Water Proofing Treatment for Basement

(This article is specifically designed for Indian continent)

A dry basement is a fun place to have. Usually home owners do not care for proper design of the basement at the time of consutruction and face tremendous problems later on. If care is taken initially, a lot of problems can be avoided.

These methods can be applied for water proofing of basement during construction.

1. Basement where adequate space is available for excavation.
2. Basement where limited space is available for excavation

Basement where adequate space is available for excavation

The following operations are executed in water proofing of basement.
1)  On dry and leveled ground 75 to 100 mm thick lean concrete is laid to serve as a leveling course for water proofing.
2) The bitumen based primer is applied with brush on entire area at 0.24 to 0.30 liter per sq. meter after cleaning the surface. 
3) Bitumen compound polyester membrane is fixed in hot bitumen of grade 85/25 at the rate of 1.5 kg. Per square meter. This layer should be protected by construction of flat brick flooring.
4) After construction of   structural slab and walls, water proofing treatment on external face which is in contact with earth is done.
5) After the surface is cleaned, bitumen primer is applied.
6) Self adhesive S B S rubber   bitumen membrane with high density polyethylene film is applied on vertical walls.
7) Before back filling the soil an outer protective wall leaving a space about 100 mm around should be made and the space should be grouted subsequently.