The only problem is when the tar dries it will allow the plastic sheeting to pull away and moisture to get in. The good news is it takes about 50years for that tar to dry out.

That's a lot of rock.

I have a 1962 building with the tar and plastic but no drain tile or insulation. Sidewalks are poured up to the walls and joints are sealed. The groundwater alone causes a humidity issue, but no bulk water.

@@TheSteelArmadillo Do you have vapor barrier and insulation under the concrete floor?

James Gleason that’s what the as-builts show and the historical images at least show the poly on the sides. It was built long before I was born. I do know that poly sheeting is not truly water proof when there is water pressure on one side. Edit, sorry no insulation under or on the sides. Just tar and plastic.

@Will Swift I have water proofed basements in commercial buildings in San Francisco that are built where the bay used to be. So in essence below sea level. For a professional waterproofing company ( not a handyman or carpenter or general contractor) it is relatively easy there are many systems that work. I have even waterproofed 2 basements built n the middle of an underground river.

Let me ask - see how the footing is square to the foundation wall? Ie the footing is wider than the wall, so at the bottom of thew all the footing sticks out at a right angle. But can't water collect there? Why not have a "tapered joint", ie build up some concrete there to push the water away? I know its dirt there after it gets back filled but its gets saturated then the water can settle to there. The things is is that backfill is less compact than the regular ground so water will move from the more compact soil to the backfill every rain.

Peel and stick is the best in my opinion, put the dimple over top if you want extra.

Step 1) ...goes on 1/8” to 1/4” and bonds “ferociously”..... I think you mean “tenaciously” 😜

My experience with crushed recycled concrete is over time it solidifies not allowing water to pass through

what about termites with your continuous external foam ??

Someday I will as well. :D

Yes yes

That is why I plan to start playing the lottery. 😁. The only problem about all these systems are cost. Sure you having a leak free house is Priceless but these products cost more. Just wish they would do a side by side construction methods and costs comparison.

@@marcelosantana9311 i wish he reada this then! @mattrisinger

Use AMVIC insulated concrete forms with a Soprema membrane then dimple board

Appreciate that!

I've never seen a production builder use a basement.

@@JamesG1126 you live in an area of low cost land then. Everything here has basements

@@JamesBlazen having a basement has nothing to do with property costs, and everything to do with frost lines and soil rigidity. Here in PNW we have almost zero full basements because of having around inches deep frost line. Take somewhere like NE they have frost lines measured in feet... So if you have to dig that deep for your footings... Might as well make it "additional house space" aka basement

@@sparksmcgee6641 land cost doesn't mean basements... It means frost line and soil rigidity issues

@@JamesBlazen haha... I am aware of the crawl space under my house :P. It is on my list of things to deal with after air sealing the attic. Just one of a 1000 projects on my 5 year old half a mill dumpster track built home

How did your project go?

@@KidFreshie Still waiting to do it. Surprisingly, it's not the most household project ai have.

@@AndrewDeLong Good luck to you! I'm embarking on this soon for my cabin. Looking for insight from people who have done it before.

Seems key for the exterior walls of a conditioned crawl space too but I never see that done.

@@JamesG1126 Haven't seen my projects, I guess. SOP

@@JamesBlazen Exterior pretty much the same as a conditioned basement, as I described in the long original comment I posted earlier for this vid. Probably the only significant difference will be the interior. Radon is a big deal here, and virtually all new structures must have radon mitigation built in, even if the power venting is not needed at the time. Cold and frost line makes crawls a minimum foundation standard (likely to be drilled caissons with grade beams, the normal nomenclature in these parts), as an awful lot of the soils are far too hot to float a slab on grade; that kind of stuff is just not done around here. Okay, back to topic. The interior will get graded out to bottom of footings or the grade beams, and then 4" perf pipe in crushed stone or crushed concrete (stone size dependent on issues of handling, but normally 3/4"). Drains run out, and radon venting goes up. For a crawl, we simply use 10 mil clear poly over the stone, in the largest pieces/ fewest joints one can. There is a good trick with the expansion joint material that I like. Rip 1/2" off the edges of all pieces, then pin the rips back on to the larger piece with small finish nails. Snap grade lines on the walls, pull the poly up at the foundation walls, and use masonry nails or powder actuated to fasten the main width of expansion joint to the wall. Then 2" +/- of 3/8" aggregate 2500 psi fiber reinforced concrete. Pump it in real wet, screed neatly to the top of the expansion joint material, and bull float to suit, walk away. The concrete is to maintain the integrity of the poly, and hence air/ vapor seal: it also makes a clean work environment for the trades, and any future activities(like personal storage). I do not normally use any foam insulation under the crawl slabs, as we typically have radiant floors with insulation below, in the joists. Temps in the crawl are intermediate, and don't vary widely.The soil mass below will basically stabilize out to something like 55 F, more or less year-round. The exterior foam keeps humidity and condensation from becoming an issue, as the foundation walls could be otherwise affected by changing outdoor ambient temps. The last task is to give the concrete topping a week or so to cure, and go then go back and pull those 1/2" rips off the top of all the expansion joint material at the walls. Leaves a real neat groove, with pre-installed bond breaker at the bottom. Just right for a pourable two-part polyurethane sealant, or a gun grade, if you prefer (trim poly to the groove). Another note about radon: if a sump system is required for the interior, then the sump itself must be sealable (lid) at the concrete surface in the crawl, to prevent radon entering the space, or reducing the effectiveness (pressure drop developed) of the powered vent fan above.

@@JamesBlazen 1) it has become the industry standard/ trade practice hereabouts 2) neither The geology basically dictates, or at least heavily influences. There is a huge range of soils and foundation conditions along the Front Range of Colorado. Once down off the Foothills and onto the " flat" Plains, one is on the ancient seafloor. It is layers of sedimentary rock (mostly shale and some sandstones), layers of oil and gas deposits, and more sediments on top: all hundreds or thousands of feet thick. The lower layers have been so compressed that the original sediments have been turned into those shales and sandstones. The topmost layer has been compressed into a hard layer, that can appear to be stone, but isn't really. We call it claystone. It is composed of expansive clays. Water penetrates down very slowly, and causes the claystone to revert to clay as it gets wetted. Typically, the top 5 to 15 feet will be softened and unstable. Anything founded in that top layer will move, heave, possibly for years after construction. The nasty part is that if one digs for a foundation, the water penetration is pushed downward as a result, just keeps getting softer, deeper. Best practice (usually mandatory per code) is a soils test and report from the geotechnical engineer. The report will specify design parameters for the site, and in these cases, that is caissons. The structural engineer will design the foundation per building loads and soils report. Typical house will be 12" diameter caissons, 10 to 15 feet into the undisturbed claystone, so maybe 15 to 25 feet total depth, but not unheard of to go 40 feet deep. The bearing capacity is a result of the footprint, and also the friction/ interlocking of the vertical sides of the caisson into the solid claystone. It is necessary to also look at and consider potential uplift from the softened material in the topmost layer acting on the upper part of the caissons, during engineering. A modest two story may need these every 10 feet of foundation wall, give or take. The soils engineer must be on site for the entire drill and fill, and approve each hole as it is drilled. A concrete pump is standard, with trucks rolling in as required; the holes must be filled immediately as they are bored and approved ( to avoid water intrusion/ softening/ collapse). Typically 2 to 4 re-rods will be inserted full height in each, sometimes full cages are specified, most likely for larger diameter bores. Here, the caisson industry is like the post-tensioned industry in Matt's Austin. The most prevalent technology will likely be the most economical, and no sense wasting energy fighting it. Now after all that, we also see incredible gravel deposits, along the current river channels. Might be 1/2 mile wide, probably good conventional bearing. Get near and into the Foothills, and anything may be found. Could be solid granite (pin to it), decomposed granite (claw it out, conventional footings), gravels, clays, mixed up combinations (really need the soils engineer for them), and sometimes even decent ordinary soil. We have had jobs where the best solution was 24" to 48" diameter caissons (needs the footprint for the loads and underlying soils) that were drilled through 5 to 8 feet +/- of mixed junk, to hit good bearing (like solid gravel deposits). We have had jobs in marginal soils (slightly expansive, not over claystone), where we were able to use interrupted footings. This mean an array of concrete pads, providing bearing for the grade beams (could be a full basement height, or a crawl) on void between the pads. The pads are sized per the building load right to the limit of the tested bearing capacity of the soils, so there is not enough surface area for the slight expansion to generate measurable uplift. Bottom line, it pays to have a good pair of engineers and a big arsenal of possible techniques to handle whatever you have to deal with. TMI ??

@@JamesBlazen And again, when I checked my reply, it was garbled. I really thought it loaded okay, but no. I edited and repaired, hopefully that holds up.

how has it been performing? any issues?

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fbmEepdqy67Wl58.html

How did your waterproofing project turn out?

Amen. Spend money keeping water away, not from seeping thru.

@@ArthurDentZaphodBeeb that's why when we do basement walls we have spray on tar and then 8 mil plastic applied and then two inches of foam on top of that and then backfill the foundation with nothing but Stone with drain pipes at the bottom.

If you build a good foundation it will span the crack. Look at the deformation of the product.

I am going to do hydroarmor's version of an interior french drain with sump pump in my basement, then have this done to the exterior after excavation, then frenchdrainman's system on side of my yard that is uphill and sheds water toward my house.

When doing landscaping you need to maintain a 1/4" slope away from the house.

Yep. Think about it: nearly every step of constructing a house is thinking about moisture. French drains for the footer, leaks in a basement, vapor barrier over floor of crawl space, sill plate sealant (subfloor), Tyvek (walls), air barriers (fighting mold in walls), gutters, peel n stick and watershield and flashing for the roof, grade level to flow water away from house, dehumidifiers (internal moisture control). There's a reason: moisture = rot, mold, insects, leaks, and ruined insulation. It's the #1 way your house can be ruined.

You never forget when you basement gets flooded

The dimple mat, being plastic, will degrade in the sun and exposure. The rubberized coating may not be necessary to go that high. But, I too was wondering about that detail.

I figured the gray color change was so it would look ok painting up the whole foundation wall.

Absolutely. Most water problems are due to poor site preparation. You should notice a slight grade rise 15 feet away from the foundation. You should plan for drainage during the build and not depend upon sealants to keep water out. I know of a house where the water pressure under the basement slab broke a hole in the concrete floor making a loud pop when the water began pouring in from below. Poor drainage will also cause a slab foundation to crack.

I have used Waterplug hydraulic cement for leak repair, very successfully. Not a surface coating, it is intended for specific water passages that must be stopped. Sets very fast, everything at cool temperatures is essential. Worth a try. Home Depot has a competitor product: www.homedepot.com/p/DRYLOK-Fast-Plug-10-lb-Hydraulic-Cement-00924/100171483

Texas as florida has too high ground water and floods, so in practic they dont design basments, and as we all know, Matt started his career not in texas so that stroy might be somewhere else

You can build under water but always use a self-healing geosynthetic Sodium Bentonite layer like NAUE Bentofix® X

Of course, he doesn't need the liability.

For a basement to make sense it needs to be in well drained soil. If you have to excavate rock and deal with water problems, it's not economical square footage.

Above ground gets plenty of air to dry out with. The issue underground is that the water sitting next to the foundation has time to seep through over days and weeks. Then you get into UV rays and other environmental issues above ground (careless weed trimmer usage) that make or break the budget when it comes to using a single material layer all the way to the sill plate.

Proseco as I understand it is NOT a below ground product

Did you manage to fix your flooding?

Always best to keep the water out instead of blocking it in. But there is a large investment to do the outside but really worth it. You gain insulation value in the wall from drying it and you prolong it's life from rusting rebar away, cracking, frost damadge, mineral depositing that causes the concrete over the years to weaken and crumble. And the innside then gets easy to insulate further and without rotting and water damadge. Some have innside "french drain" where the floor circumference is hacked away and drilled holes to the outside to drain the outside. And you still need to water and damp proof the wall innside 100% before doing anything since the wall will still be wet

I have used bituthane on hundreds of buildings over a 40 year career. When stalled correctly and protected for backfill damage it is a GREAT system

I used Sanitred about 8 years ago. Worked great.

@@richardroy5437 Thank you

How did your waterproofing project turn out?

Nailed it. Trench out the exterior walls and redo it. Seriously though, is it coming in on the wall surface itself or down near the base? Is it block or poured?

@@johnhutchison9782 Block. Weeping through slowly, mostly at the base. I'm guessing water logged blocks at the bottom of the wall cause the drain pipe at the footer can't move it away fast enough. Sump runs a lot.

@@Sash2016 I'm going to improve my drainage first too. Then paint the inside, then go the extreme route and trench.

@@JeepWranglerIslander good to hear the sump runs a lot so your drain tile is doing it's job but on the bad side you've got an issue with runoff going in the wrong direction, towards the house. When I built in Michigan the soil varied from pea gravel (Lake Huron shoreline on Mackinac Island) to solid clay so there was always a challenge. If you're at the low end of a long slope in the terrain, it may be more difficult to come up with a satisfactory way to channel the water from the exterior wall. Start with what you can control, gutters to move the concentrated runoff away from the house. Digging out the backfill down to the footer would be a worst case scenario, not to mention costly.

W R Meadows sells Mel Roll and it is tops .

Waterproofing is best done before, just like a Dam. No one would ever build a Dam and try to waterproof it after the dam was built, I hope ? Edit: There are products that can help though, Thorough Seal is one that comes to mind. You paint it on and it's thick and a PITA !!

Agreed. I ask because I live in a 1935 house and redoing the outside of the foundation is not an option. I’ve researched other products for sealing concrete on the inside. But the poly wall sealer seams to be a much better product then I’ve been able to find on the internet. I don’t get water in my basement but it does have that damp smell to it all the time.

@@christopherattfield5507 I would expect the damp smell is attributed to moisture migration through the concrete, and or condensation on the colder wall surface from humid air in the basement. Might try a dehumidifier. This is why I do only continuous exterior insulation on basements and crawls (new work) for the past 30 years. Completely stops the condensation/ humidity problems, totally changes the basement environment. Problem with coatings on the inside is that moisture migration through and vapor pressure developed on the inside surface of the concrete wall creates a substantial force to separate the coating from the wall. You can try, but it is based more on hope than certainty.

@@leestevens446 As you said, vapor pressure and moisture migrating through the concrete towards the inside will eventually cause any coating to peel off. It's just a matter of time. There's no getting around this. Waterproofing concrete from the outside is the ONLY way to do it. Physics says so...no matter what Joe Blow the sales guy tries to tell/sell you.

@@JamesBlazen Four feet. Ha, simple answer. Except I hate simple answers. For a basic job on easy, flat ground, the idea is to almost max out the concrete forms used, and 4' forms are most typically used. We have 36" frost depth, and have to keep wood (even treated sills) above finish grade by some increment, so this works on footings or on caissons (the form void will use up the specified height inside the bottom of the forms, say 4'' to 8", but frost heave is not so critical sitting on the caissons). Some cheapo's will use 2' 8" forms with grade beams, but this gets tight in the crawl, I would not do that. The cost is doing the job, the height reduction does not save an equivalent % of cost. With nominal 4', there is room for ducts and drain pipes, and a tradesman can still get around to work reasonably well. We put in permanent lighting and a power plug, even if no equipment in the crawl (then it is code requirement). Now, the variations: because of expansive soils, any job on caissons with a basement has to have a structural floor. This is now mostly an engineered reinforced concrete slab over foam insulation, poured over form void. Then builder's choice as to whether it will be in-floor radiant, in the slab. It is also possible to do a structural wood framed basement floor, hung from the foundation walls (usually with caissons, steel posts and carrying beam) over a crawl space below. Did this only once, when first arrived in Colorado, but probably never again. Foundation wall pour gets really high, and costly. The crawl gets cut to minimum depth, like 18", and then it is a nightmare to work in: there is always at least some plumbing, and a sump system. This becomes an orphan space, out of sight/ out of mind. Not all that great a scenario, but it does not ever heave, which is critical. And, yet more. Pretty much all jurisdictions here are limiting % of lot that is covered, limiting height (in several aspects) and limiting floor area built. In our culture (especially here) everyone wants max size, so basements are in. Interesting thing about the building codes, any space with highest ceiling height LESS THAN 6' 8" is not "habitable space", and not counted as floor area. The last large project was 10.5k sq ft, on the permit. In fact, there was about 1k sq ft of floor area inside the altered/ added to foundation, that was purposefully built at 6' 7" from top of full floor slab to finished ceiling. Most was used for the mechanicals and other equipment. Legally a crawl space, but full exterior insulation and very nicely finished off. The point? All jobs are designed with a large array of factors clearly in mind. Not just owner needs and desires, but also soils, frost, water, surrounding terrain, mechanical systems, structural considerations, insulation strategies, planning regulations, building codes, and so forth. FWIW: my original stand-alone comment on our basement strategies got sort of mangled in posting the "Reply". Just noticed it, and think I got it edited and corrected. It came out somewhat unintelligible on the first go-round.

Same. 😂

he's literally the only person i know who uses that expression lol.. must be a texas thing.

@@JOSEPH-vs2gc Seems to be an "old guy too religious to cuss" thing. Not sure how this started...definitely seen the symptoms before.