Any house can have a wet basement, no matter how well it is built. A lot of the problem lies in conditions beyond your control, such as the operation of the city sewer system or how high the water table is underground where the house is located. Therefore, it means that most houses need to be waterproofed to take care of wetness entering the house. It may be that your water problems can be solved without it costing a lot of money for labor, too.
Although it's now common practice to reinforce foundations with waterproofing materials, a lot of older buildings weren't built this way. Waterproofing both the inside and outside of foundation walls is the best case scenario, but treating just the inside will definitely help. Even if you have old waterproofing in your basement, you'll find that the materials weren't nearly as sophisticated back when your house was built, so it should be replaced or covered with modern waterproofing materials. If you are living in an area that is prone to having water in basements, it's important to have the best waterproofing available.
The best time to waterproof a foundation, of course, is while the home is being built. By doing so you'll know that the basement will be resistant to water seepage. It's also a good idea to waterproof the basement floors. Doing all of this during construction makes it easier to get in all the corners and crevices where water could conceivably come in.
Waterproofing an Older Home
Before you purchase any home, you should always check for waterproofing. You should also inspect all of the plumbing and its location. If you don't like what you see, you'll know that if you buy the home it's going to cost you to do the work, unless the seller is willing to take care of it before any papers are signed.
If you do have to do the waterproofing yourself, you may want to hire a professional to do the job for you. Otherwise you could try doing it alone or with friends which will be less expensive. You will need to install a good membrane system which will cover the foundation from the inside and take care of any existing cracks. Sometimes a little tar will go a long way towards sealing leaks, too.
When waterproofing a basement, you need to first observe the water flow conditions around the outside of the foundation in order to figure out ways of directing the water away from the house instead of towards it. Correcting a misguided water flow can be as simple as banking up dirt around the house to make the water runs down and away from it. You can also try digging some small ditches away from the house to another area which can be drained later.
"Rebuilding" your basement can be another way to waterproof it. This doesn't mean that you have to demolish your existing foundation. Instead, you will reinforce the walls with a coating of cement and hot tar. This treatment, although it's a bit more work than other methods, will both waterproof and strengthen your foundation. If you have any water pipes that are leaking, you can replace the fittings to tighten the connections up again.
Products to Use for Waterproofing
If you're going to do the job right, you'll need to use the right products. Traditionally, cement and tar have been the most-used items to cover cracks and prevent water from seeping into the basement. There are a lot of new products on the market, such as epoxy, that are quite expensive, but they don't seem to work any better than the old tried and true materials do. Epoxy is used by injecting it into cracks. If the cracks are deep, you can end up using a whole lot of this expensive material.
Waterproofing is just one of those preventive maintenance tasks than comes with owning a home, and it's very important. If your house is 20 to 25 years old, you need to have the basement inspected for leaks. Dampness within the basement itself can be a clue that water is seeping in somewhere. Your basement is an integral part of your home, and any problems there affect the home's overall value.
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