In article 56dLh.5022$FS5.4956@trndny09, Ivan Vegvary says...


"Banty" wrote in message
...
In article .com, MW
says...

What a can of worms this is becoming. We are going to finish our 45-
yr-old basement, and so far, 6 contractors have 6 different ways of
dealing with our moisture problem.

All around the bottom-most foot or so of the cinder block walls of the
basement, the old paint (I assume its Drylok) is falling off and there
is efflouresence too. There is no damp or musty smell, but I know
it's humid down there. Even now, in the winter, it's 60% humidity.
We have never, in 3 1/2 years, had actual water come into the
basement, just this seeping moisture. We have heavy clay soils.

I am afraid what will happen when we put walls up. Everywhere I go,
there is contradicting information, from professionals everywhe
put up poly, don't put up poly, use wood studs, use steel studs, use
insulation, don't insulate, etc etc etc.....It's enough to drive me
batty.
I am determined to do this, but don't want to spend $30K just to have
to tear it all out in a few years due to mold/moisture. And digging
up around the outside of the foundation is too costly for us, probably
$60K.
The moisture-proofing contractor insists we'll be sorry if we don't
break through the basement floor all around the perimeter of the
basement and install french drains for the water to go from inside the
cinder block walls. This for $6500 on top of the cost of finishing
the basement. I may be misguided, but I don't feel comfortable
hacking into the foundation.

As to "hacking into
the foundation", actually it's the slab that's "hacked into"
(jackhammered) to
get the drain system in.

Not in most basements that I have seen and designed. In my last house the
basement walls sat on 12" thick footings that extended 5 feet horizontally
(all around) into the basement. The four inch slab was poured on top of the
footings. Jack hammering through those footings and re-bar would totally
undermine the stabilty of the basement walls.

My foundation most certainly wasn't built like that (inadequate footers why I
did an upgrade on my downhill side). Much less footing, more slab thickness.
But what houses here need would be quite different from yours, else you'd be
talking about frost depths of at least 42". This is one reason why talking to
neighbors come in. They likely will have, after 45 years, gone various routes
with various degrees of success, and have more information about the houses if
others were built like his.

Banty