I just read a column in the Life and Homes Real Estate Blog about how many people dealing with basement water problems are still adamantly against installing a sump pump.

Many homeowners and home buyers have this stigma against the sump pump.

Homeowners trying to sell their homes with perpetually leaking basements will go to lengths to cover up or pretend that they never had a basement water leak. However, in many states, it is now illegal to not disclose Read more »

Posted: August 4th, 2008 under Uncategorized, basement waterproofing.
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I read and hear about it over and over again… to eliminate a damp, musty smell in the basement, or crawl space for that matter, open a window (or vent).

Yikes! What’s the weather like outside? Isn’t the relative humidity at 70%, 80%, even 90% on the East coast and in the south?

So opening a window and letting in humid air is going to do what? Right- it’s going to bring the humidity in. You’re going to cool that air in your basement or crawl space. So, if it’s 70% relative humidity and 85 degrees outside, and you bring that air into a 65 degree basement, what’s going to happen? Read more »

Posted: July 29th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
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Lawrence Janesky, founder and president of Basement Systems Inc., reflected on the people and principles that helped him and his basement waterproofing and crawl space repair company to the level of success at which it now stands during his acceptance speech for being conducted into the Connecticut Junior Achievement Hall of Fame.

Junior Achievement (JA) has been educating and inspiring young people to understand business and global economics to improve the quality of their lives. Junior Achievement is the largest non-profit economic education organization with programs taught by classroom volunteers from the business community across America and in more than 100 other countries. Read more »

Posted: July 2nd, 2008 under basement waterproofing.
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The Springfield, Missouri News-Leader wrote an article about termites, ants, and pest control and how to help stop them from entering and thriving in a home by preventing moisture.

“Do whatever you can to keep moisture away from your home’s foundation, Schultheis [of the News-Leader] said. Make sure rain is not getting into your crawl space or draining toward your home, he said. If it does, regrade the soil around the foundation by adding more top soil and planting grass. This will eliminate the depression or drainage problem.” Read more »

Posted: June 25th, 2008 under crawl space repair.
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From the Web site of Southface, a non-profit organization with the mission of saving energy, conserving water, and preserving the environment, comes a Top Ten List for Sealed Crawlspace Success.

The list discusses many of the issues that we here at Basement Systems have been addressing for the last 7 years, including the sealing of a crawl space with a thick, impermeable liner (you can’t save the planet if your throwing away a crawlspace full of 6-mil plastic every two years) and then conditioning the space.

You can see the crawl space list in it’s entirety at the Southface Web site, but as it deals with new construction, I have truncated it here to reflect sealing a crawl space in an existing home.

Here’s the list:

1. Moisture can enter the crawlspace when the home is being constructed, creating mold even before the home is completed. Proper drainage, sealing and insulating are important early in construction—before the floor joists are installed. Read more »
   

   Posted: June 17th, 2008 under crawl space repair.
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Are you planning to add some extra usable space to your house, like a new game room or a home office? Are you being held back because you don’t want to deal with the hassles usually involved in the building process?

If you have an unfinished basement, you can add valuable living space to your home, without having to build anything.

And, as this video will show, refinishing your basement is not only the smarter thing to do; it is also the “greener” choice. You will have the comfortable, efficient room you need, and your family, neighborhood, and planet will benefit from it.

Posted: June 4th, 2008 under basement finishing, basement waterproofing, videos.
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New Jersey Basement Systems dealer, Quality 1st Basement Systems, is now installing Bilco Egress Window Wells in New Jersey. As a basement waterproofing contractor in NJ, the company’s now installing egress windows is a perfect fit.

Quality 1st will install Bilco doors, Bilco egress window wells, and window wells as part of their services. These are great products to go along with keeping a basement dry and making it a more comfortable space.

You can read more on the Quality 1st and their expansion into egress windows in New Jersey on their Web site.

Posted: June 4th, 2008 under basement waterproofing.
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To a lot of people, basements might seem unusable as living spaces. And it is not just because they tend to be musty, damp and cold. However, after 21 years in the business of drying basements — and not just removing water, but removing moisture and dampness from the air as well — we know that any basement can be efficiently waterproofed, made as comfortable as the upstairs, and beautifully finished.

Another reason people don’t like basements is because they’re typically dark.  Most basements have just a few small windows and get very little sunlight into them. And many of us tend to think of a place without enough daylight as unpleasant, even depressing. Sometimes, no amount of artificial lighting will do. So, you might think your basement is doomed to be a dark, natural-light deprived place, suitable only for storage.

Well, wait until you see what Basement Systems’ SunHouse Basement Window Enclosure. This window well enclosure can bring the sunlight into your finished basement. Watch the video and imagine the possibilities.

Posted: May 28th, 2008 under basement finishing.
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Rats love to live - and die - in damp crawl spaces.

A damp, musty, smelly crawl space is not the best place for a human to live, but mold, mildew, bugs and various other critters love these environments. To eliminate these unwelcome guests, a home owner needs to change the environment.

Omni Basement Systems the basement and crawl space contractor in Hamilton, Ontario who photographed the dead rat, installs the CleanSpace Crawl Space Encapsulation System to help remedy damp crawl spaces. This is a crawl space vapor barrier system that takes into account the crawl space vents and ventilation, the door or hatch, air leaks, conditioning, and more. Read more »

Posted: May 23rd, 2008 under crawl space repair.
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As in Minnesota and Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa have recently been inundated with rain. And with the amount of water that’s rained down, basements are getting flooded.

The Nebraska and Iowa basement waterproofing companies out there are busy! Thrasher Basement Systems, Omaha, Nebraska, is working hard to help out home owners with wet basements, and prevent that problem from ever happening again.

Midwest Basement Systems the basement waterproofing contractor in Des Moines, Iowa is also bailing out wet basements.

Posted: May 8th, 2008 under basement waterproofing.
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