Exterior Waterproofing for Lisbon homes
Lisbon used to be almost all farmland, and you can still read that history on the map. New subdivisions spread out around Sussex, while older farmhouses sit back on rural lots with long driveways and outbuildings. Those two kinds of homes get wet basements for different reasons, and exterior waterproofing handles both when it's done carefully.
In the subdivisions, the poured basements were set into graded clay. Builders shape the lots, but clay backfill settles over time, and the grade that once pushed water away can end up tipping it toward the house. Water then sits at the footing and pushes through cracks and the wall-floor joint. The old farmhouses are another story. Many have fieldstone-era cellars or early block, with joints that have leaked for decades and little or no drainage at the footing.
Either way, we dig down to the footing and look at the wall itself. It gets cleaned and repaired, then coated with a liquid waterproof membrane and covered with dimple board. New weeping tile goes in at the footing with washed gravel over it, and the backfill is graded to slope away. Rural lots usually give us room to work. When Lisbon's building inspection office requires a permit, we pull it.
