Daily Home Renovation Tips

Today we look at the use of another material component of this foundation wall crack to prevent further water seepage leaks from the outside.

Specifically, this material is called a CactusBoard.

The purpose of the CactusBoard is to keep air in the FlexiSpan Foam Drain Strip once concrete is poured on top of the dry well drainage system to seal up the opening in our concrete basement floor.

Think about it. The purpose of the FlexiSpan Foam Drain Strip is to encourage any water which may over time get past the initial urethane sealant placed into the inside of the foundation wall crack to go down and into the dry well drain underneath the concrete floor.

Well, what if the foam strip, shown in the above picture, had 4 to 6 inches of concrete poured on top of it as the opening in the concrete floor is repaired? All that concrete would squeeze the air out of the foam strip preventing any water from going into the dry well drain and instead would seep out onto the concrete floor.

The installation is very easy. Fitz simply measured and cut a piece of the CactusBoard sufficiently large to cover the width of the opening in the cement floor, and then a bit more.

As you can see from the above picture, the cut piece of CactusBoard is placed into the opening in the floor.

Notice the specific position of the CactusBoard. It starts a few inches up the foundation wall so it protrudes the height of the floor. This ensures that the foam strip will continue to have air even on the part which is against the bottom of the wall.

Also notice that either edge of the CactusBoard goes underneath the edges of the concrete floor on either side of the current opening. It rests on top of the portion of the Clean Space waterproof membrane which continued from being applied to the urethane sealant membrane on the wall.

Beneath the Clean Space membrane is crushed stone which itself is on top of the FlexiSpan foam which rests on top of the holes made in the dry well 10 gallon plastic tub.

A lot of different components, all in the correct sequence, go into this approach to eliminating water leaking from the outside onto our basement floor in the future. Yes, it is a lot of steps and effort to address the negligible amount of water which might, perhaps, get past the initial urethane inserted into the foundation wall crack inside the house. Yet, this repair is to last for the very long term. Remember that Clarke Basement Systems is providing a 20 year warranty for this effort so they have a vested interested in making it last a very long time.

To continue with this series on the repair to our basement foundation wall crack which caused the water leak in our finished basement bedroom, select the following link to see how the drainage opening made in the concrete floor is closed.