Wet Kirkwood Basement Waterproofed by Woods
Here you can see that the floor of this basement was always wet, except of course in times of drought. This historical home, built in 1865, is now owned by the Kirkwood YMCA. The YMCA currently uses this home for office space, and they would like to be able to use the basement as a storage area. A basement with this much moisture needed a customized waterproofing system to keep it dry year round. Thankfully Woods has the exact products needed and created a system to restore this home to it's former glory.
Waterproofing System Installed in Historical Kirkwood, MO Home
Here you can see both components of Woods' waterproofing system that was installed to save this Kirkwood basement. Around the perimeter of the floor you can see wet concrete that was just poured over the WaterGuard track, which leads water from under the floor to the TripleSafe sump pump. This system expels the water before it's ever able to enter the basement. A few great features of the TripleSafe sump pump include a main pump, a secondary pump that sits higher than the first pump so that should there every be a high volume of water that the first pump can't keep up with the second pump would turn on and work with the first to expel the water. A couple more features include a battery backup pump, which would kick on in the event of a power outage, and an alarm that will alert people in the building should the first two pumps ever fail before the basement floods. The alarm gives homeowners the crucial time needed to have maintenance performed on the pumps before the basement floods. Of course another way to prevent mechanical failure is to keep up with yearly scheduled maintenance check-ups.
Nasty Crawl Space Cleaned Up and Waterproofed in Kirkwood, MO
One section of this historical home's basement is actually a crawl space, which is common in older homes. The crawl space section needed special attention to waterproof and a separate customized system was designed to restore this space.
CleanSpace Vapor Barrier and Sump Pump Installed to Waterproof Kirkwood, MO Crawl Space
Here you can see the CleanSpace vapor barrier and the very top of the sump pump that was installed just to keep the crawl space section of this basement dry. The CleanSpace vapor barrier keeps moisture from entering the crawl space, which will also keep dirty moist air from circulating throughout the home.
Smart Jacks Installed to Secure the Floor of a Historical Kirkwood, MO Home
In this photo you can still see the wet cement around the perimeter of the floor along the walls of the basement. The WaterGuard track system was installed throughout the entire basement. However this home also had rotting floor joists which caused the floors to sag. To secure the lower level of the home Smart Jacks were installed to support the weak floor joists. Now the people that work in this building everyday have peace of mind that the structure is secure and they are no longer breathing in moist moldy air coming up from the basement.