Importance of Drainage in Basements

In the battle for more space many homeowners are looking now towards basement conversions but what they do not realise is that when waterproofing basement walls one should not forget to waterproof the basement floor and the vulnerable wall floor junction.  This Twistfix basement restoration case study highlights just how important drainage is within basements.

Believe it or not the junction whereby the basement wall and basement floor actually meet is one of the weakest parts of the structure and thus water finds the weak spots and will use it as an easy route into the building to flood a cellar.

Twistfix were contacted by a homeowner in Cheshire who had a build-up of water below his concrete slab in his basement. One of our registered contractors went to take a look and saw that there was no drainage system in place in order to take away the water and so the pressure of the water below the slab then appeared through the concrete.

When the original basement conversion has been carried out the waterproofing of the walls had been taken into consideration but not the floor.  Additionally no basement drainage was planned and thus the basement had now become susceptible to flood and this was a problem.

The Twistfix registered contractor went to survey the site and then provide a solution. The original concrete slab was removed and a new engineered floor slab was installed. Twistfix Drainage Channel was installed around the perimeter of the wall and floor junction and this was connected to a Basement Pump Plus Kit. In addition to the above 50mm insulation was then installed on top of the slab and 8 mm waterproof membrane was fitted to the floor prior to a 50mm screed being installed.

The floor membrane was connected to the wall membrane using a butyl rubber Waterproof Corner Tape and then the entire Basement has now been fully waterproofed almost like a sealed envelope! It has a drainage system to take away any water that was behind the wall and floor membrane and the basement was now BS8102:1990 Type C Compliant.

Now the homeowners had their basement back and it was fully waterproofed. As it was carried out by a professional there were no nasty surprises the next time when it rained just the shock of having a dry basement floor – which they hadn’t had for quite some time!

Twistfix offer a range of basement conversion products which can be used to effectively waterproof your basement and protect it from flooding or damp caused by the ingress of moisture. In addition we also supply a number of drainage solutions for use within basements.

For more information on basement waterproofing please contact our specialist and experienced team on 0845 123 6007 or email sales@twistfix.co.uk.