Foundation Repair & Basement Waterproofing in Des Moines, IA

Have you ever looked at mold and wonder why it gives you such an icky feeling? It’s probably because our body knows that it’s harmful. You may not know this, but mold poses a serious threat to our health. Short-term exposure to mold causes irritation in the eyes, skin, throat, and nose. These symptoms can be much more severe if you have a weak immune system.

Long-term exposure to mold can lead to permanent damage to the respiratory system. Mold causes this much harm because mold is a microorganism that survives on organic matter. Human beings are completely organic, so mold has no problem making us itch as it feasts upon our skin. If you have a basement or crawl space that doesn’t have any waterproofing solutions put into place, there’s a good chance that there is mold down there. Even if you don’t see it or you don’t head into your foundation very much doesn’t mean that it doesn’t affect you.

Because of the stack effect, 50% of the air in your home comes from your basement or crawl space. The mold spores in the foundation get brought up and the members of the household breathe it in. To protect yourself and your loved ones, waterproofing the foundation is crucial. Without keeping the humidity levels under control, mold could grow at any time and silently make its way into your respiratory system. The best tool for the job would be our Foundation Recovery Systems dehumidifier, which is capable of taking in 100 pints of water a day.

Wood rot in a crawl space is a result of moisture and humidity problems.

The best way to spot early problem signs is to head down into your crawl space and look for visual cues, if you are comfortable. Take a look at the floor joist and see if you spot any discoloration on the wood. White, green, black, and gray stains are all common signs of fungal infection. Some forms of wood rot, like dry rot, will leave a layer of spores along the surface, so any red or green dust particles you see could just be spores. Other forms of wood rot don’t discolor the wood at all and instead create a pattern along the wood that resembles termite damage.

Interior perimeter drainage is one of the most important parts of a waterproof foundation. Many homeowners focus on just getting rid of standing water in their basement, but a lot more than that is needed to keep a foundation healthy. An excess amount of groundwater surrounding your foundation can lead to hydrostatic pressure, foundation settling, and excess amounts of moisture in a basement. While a sump pump can drain the groundwater that surrounds a foundation, it can’t cover every single side. An interior drainage system that runs along the perimeter of the foundation needs to be placed in order to handle the groundwater the sump pump is not in position to deal with.

At Foundation Recovery Systems, we offer the homeowners of Des Moines, IA BasementGutter™, a reliable interior drainage solution. The BasementGutter™ drain pipe is placed inside a trench that runs along the perimeter of the basement. After installation, the trench is covered up and the floor is left looking completely untampered with. The reason the drain pipe is placed there is because it’s the best position for the drain to collect groundwater that flows into the basement. The wall-floor joist is one of the most vulnerable parts of a basement, which is why many homeowners have flooding problems with water that comes from this specific area.

From this position, the drain is also capable of collecting moisture that runs along the wall, a useful feature if you have problems with a leaky window or water vapor. It also works incredibly well with a vapor barrier, since the plastic sheet can help guide the water down to the interior drain. BasementGutter™ can connect to the basement’s sump pump so that all the water collected gets drained out properly. An interior perimeter drain is more affordable than traditional exterior drains because it doesn’t require excavation. All in all, there’s no reason not to get an interior perimeter drain given all the benefits it provides.

Concrete slab settling cannot be completely avoided in the same way you avoid breaking other things in your home. No matter how much you take care of your slab, there will always be some sort of settling going on. This is because soil will always get displaced in one way or another, whether we want it to or not. Still, there are certain measures that can be taken in order to slow down concrete settling and prolong the lifespan of the concrete. The trick is to prevent exposure to water and snow as much as possible.

For certain areas of the house, this might be difficult. If you have a pool deck, it will be nearly impossible to keep the area dry unless you simply don’t use the pool at all. Driveways, on the other hand, can be protected with a driveway cover. If you can’t have it up the entire year, try to use it during the winter. Winter can be extremely harsh on concrete and the soil underneath it, because of all the moisture and the damage from the freeze-thaw effect.

Soil erosion is a slow process, but it can actually happen pretty quickly in certain areas of the home, like near slabs that are right next to the soil in your garden. Planting foliage right next to the concrete slab’s edge will provide the soil with enough cover to slow down the soil erosion process. Last but not least, the best way to avoid severe settling is by recognizing the signs and getting repairs done early.

PolyRenewal™ is a repair method that is used to lift settling concrete. The concrete in question settled because the soil underneath it eroded and shifted, causing the concrete structure to become uneven. So, PolyRenewal™ looks to fix that problem by injecting polyurethane foam underneath the slab. The foam expands and fills the gaps left behind by the soil until there is also enough foam to lift the structure back into place. Once cured, the polyurethane becomes the support the concrete needs to stay even.

Polyurethane foam is usually associated with softer materials since it’s the material used to make sponges. However, the closed-cell polyurethane used for concrete lifting is different from the open-cell polyurethane. Closed-cell polyurethane is dense, firm, and impermeable once it has cured. It has a compression strength of 7,200 psf, and despite its density, it only weighs 4 to 6 pounds per cubic meter. Being a lightweight substance has its advantages when it comes to avoiding further disruption of the soil.

The entire process can be done in a few short hours, depending on the size of the job, and in the end, your concrete looks newly poured. PolyRenewal™ can be used on any concrete slabs or concrete steps on your property. Because the device used to inject the foam is small, PolyRenewal™ can repair concrete just about anywhere. PolyRenewal™ can even lift slabs that have cracked, but it can’t repair structures with multiple broken pieces.