Waterproofing Basement Walls | Finished & UnFinished Basement 

Ol dude is passionate about water damage, and I'm here for it.

Who the hell makes these videos for a 30k subs channel? The quality from sound editing, to camera, to animation(!) is great! Like I wouldn't write a letter home about it, but holy hell is it refreshing for a home makeover YT channel!

I don't even know why i'm watching this, we don't even have a basement 😅

In Puerto Rico most houses don't have basements but the walls do that. Most people put a small sidewalk around the house to make the water fall away from the wall

9 times out of 10 these "specialists" just keep talking until you just hear noise. This man is a genius and knows what he is talking about.

Nothing I do is related to construction but this channel is so interesting. Peter is great at making this stuff understandable.

No idea how or why i came across this video but I loved watching and learning. I dont even own a home... BUT I am an insurance agent.. and water claims are the 2nd most common claim (roofs #1). And learning about water tables and hydrostatic pressure is really good to know

This video was a master class for the layman's understanding of how basement walls, footings and floors are supposed to work. Great job, thanks!

6:38, watch this before exiting the video. Please do your self a favor and listen to this man.

Someone used deck paint on my basement floor and part of the walls before I bought it. I have a couple of spots where water seeps in. Putting new and wider gutters with a leaf guard really helped alot.

Love the open explanation of the design and the mechanisms that cause damage. Really appreciate your insights. It’s completely changed my understanding of the water issues in my basement.

Great info! I live in California but am considering a house with a finished basement in Georgia. This helps and educates me on basement water issues

This guy is legit. I see so many videos on RU-vid where people are sealing their walls from the inside and saying their basement is "waterproof". He is showing us a real example of why that is a bad idea. Thanks!

Nice to see someone doing the job the right way. I work for a basement waterproofing company up in New Hampshire and have removed quite a few of those gutter style systems. They never work.

This guy is legit. His explanation is thorough and makes sense. I wish I saw him first before I got JES to install my french drain system but live and learn I guess

this is so informative and thorough. My basement leaks in my basement when it rains and our maintenence dont know how to fix it, or anything else for that matter, and im always fixing up things with my own money. I have unfinished basement, i have A. D. D. But this was so good i watched the whole video. I was actually looking for a video showing how to waterproof my basement,but this is good to know.thnks

Looking at a house today with Killz all over the bowed in walls. Inspector said similar things; came here for research. Thanks ADBS!

Great video on basement waterproofing! Thank you for explaining the complicated process of how the old waterproofing system didn't work. Bravo 👏

Wow, I’m glad I saw this. My basement recently flooded and I was thinking I needed something like that gutter system.

My house was built in 1944 when the used river sand which had impurities. Thankfully the basement walls wasn’t covered up and all the plants were removed from around foundation. Some homes around have much greater problems.

Just wanted to say thank you for taking your time to explain this process. We are getting ready to have a company basically do this exact thing.

The only time I got water in my basement from rain, was when hurricane Ivan dumped over western Pennsylvania here, and my gutters were filled with leaves. I got about a quart of water in one corner of my basement.. The gutters and downspout were not carrying the water away from the house like they should. The water was overflowing out of the gutters, and down into my lawn.. since then, I have been up on my roof using a leaf blower to keep the gutters clear whenever a multi day heavy storm is threatening in the fall when the leaves are falling.. if you want to keep water out of your basement, make sure your gutters are clear and the downspouts send the water away from your foundation, first.. here in western Pennsylvania, we average about 55 inches of rain every year.. my house is built on a half acre wooded lot on a slight hill side. It was a construction class project for students in the 1950s. It’s a 62’ ranch were the main/1st floor is at ground level in the front of the house, and the rear of the house, because the house is built on a slope that is Terraced, around the rear the basement and garage are level with the ground. So from the front, my house looks like a one story ranch, but from the rear at looks like a two story ranch. all brick, the foundation block is a very hard type of block they used back in the 50s. I had to have a door cut in because there was no man door in the basement to go outside. To get in and out of the basement, I had to keep opening the garage door when I first bought the house in the 80s. The acquaintance I hired to cut in a door which was what he did for a living, he was a specialist door installer on new construction..he said, that is the hardest block he has ever seen. After about an hour of cutting with his usual block cutting saw,He had to go and rent a more powerful saw and buy a diamond blade to cut this block. It took him 2 days, and there was so much dust.. I didn’t really know this guy that well, he was One of the guys I rode dirt bikes with on the weekends,and I could see he was frustrated because it took an extra day, so I paid him $300 more for a total of $900 including the new door And renting the bigger saw and buying a new bigger blade.. that was in 1989 dollars… I know how fragile regular cinderblock is. You can easily break i with a ball peen hammer. I had to cut a vent for our clothes dryer and 2 holes for our new condensing furnace pipes in this block. Using my compressor, a heavy macho drillgun, and a pneumatic air chisel,It took me more than two hours to cut each hole.. my point is, this is some tough block that doesn’t seem to be very porous. Maybe that’s why I don’t get water in the basement unless my gutters are clogged and a hurricane slowly passes over dumping over 5” of rain on already saturated ground from the previous week of rain .. they don’t build them like they used to

THEE authority. Fantastic info. Instructional and practical. Lends his decades of experience to the viewer in an understandable manner.

Type of soil and the landscape plays a big role. Our house is on compact fine sandy soil. And we are on a hilly street. Water seems to drain very well. However, we did install a weeping tile under our basement floor. It runs all over under the floor, and along the outside walls. We also put a loose dimple board membrane on the inside brick walls that leads down to the weeping tile. So the brick breathes, although not a lot. The membrane had spray foam insulation sprayed over it, to a depth of about 4”. I honestly think it’s better for brick or concrete to just be able to breath freely into room, but we needed the living space in our basement. It would be great if we could monitor the amount of moisture in the walls.

Great info. I think in our case, we need to adjust the walkway around the side of the house. Thankfully, the amount of water we are dealing with is small even on heaviest of rainfall.

Crazy… I almost felt like it was my home for a second. Caught myself starring into that concrete wall being like… “how am I going to afford this repair?!” (This dude is mesmerizing, I don’t even own that home).

Great job in explaining your product and issues that you point out making this very important and easy for any homeowner to understand.

Great,informative video on how to properly waterproof your basement with the correct drain pitch,products for a dry basement! I love it and I'm excited about having my basement done! I'm thinking of doing it myself since I have the equipment and tools to do so. I'm in Maryland. I have been ripped off twice by two different people claiming to know how to do basement waterproofing. I'm out of $5,000-and my basement still is excavated and incomplete! The house was built in 1915. There is dampness in the basement properly because of several things:(1) there isn't a sump pump system in place to take the water away from the foundation(2) the backyard is also excavated in preparation for a newly poured concrete backyard. When removing excess dirt from the basement area,I noticed there was water underneath the foundation once excavation begun,tree roots from a tree growing two houses away and hundreds of oyster shells as the digging continued!!! I was beyond shocked by all of this. I had no idea! I couldn't believe my eyes to what I was seeing. Now the question is how do I go about fixing this correctly and properly even if I have to do it myself? I'm willing to put it the work and do just that! Remember, I been ripped off twice by two different people already. Thanks for these informative videos! You have no idea how much of a great help and inspiration you are and how the videos inspire! Kudos to American Dry Basement Systems!! P.S.I still think you should consider expanding to my area(Maryland/ Baltimore County; Nottingham/ White Marsh area). You'd love us here and we'd love to have you!!

Competence and passion. Great video.

This guy CLEARLY KNOWS what he's talking about. Love how he explains things in such a way that is easy to understand. And he doesn't only explain it clearly but also shows you right on the spot. I would def hire him to work on my basement. A

Thank you for the information! I was going to cover my basement walls with that sealant. Good thing I watched your video. Clueless DIYer here!

The house that I bought had a very bad water infiltration problem in the basement (not disclosed by the seller), and the only entry was blamed on a single window well that was below grade with no well and a concrete sidewalk sloping towards it. 2 years later, a very wet spring showed what I was in for, when there was a literal river flowing from the basement walls to the sump pit. The paneling in the basement 'flowered' with mold! I had a basement waterproofer come in (I checked BBB first) and did an interior waterproofing/weeping tile/sump and added a whole house dehumidifier. 5 years later, all is still good, problems solved. As you note, they did NOT seal the concrete, but installed a thick membrane sheet against the wall that allowed it to 'breathe' at the top and outside, and directed any weeping down to be collected to the sump.

this is the best explanation ive heard for that white powder on the wall. my last home had it in the basement on the one side. house was on top of the hill so water was sitting on the other side. what i did was tarped from the bottom of my aluminum siding down to the ground and over to my neighbors driveway. she had a small wall between us maybe 3 ft high and i knew her for my entire life so she didnt care. it looked shitty but i never had water flow in. only crystal powder. i was going to drylok it but then i figured the water would prob re route somewhere else and since i had crystals instead of water i just left it. my new house the previous people had no gutters. and water would rush in through all the basement walls. really messed up things underground. i used lik 4 buckets of cement patching cracks in the winter.

I'm such a total amateur. I really needed the insight. Thank U.

Really explaining the science and technical aspects of waterproofing a basement. Excellent video!

WOW Thankyou so much for the. INFO!! We just realized our foundation is Crumbling as well and has "been" in need of repairs! We were planning on Dryloking the intire basement. Thanks to your video we will be planning a Plan B!

The explanation of everything was fantastic.

Thanks for this - what a great introduction to why floors can be damp even with a "drainage" system

Sir I admire your calmness and tact. When companies or individuals do ineffective or even harmful jobs it makes me mad. Where has common sense gone? Workers just making a wage and having no other value system? SMH over and over.

I bought Drylok last week and planned to paint the basement wall where water was seeping in from nail holes holding 2x4s that where soaked and rotted. I sprayed flex seal on the wall because I had it on hand. Didn't know if I could paint drylok over flex seal. Seeing this video I'm no longer going to use drylok. Not sure what I'll do but at least I won't make it worse

This video was very helpful. I have a fairly dry basement but has been showing signs of deterioration. Previous owners look like they may have applied white “drylok” type paint. May need to do a lot of searching to find a good contractor in NJ that can help and not make it worse

This guy is spot on! I enjoy these videos.

There is a really simple solution. I bought a house with water in the basement, big puddles. The only reason it don’t flood was it would run out the basement garage door. I took one afternoon with a shovel and fixed it. Been over 30 years and no problems. All I did was dig a very shallow ditch along the drip edge of the roof and put the dirt against the basement wall. So the ground surface sloped away from basement walls instead of towards them. The shallow ditch is sloped towards downhill with some shallow surface ditches to carry the water away down hill. This works for surface run off from heavy rains. Will not fix high water table level that causes flooding without a rain.

This man is so on point I’m rolling 😂 Really great information with a great delivery Big up yourself King Thanks for the video 😎👍🏾

Very logical and helpful. Thank you.

Thank you so much for the video. I will definitely share this with my clients. I explain this to my clients on a regular basis. Wrong systems installed on a regular basis.

Nice tutorial. Back in the day I installed 3" pvc with 3/8 holes at 5 & 7 o'clock below footing. Covered in aggregate. Property on hill. Foundation was block. Area was clay based soil. Basement always flooded. After piping to a sump pump pit on 2 sides of basement never had a flood again. I quess I got the hydrostatic pressure to decrease by allowing water to find a least resistance path to pipe. After watching video I think in theory it's what you did for that home. I wasn't sure it was going to work but happy it did. All work on inside of basement.👍

Peter ! Thanks for showing this!

Love these type of building videos. 👷‍♂️ 😊

like the thickness of that stuff, I have older home 1920. I thinking about getting some as well for my basement

Proper air gap helps too. Love basements. Cheapest sqft so long as you can control the moisture. Building science has come so far now with butyl membranes and dimple boards to apply on the (business) side of a wall. Guys back then we’re just using the normal stuff

Such a good video, all homeowners with concrete basements should watch this.. I certainly learned a lot.

this is an amazingly informative vid! Thank you

the best basement tutorial ❤ thanks for sharing sir

I'm looking to buy my first home and would like a basement so this has been very informative for what to look for and to do.

Sold. Very informative straight forward video: thank you.

Great video - thanks for posting!

The explanation and knowledge is so in depth and well explained. Thank you!

Mine is so much worse! I don’t know what to do to fix it! So glad to see this video even more that this house is near my town it’s just made me realize how bad my walls are

Great information! I watched a few of the videos before I finalized my decision to go with American Dry. The videos were great and helped to "seal the deal". We are just about to start the project. I have watched more of the videos and I am so much more informed about what will be done. I will follow-up with additional comments when the work has been completed.. Looking forward to this project!

This man is a hero.

I LOVE YOUR VIDEO SO WELL EXPLAINED AND PROJECTED. THANK YOU.

Nice video. Thanks for sharing

Do not put tar on the inside of your house.

Great info. I’m digging out crawlspace in my 115 yo Craftsman bungalow in Tacoma.

Great video!!! I've learned allot from you just now!

The water pressure under our basement slab floor cracked the concrete and began to leak from the pressure like 5ft from the wall. Drainage is key, water prevention

OMG, thank you for the information.

All the graphics were very helpful

Well done, Mr. O'Shea.

As I am about to get estimates from a couple of waterproofing companies, this video was very helpful...

Great video. Thank you. I was going to get one of these systems. I guess that's not going to happen now.

Very, very useful videos! Thank you very much!!!

This was very helpful!

Thanks for the education

thank you for this excellent explanation!

You do make sense sir . You know what you’re talking about as you should. Good job !!

Wonderful information!

I know it's been awhile since this video has been posted but in regards to using liquid rubber paint, does the same argument apply to the floor as it does to the walls? I have a few hairline cracks in my basement floor and want to seal them. I was thinking liquid rubber could be the best option. Would it be okay to use liquid rubber on the floor cracks, whole floor or neither?

Thanks for the video. Who do you recommend in Michigan? Thanks to you I was able to Ovid this gutter system.

Very well explained

This guy knows what he is talking about . Refreshing !!

I don't have a basement (yet) but when I do, I'm hiring these guys.

This is rather educative. I have an unfinished basement. There is, as far as I know, no waterproofing. The basement does have a tendency to be humid, but we don't have any water problems. I think that a large part of what is preventing problems is the fact that we are on a slope. The parking side and front of the house only has a foot of foundation wall exposed. By the time you get to the rear of the house, the ground is level with the basement slab. We've got an outside door at the rear of our house. The foundation tile is also obviously working quite well. There's an area of about one foot near the foundation that is always bone dry during summer.

I'm surprised you didn't talk about the outside of the walls maybe applying a water barrier or French drain on the outside of the basement walls and back filling with rock or something. Not saying I'm an expert or anything just some things I've heard other people did in damp or flood plain areas have done to keep their basements dry. You make all of your points crystal clear and show what was wrong on this basement install. This will help a lot of first time home buyers/builders as well as those with existing problems seek out better solutions to their wet basement problems. cheers!

I’m so happy i seen this omg

I don't know how I got here but this is a fantastic video!

lots of useful info!

Good that you got it before it was too late though

Thanks for the video. It was really informative on what not to do and the effects. I would have liked to see the system you recommend on this video. I'll look at your other videos to see if you captured that part of the work. Any recommendations for companies in the Northern Virginia area?

I come from a company performing the gutter work he was removing, and it was a real eye opener! Thank you for this video! I would love to know what the proper fix is for that type of foundation?

My cellar was built in 1150 (yes, 1150) from Yorkstone, its all vaulted ceilings and gargoyles which is very nice but damp. At some stage long ago it was painted and layer upon layer has been added over the years Efflorescence is rife and the stone is slowly crumbling. This cellar is in my pub and is used to store and dispense my ales. What is the best thing to seal it with to stop the constant water ingress and slow down the crumbling? Thanks for a great video.

Awesome!

Good demo and explanation. Not sure how the previous contractor did this. Bizarre

Good to know, I like to see what I should be watching out for when buying homes.

Wow what a mess and such a terrible expense to the home owner, if it had been constructed right in the beginning.

Two thumbs up. Unfortunately the cost to correct the work of the the quick fix geniuses can easily be double the cost of doing it right in the first place. Sometimes the damage is non-reversible, left long enough. Also the glib talk of "cheap and simple" even gets past the building inspectors.

agreed very great useful video.

no doubt good stuff to know do not forget back flow valve

Great video