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Foundation cracks that leak water can be a real sore spot with home owners. Every time it rains you lay there in bed worrying how much water is seeping into your basement. This seepage may be preventing you from storing items in the basement or maybe its preventing you from finishing the basement. You might think that the cure requires very disruptive excavation of the exterior foundation wall, however, there a method was developed to make the  repair of these cracks much more simple and affordable. This method is epoxy injection.

The steps for fixing a leaking foundation crack are as follows:

1. The crack is inspected to make sure that epoxy injection will work for the problem area. Large structural cracks  are indications of a poor foundation and require major repairs.

2. Next all loose concrete is picked out and the entire crack area is wire brushed to remove all loose material that would interfere with the repair.

3. Next the crack is dusted by a brush and possibly blown out by compressed air to insure proper adhesion of the surface epoxy.

4. Once it is determined that the crack is fully prepared and clean Injection ports are epoxied over the crack. The injection ports are basically short stiff hollow tubes with wide flat bases that straddle the crack. These are what allows the liquid epoxy to flow through the epoxy seal on the surface and into the crack.

5. Once this has been completed the 2 part paste epoxy is mixed and applied over the crack and base of the injection ports and allowed to harden. This seals the crack inside of the foundation. This combined with the soil on the exterior of the foundation will contain the liquid epoxy in the crack which when hardened will form a permanent seal.

6. After the surface epoxy has fully hardened a liquid epoxy is prepared and slowly injected into the ports starting at the bottom. Epoxy is continually injected until it begins to exit the next port above the one being injected. Then the port that is currently being injected is capped and the process is moved to the next port up. This is continued until all ports have been injected and capped.

7. The epoxy is then left to harden and permanently seal the crack. If desired the interior ports and epoxy can be chiseled off the foundation wall however it is not necessary.

Although the crack is sealed it is incredibly important that all downspouts be directed away from the foundation as far as possible and that proper grading is maintained around the house. This will alleviate undue hydrostatic pressure on the foundation walls which can cause new cracks to form.  Of course a dry basement is only as good as your sump pump and its back up.

Foundation crack injection is a highly effective cure at a very low cost. Anyone can do it, but if you don't feel up to it, and would prefer to have somebody else that has done it many times before do it, give Anderqual Handyman a call at 847-756-3808 or send a email at Handyman@anderqual.com