The most common response to the possibility of basement flooding is to install a sump pump. But your sump pump should only be relied on when other preventived measures do not work. To keep your proposed basement weight and exercise room from floating away, measures need to be taken to prevent the sump pump from being needed.

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The first step in protecting your basement from water damage is in the grading of the home site. The soil must slope away from the basement walls at least six inches in the first 100 feet. Also, if gutters and downspouts are not kept in good repair or are improperly installed they can allow water from the roof to seep into the soil along the foundation and leak into the basement.

When it rains you get a lot of water falling down around your foundation directly from the roof. Clogged gutters or downspouts without sufficient tiling to drain water away from the foundation can cause severe dampness of basement walls. During severe or prolonged rainfall, it can even result in flooding.

One solution to poor grading or roof drainage problems is a dry well. This technique is a lot less work and much less expensive than regrading your entire lot.

Another approach is to create a French drain. This consists of a graded trench filled with sand and gravel that leads water away from your foundation.

It should have a 1 or 2 percent grade in order to run water away from the house. It should be filled with gravel up to about 5 or 6 inches from the surface, then a few inches of sand and covered with topsoil or a layer of sod. Some experts also recommend using a perforated drain pipe in the trench to carry overflow more easily.

If water is getting into the interior some distance from the sump pump you can create an interior drain to lead the water from the lead to the pump. The most effective method is to break up the floor around the base of your walls, then dig a trench and grade it towards the sump pump. Install drain tiles leading to the pump. This method does no damage to the room. The trench is then filled with coarse gravel and the floor replaced over the top.

Just as settling or erosion can cause foundation cracks, they can lead to cracks in basement walls. When this happens you should contact a basement waterproofing company to repair the cracks with a waterproof caulking material. This should be followed by the application of waterproofing materials that seal the wall surface.