Basement Waterproofing Damascus

Damascus may have an exotic name, but this small Maryland community is 100% American, with the unusual distinction of being incorporated, then requesting that incorporation be revoked many years later. Despite that, there’s a strong sense of community in Damascus, with Montgomery Fire & Rescue Company 13 making a headquarters here, and the Damascus Heritage Society Museum preserving the rich history of the town over the generations.

This is the kind of place where people maintain a quiet, stable life, and while many people will enjoy the rewards of their hard work through their life, some will run into trouble from an unexpected source. It’s not the kind of problem people run into every day, and in many cases, they won’t realize it for a very long time. But if residents find they have a leaky basement, then basement waterproofing in Damascus should be their first concern to keep a small problem from getting worse.

Water Does Its Damage Slowly

Unlike the type of home damage most owners will be familiar with, such as a tree branch hitting the home, or a baseball flying through a window, water is not a fast acting threat that hits your home quickly and hard. Water is a force of erosion in nature, meaning that it works on a much longer, geological time scale.

When water hurts a basement, it doesn’t do it right away, which means that most homeowners are unlikely to notice the damage. It occurs over a period of months or even years, depending on the circumstances. A home may actually house several families in it with no problems at all until decades later when environmental conditions are right, or changes in weather occur, and problems finally become noticeable. But it’s usually at this stage, when people finally start to think that something is wrong that water has already wreaked a sizable amount of damage.

If the presence of water is visible but small, such as in a leaky basement, this means that there is a problem present, and it is growing. It’s up to owners at this stage to decide whether they want to heed this early warning and address the problem before it becomes more serious, or take their chances and hope that it doesn’t grow any worse while they live in the home and will become the problem of the next family that moves in.

Whatever the decision is, unfortunately, it doesn’t stop water from doing its slow, relentless work. Water can slowly erode the very soil that a foundation is built upon, and in the same way that a house is unstable without a solid foundation, the foundation itself needs to sit on solid dirt to properly hold up a home. If water has moved away parts of the soil a foundation sits on, this affects the structural integrity of a home.

If water gathers in large amounts around a home and presses up on it, this creates a phenomenon known as hydrostatic pressure. This pressure works on both the walls and the floor and, when it’s strong enough, can force water through the spaces in concreate so it appears to bleed from walls. If the hydrostatic pressure grows, the water can actually bend the walls, or even crack the floors, and once this happens, more and more damage will occur. Only basement waterproofing in Damascus can address these problems both before and after they occur.

Prevention & Repair

When you call AA Action Waterproofing, we bring our knowledge and our equipment to your home to address your concerns. If you are prudent and are more interested in preventing problems from occurring, we have many preventive measures we can undertake to ensure an already dry home remains that way. We can conduct an inspection of your home to see if there are any areas that need work, or, more importantly areas that may soon be in trouble that you weren’t even aware of. Through the use of vapor or membrane barriers, we can prevent condensation or liquid from penetrating your home.

If water is already an issue for the home we track down the points of entry, determine the cause, and then formulate an action plan to solve the issue based on the circumstances of your situation. Hydrostatic pressure can be relieved by installing drain tile that moves water away from the home. If a foundation is damaged, it needs to be stabilized and restored to full functionality before repairing the other parts of the home.

If you need basement waterproofing in Damascus, you need AA Action Waterproofing to solve your problem. Contact us today and let us help you.