Basement Waterproofing & Underpinning Services in Toronto

The short answer is — yes, it’s worth it. Your main motivation can be different, but we believe that NOT having leaks is the most popular one. A leak, even if it’s a minor one, can cause extreme trouble. The water can damage your belongings, and you never know, what will get damaged: something cheap or that one most expensive item that you have in your basement? Given that Murphy’s law works, we are afraid to even try to predict. Besides, basement waterproofing makes your house a horrible, uninhabitable area for mold and insects. These two hate dry areas with normal humidity, so they won’t ever appear in a properly waterproofed basement. No mold — no allergies and smell — no health issues for you and your family.

Yes, if it’s done by a certified company. The typical warranty for waterproofing is about 10-15 years, but that’s something that you should ask your waterproofing contractor about. We at Willfix keep our quality high, so our warranty is extended to 25 years.

In short — yes, but not all homes require it. First of all, if you live somewhere where it never rains, waterproofing your basement is not something that you really need. In addition, basements that are sitting directly on top of the ground don’t need to be waterproofed. These are not even “basements” in the traditional sense.

In the Toronto area, basement waterproofing IS necessary. It’s not just advice, it would be a fact from the “keeping your house safe and comfortable 101” book if it ever existed. Toronto has snowy winters, frequent rainfalls, even storms. All this water is not going anywhere from the soil around your house. It’s always there to put your basement under pressure. Even the new houses rarely last for over a decade. Proper basement waterproofing in Toronto saves you from otherwise inevitable leaks.

It can be expensive if you were doing it by yourself and using the cheapest materials from the store. You may save money now, but in the long run — you waste both time and money. The consequences may transpire in 2 or 3 years, but if you’ll see a new leak or a new major crack in your basement — you’ll know that saving on professional help might’ve been a mistake.

If you are working with Willfix, your basement waterproofing will be done at a reasonable and fair price. We have it all figured out, and we know that using the most advanced commercial-grade materials is the only way to ensure reliability. We know that our reputation is everything to us, so we never settle for anything less than excellent — while keeping the prices fair.

Yes, it does. While there’s no hard data to back the numbers, it may add several thousand dollars to the price of your house. It’s defined by simple calculations:

• The next owner won’t need to do the waterproofing themselves. Otherwise — it would be necessary for them in the next 10-15 years;
• They will save on heating. Properly waterproofed and sealed basement maintains normal humidity and does not let the temperature change because of the weather;
• It’s an improvement of the house. A damp, leaky, wet basement would decrease the value of your home. A nice, dry basement — obviously — increases it;
• With basement underpinning, you turn your basement into a fully-functional extra floor that can serve as a habitable area. It increases the living space of your house, and therefore — increases the price.

In the majority of cases, you can expect your ROI (return on investment) to be about 30%. Especially when the warranty is tied to the property — not you as the waterproofing client, and it will transfer to the next owner. That’s exactly how it works with WillFix.

Yes, basement waterproofing works. It’s a simple physical process of either blocking the water or channeling it away. First waterproofing companies that started to use technologies, similar to the modern ones, began their work over a century ago. Obviously, more primitive means of protecting basements from the water’s degrading effects existed more than 10,000 years ago, but we can’t really consider them effective. In most cases, it just an extra layer of clay or concrete around the basement walls. Modern technologies and materials, such as AquaBloc, are way more effective, reliable, and last longer than the solutions of the past.

Basement waterproofing works by keeping the water outside. To keep it simple, we have 2 ways to achieve it:

• Block the water out;
• Channel the water away.

The simplest way to waterproof your basement is by excavating the outer perimeter of your basement walls and covering them with a layer of special waterproof material. It’s called exterior waterproofing (or sometimes external) and it’s the most popular basement waterproofing service solution in Toronto. The water simply won’t be able to make it to your basement walls, and therefore — won’t leak on the inside.

When excavation is not an option or you have other reasons to channel the water away instead of stopping it — you can order interior basement waterproofing (sometimes called internal, or “water management”). In this solution, the water that makes it to your basement is trapped right on the walls and channeled away with a weeping tile. The drain system that we install on the inner perimeter of your basement redirects the water to the sump pump and discharges it away from your house.

Another option is not as reliable as the first two but is still popular: it’s called basement cracks repair. The name is self-explanatory. We examine your basement to locate the cracks, even the tiniest ones, and seal them with commercial-grade materials, such as hydraulic cement. It expands in the crack and restores your basement’s integrity, so water can’t get inside through the cracks. It’s more of a troubleshooting job than a real long-term solution, but sometimes — a proper crack repair is all you truly need to get rid of any wet basement issues.

A good basement waterproofing job lasts for at least a couple of decades with no signs of leakage or cracks. We’re sure that our materials and experts are better than just “good”, so we give you a 25 years warranty, meaning that if our waterproofing job will — somehow — last less than that, we’ll come to fix it for free.

There’s minimal maintenance needed for your basement after our Willfix experts do the job. That’s how strong AquaBloc and other commercial-grade products are. Once a year, we recommend you inspect the walls, the joints (where walls connect with the floor), the areas around your basement windows, and if you opted for interior waterproofing — the weep holes and sump pump discharge.

There’s no way to choose one. Both interior waterproofing and exterior waterproofing have pros and cons. In terms of cost-efficiency, both systems are equally beneficial. Both are supposed to last over 2 decades if done properly in terms of longevity. The final choice depends on multiple factors:

• The area around your house (can we excavate the walls from the outside, or not?);
• The basement condition (does it need repair or cracks fixing?);
• Your home’s age (if it’s new and has an unfinished basement — the interior solution is almost always the way to go);
• Your personal preferences (you want to have control of the system with the sump pump or do you want us to cover the walls from the outside and just forget about any wet basement issues?).

Most of the time, it’s not a question of choosing the best waterproofing system. It’s opting for the one that can be implemented in your unique situation more effectively. And by the way, applying both interior and exterior waterproofing is not uncommon as well.

Essentially, it means waterproofing your basement. Turning it from a defenseless structure, vulnerable to the groundwater’s degrading effects, into a safe, waterproof, dry area, with zero chances of water leaking to the inside.