ᐅ Building a Watertight Basement for Groundwater Pressure

Created on: 7 Sep 2010 16:05
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claudiamm
I have a few questions about basements. We plan to build next year. An expert report showed that we have to expect hydrostatic pressure on our plot in Schleswig-Holstein. In addition, the groundwater is highly aggressive to concrete. However, we do not want to give up having a basement. Online, you often read horror stories from people who built basements that ended up damp and cold, with mold and decay. Of course, we want to avoid that. We also plan to use our basement as living space. What do you think is the best solution? We are quite uncertain because you often hear negative things about solutions like the “white tank” (watertight concrete basement). Does anyone have advice?
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BauLine
22 Sep 2010 01:35
Hello MartinW

Waterproofing basements using waterproofing membranes (regardless of the material) is nothing new... it’s very old practice...
The fact that a company talks and writes about "breathable" waterproofing membranes raises some technical concerns. Especially since the owners also use academic titles in their credentials.
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claudiamm
27 Sep 2010 13:22
I don’t see anything wrong with having a diploma in the title. A doctor also puts Dr. in front of their name if they have one.
But back to the topic: Martin, I found your tip quite helpful. In any case, I visited the ABG website. I find the explanation of the basement waterproofing system very informative, and the video there is very clear. The people featured seemed to have had the same problems with their basement and groundwater as we did, and they sounded very satisfied.
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BauLine
27 Sep 2010 23:58
claudiamm schrieb:

I don’t see anything wrong with having a diploma in the title. A doctor also puts Dr. before their name if they have that qualification.
That’s true... no doubt about it... but it seems you didn’t really understand the message itself.