Every day, we find ourselves in situations where we say “oh if I could only have done that differently”. Well this could be your opportunity! .When you start to research a basement problem, you will find many companies claiming to offer the latest and greatest in basement waterproofing or claiming to have all the answers and the best systems. Often, they will throw every slick line at you that they can think of to convince you they’re the best! However upon closer inspection, once you get to the heart of the matter, you will find that they use the same out-of-date dam proofing methods and interior drain systems everyone else does. What’s worse they employ slick sales techniques that you would find on any used car lot! It’s all a bunch of double-speak, flat out lies, and misdirection, which is designed to con even an Eskimo into buying ice cubes!
Now I know at this point that you are going to ask me how it is that you can trust me, well the reason is simple I am not trying to sell you anything! I promise, if you listen to all that I have to say, and finish reading this letter, you will end up with more knowledge than you had before, and you will be ready for those “slick” salesmen that will come in the future! I want you to be better informed, better prepared, and better equipped than you are right now; and I also want to let you in on a few trade secrets that other companies don’t want you to know. Before we go into all of the systems, I’d like to introduce myself, and a little bit about my background that makes me uniquely qualified to help you understand how to solve your basement water or your mold problem!
I started building basements over twenty years ago when I was still in high school. I got a job working for what has become the single largest basement company in Ohio. I worked on both the footer and the wall crew so I became well versed early on, in all phases of new home foundation construction and basement waterproofing. Shortly after high school I was hired by a company that performed environmental services, specifically we removed asbestos from schools and public buildings (this was in the mid eighties when the government passed the legislation to require the asbestos be removed from all government building). I learned all there was to know about negative air flow containments air scrubber’s manometers and the basics of environmental clean up. I finally quit when I had saved enough money for college. I swore I would never wear a tyvec suit or a respirator again (those are the hot non-breathable suits that we wear in mold and asbestos clean ups, its funny the way Murphy will get you when you swear not to do something). During these years I began actively pursuing one of my many hobbies and I became an amateur mycologist. I built a lab in my basement… and built myself a glove box and began to perform sterile culture techniques for the growing of all sorts of fungi and mold and mushrooms. I used Petri dishes Autoclaves and learned many of the processes used at modern laboratories today. I did spore streaking and culture analysis. I believe I gave myself the equivalent of an associate’s degree in mycology. When I got to college I needed a job, and I found one working for the third largest basement waterproofing company in Ohio. I was hired to service their basement waterproofing jobs that were already installed but still leaked.
They all install systems with fatal flaws. They have service departments to handle the “problem” jobs. I became adept at solving these problem basements “issues”. I then began waterproofing basements on my own. I realized from the very beginning that if I didn’t want to service my basement customers and charge every year for their warranty I wood have to “fix” the systems themselves used to treat basements. I read every single book there was available on the subject. I did tons of experimentation in those first couple of years and began to “fix” each and every one of the problems that I had discovered associated with all the various available waterproofing systems.
The systems: Most companies rely on an interior drain system and a sump pump to control the water. They may call it something different, but a pump placed under the floor is a sump pump, and drains placed under the floor are interior drains. This is just flat out not a good idea, unless it is the only option. I recommend that you do not rely on electricity in any situation where it can be avoided. Some companies in order to confuse the customer and gain a competitive advantage claim that only by combining the interior system with something else, usually some sort of outside work (often digging down only 12 inches) is it possible to truly solve a problem like the Big Chuck and Little John guys.
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