Poor Window Well Drainage Causes Basement Puddles In East Lansing, MI

Thursday, April 6th, 2017 by Brian Bigger

Challenge

These East Lansing homeowners had finished a portion of their basement. The finished space included a couple of egress windows. The window wells had a drainage system built in for rain water but the drainage system appeared to be ineffective. Water was finiding its way into the basement around the window wells and soaking the carpet. The window wells needed proper drainage and the homeowner needed to be sure that water would not find its way into the basement to continue harming the finished area. The hope is that it could be done without tearing the walls and carpet apart completely.

Solution

The answer for making sure that the finished basement area stayed dry was our WaterGuard perimeter french drain system. All that was required as far as demo of walls or carpet was for about the bottom couple of feet of the walls and framing to be removed and the carpet was rolled back. The WaterGuard drainage system was set in place on the footing of the home and the concrete was replaced. This will capture any incoming water and safely direct it to the sump pump for removal from the home. A new drainage system was put in place outside in the egress well. The piping directs water into the home and a drainage channel on the wall directs that moisture straight down into the WaterGuard system for safe removal from the home. Once completed, the framing was replaced with inorganic materials to prevent the chance of mold or deterioration over time. Now the carpet could be rolled back and the drywall could be replaced along the bottom of the wall. The homeowners will never have to worry about incoming water or drainage from the egress well harming the building materials in the finished area.