?

Our phone line runs every minute of the year. Say where the water shows up and we set the inspection.

(380) 261-2333

Wet Basement Solutions

Common questions

Is efflorescence dangerous?

No, but it is a sign water is moving through the wall. Brushing it off doesn't solve anything; it comes back if the water does.

Can I just repaint with waterproof paint?

On a wall with soil-side water pressure, the paint usually fails. It can help with light condensation only.

Do downspout extensions really help?

Often a lot. Moving roof water several feet from the foundation can dry out a corner that has leaked for years.

What does it cost to diagnose?

The inspection is free. You get a written explanation of the cause and the price of fixing it.