Had to choose between basement waterproofing and foundation repair last fall...

My house in Cleveland was built in 1952 and after a really wet October I noticed water pooling near the south wall. I had two quotes come in, one for an interior drain system at $3,800 and another for patching a crack in the foundation for $1,200. I went with the cheaper foundation fix because I figured it was the source of the problem... turned out I was completely wrong. The crack wasn't the main issue, water was seeping through the concrete floor itself, and now that patch job did nothing. I'm looking at the full waterproofing system now and kicking myself for trying to save money. Has anyone else dealt with a situation where the obvious fix wasn't the real problem?

2 comments

2 Comments

gray_patel7d agoTop Commenter

Ha, sounds like my DIY "fix" that made everything worse!

michael_jones7d ago

So @gray_patel, what exactly did you try to fix that ended up making things worse? Was it a quick band-aid solution that just created a bigger mess down the line? I'm genuinely curious because I've been there too, thinking I could outsmart a problem with some half-baked idea. Usually it's because I didn't want to take the time to look up the right way to do it in the first place. Did you skip any steps or try to use the wrong part or tool?