What can happen when you don't get it right - tanking failure.
When dealing with waterproofing and basement design, there are typically options in respect of the methods or 'types' of system that could be selected, with the objective of creating a dry basement which stays dry in the long term.
Different systems provide different levels of protection/risk and so what we are always interested in, is the lowest risk system. This is because we provide guarantees on the systems that we install, and so would not survive in business for very long if we employed risky systems which required us to go back, and back and back, and believe me this happens to others, which perhaps explain why there are so many basement conversion/basement design companies which start up and then seemingly dissappear year after year (another blog post in itself)!
So, we have to justify and explain our basement design choices to the clients and professionals involved in a given scheme, which we do time and time again, however it's fantastic when a client just gets it, as experienced on an inspection yesterday.
This chap had little in the way of construction knowledge, but securely grasped the principles explained to him in respect of why we do what we do. He will get a dry basement.
Although this should always be the case where a detailed explanation is given, we in some cases have to deal with preconceived notions of what 'waterproofing' is right for a given basement scheme, and it can be that the more an individual knows about construction, the more they believe they know about basement waterproofing, and the less willing they are to accept alternative ideas, even when this means a much more detailed and rationalised basement design process, versus simply choosing a product and shoehorning it into a given site and structure.
The assumption that basement waterproofing design is a simple matter results in what must be millions of pounds of headache and remedial work each year, which the new BS8102 design guide (the UK waterproofing bible) deals with by repeatedly advising that waterproofing specialists (like Trace) should be involved in a project at the earliest stages.
Looking back to my younger years, whenever I believed I knew it all, it wasn't typically long until I was shown that I did not. The lesson is, that an open mind is a vehicle for learning, and that where basement waterproofing is concerned, you do not want to learn this the hard way.
...and furthermore, listen to the advice provided by those that will have to honour the guarantee, rather than those who simply profit whether it works or not (another blog post to write!). Also see: http://tracebasementsystems.co.uk/guarantees-not-worth-the-paper-they-are-printed-on
Thanks for reading.
