What we work on · Below-Grade Waterproofing
Water That Is Always There
Below-grade water is not weather. It is constant hydrostatic pressure, and it exploits every weakness continuously.
Where it appears inside, when it happens, and what has already been tried. That is enough to plan an investigation.
Test first
Water testing before scope, not sealant and hope
Uphill
Water enters above where it appears, almost always
Systems
The envelope fails at transitions, not in the field
Licensed
General contractor, licensed in the state of Florida
Repairing it from the inside is a compromise
Proper below-grade waterproofing is applied to the outside, against the water. Once a building exists, excavating to reach it is enormously expensive, so repairs are made from the inside — which works against the pressure rather than with it and is inherently a lesser solution. That trade should be stated rather than glossed over.
What can be done
- Injection into cracks and joints, from the inside.
- Negative-side coatings, which resist rather than exclude.
- Drainage and pumping, managing water rather than stopping it.
- Excavation and external repair, where access allows.
- Correcting surface drainage, which is frequently the actual cause.
The part of the building you cannot get back to
Below-grade waterproofing is the one envelope element where a mistake is close to permanent, because the failed material is under the ground or under the slab and accessing it means excavation or demolition. That asymmetry should drive every decision made about it: the cost of getting it right is small relative to the cost of returning.
South Florida makes this harder than most markets. The water table is high, so structures below grade are frequently sitting in water rather than merely damp, and hydrostatic pressure is a constant load rather than an occasional one. Repairs from the inside are sometimes possible but are working against that pressure rather than with it. Where interior repair is the only practical option, it should be described honestly as a mitigation rather than as a cure.
How we handle it
- 01Establish where the water is entering before proposing anything.
- 02Check surface drainage first — it is frequently the cause.
- 03Recommend external repair where access makes it viable.
- 04Be explicit about the limits of an internal repair.
- 05Design drainage and pumping where exclusion is not achievable.
Check the surface drainage first. A downpipe discharging next to the wall, or ground sloping toward the building, causes a great many below-grade problems and costs almost nothing to correct compared with any waterproofing intervention.
Said plainly
Where we stop
An internal repair works against hydrostatic pressure rather than with it. It is frequently the only practical option and it is a compromise, and we will say so rather than presenting it as equivalent.
FAQ
Common questions
- Can below-grade leaks be fixed from inside?
- Frequently, as a compromise. It works against the pressure rather than with it.
- What should be checked first?
- Surface drainage. Downpipes and ground slope cause a lot of it and cost almost nothing to fix.
- Is external repair better?
- Substantially, where access makes it viable. Excavation is the cost.
- Can water be managed instead of excluded?
- Sometimes that is the honest answer — drainage and pumping.
Our approach
Investigate First
Water enters an envelope somewhere other than where it appears inside, and the only reliable way to find where is to test.
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Test After Repairing
A repair is not finished when it is installed. It is finished when it has been tested and the water has not come through.
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Systems, Not Products
Envelope materials work as systems, and a repair that introduces an incompatible product creates the next failure.
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Warranties
Owners treat a warranty as protection against leaks. It is generally protection against material defects, which is a much narrower thing.
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Maintain, Not React
Envelopes are maintained reactively, when something leaks. A program costs a fraction of what reactive repair and interior damage cost.
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More what we work on
Commercial Roofing
Low-slope commercial roofs fail at penetrations, terminations and parapets. The field of the membrane is rarely the problem.
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Walls & Stucco
Stucco is a water-shedding surface over a system that is meant to handle what gets through. When it leaks, both have failed.
Read more →
Glazing & Curtain Wall
Glazing systems are designed to manage water that gets past the outer seal. When they leak, the drainage path is usually blocked rather than the seal being absent.
Read more →
Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.