A Drier Basement with DRYLOK EXTREME | The Family Handyman
As a contractor, finished basements always make me a piffling nervous, and I usually won't take on a basement job unless I can waterproof the walls start.
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Before this bound, the last time I'd used a DRYLOK product was about five years ago, when I used the Masonry Waterproofer to coat the cake walls in a clammy, musty-smelling basement that I was finishing. All the walls were going to exist covered with insulation and drywall, and I wanted to make sure they stayed dry and mold-free. As a contractor, finished basements ever make me a little nervous, and I usually won't have on a basement job unless I tin can waterproof the walls first. I've been in too many basements with moldy drywall and a dehumidifier that never shuts off.
It's a tough problem, because basements are below ground level, and when the ground gets wet, the h2o wants to level out and fill up the hole created by the basement—and several feet down, there's a surprising amount of pressure pushing that water. Since block foundations aren't waterproof, especially later years of settling, h2o will wick through if the exterior isn't perfectly sealed— which information technology ordinarily isn't. Then you're basically trying to plug thousands of tiny holes in a big, leaky dam.
I often wake up in the centre of the night then that I can obsessively worry for an 60 minutes or ii about jobs I've done, and my finished basements are always in the top x. I imagine water pouring in through poorly waterproofed walls, soggy insulation, toxic black mold, wood rot, houses collapsing, major lawsuits, bankruptcy, and my life in ruins.
Fortunately, the DRYLOK waterproofer held up. The homeowners called me back last year to add together a bath to the finished basement I had done for them, and everything looked and smelled completely dry.
All that worrying for nothing.
Anyway, considering I'yard a contractor, I never go around to working on my own business firm, and I've been ignoring the damp walls in my unfinished basement for years. Simply this spring was pretty wet, and when I saw water trickling down the walls and some patches of mildew starting, I realized it was time to deal with the problem.
After scrubbing off the mold with a bleach solution, I went over all the walls with a stiff wire castor, and then vacuumed upwards all the grit. I cleaned off a few patches of white efflorescence with a masonry cleaner called DRYLOK ETCH, then rinsed those spots well. Afterwards everything was dry, I patched a few cracks and holes with FAST PLUG hydraulic cement (some other DRYLOK product that I utilise a lot), then started rolling and back-brushing, working the DRYLOK waterproofer into the pores of the block. I decided to use DRYLOK Farthermost this time because I was worried about the mildew. DRYLOK EXTREME has a 15-twelvemonth transferable warranty, which also makes a difference to me. A lot of companies brand improvident promises, assuming that years downward the route nobody will remember, but DRYLOK is an American company that's been selling waterproofing products for a long time, then it has a solid history.
I had the DRYLOK waterproofer tinted a soft off-white, and after 2 coats, my basement looked great. It rained buckets the other day, and I went downstairs with a bright low-cal to check everything, and couldn't find as much as a clammy spot. Doing my whole basement wasn't cheap (I have a big basement), but when I saw those dry out walls, I knew DRYLOK EXTREME was a proficient investment.
— Eric Smith, Contributing Editor
Source: https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/a-drier-basement-with-drylok-extreme/
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