Basement waterproofing questions

15 years ago

1. Is roofing asphalt reenforced with fibers suitable for painting on the exterior foundation wall? An HD guy sent me home with an oddly named brand called "Henry".

2. My foundation has an area that was a rough cement pour. There is a lot of gravel so the cement is very course and water has seeped into the basement during heavy rain. The asphalt coating that the foundation contractors did was not sufficent to plug it. Fortunately it is not too deep down so I dug it out to well below the rough area.

Is it best to just re-do the job carefully with asphalt?

Or, is it possible to thinset over the old asphalt first to fill in all the nooks and crannies and THEN use the asphalt waterproofer over the thinset? Will thinset adhere to the old tarred surface?

Comments (2)

worthy
15 years ago
Asphalt alone is dampproofing, not waterproofing.

However, I have successfully used fibrated asphalt with successive layers of heavy duty fiberglass mesh. IOW, asphalt, mesh, asphalt, mesh asphalt, mesh, asphalt.

There are also asphalt-based products that can be used as waterproofing without mesh. (See below.) You should look for speciality retailers for these products.

Leave the roofing asphalt for the roofers!

(And wear your throw-away clothes or oldest overalls for this job.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Water Barrier Asphalt Coatings
jimbo_2009
15 years ago
Also consider installing some sort of dehumidifier if your problems aren't sorted out yet. the last thing you want is fungi, mold and so on ruining the basement!

Here is a link that might be useful: air dehumidifiers, home dehumidifier
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