Basement Waterproofing in Mount Pleasant, PA

KAE Solutions serves homeowners in Mount Pleasant, PA from our base at 103 Harvey St in Hopwood, Fayette County. We waterproof basements inside and out, put in French drains and sump pumps, repair foundation cracks and bowing walls, encapsulate crawl spaces and clear out mold and water damage. Mount Pleasant is also the one town where a Google review tells the story of one of our jobs. Inspections and estimates are free: call (724) 912-8151.

Basement Waterproofing in Mount Pleasant, PA

The review is short. The homeowner wrote that we traveled to the house in Mount Pleasant, figured out why water was getting into the basement and fixed it within the next day. The order matters more than the speed. Water in a basement can come from several places at once, and a fix aimed at the wrong one only moves the puddle. We'll identify the source and recommend a lasting solution, not a temporary patch.

In most basements, water gets in at a handful of places: cracks in the foundation walls, the cold joint where the floor slab meets the wall, cracks in the basement floor, and a worn seal at the bottom of a garage door. The signs usually come before any standing water: a musty smell, damp spots on the walls or floor, stains or peeling paint on the block, mold spots, a sump pump that isn't working, and air that stays humid all summer.

The work we do for Mount Pleasant homes:

• Interior and exterior waterproofing for poured concrete, block and stone foundations.
• French drains and sump pumps that collect water at the footing and send it out of the house.
• Crack repair and bowing walls, including carbon fiber wall straps.
• Crawl spaces: vapor barriers, encapsulation and support beams for sagging floors.
• Mold removal and water damage repair once the leak is stopped.

Our basement waterproofing page explains how we choose between working from the inside and from the outside.

Mount Pleasant Homes Built Around 1953

Mount Pleasant is a borough of about 4,199 people in Westmoreland County, and the Census puts its median home at 1953. That middle number hides an older group of houses: about 35% of the borough's homes were built before 1940 and 44.9% before 1950, and 88.8% are older than 1980. Most of them, 70.8%, are single-family detached houses, and 65.8% are lived in by their owners.

The typical Mount Pleasant house of the early 1950s sits on concrete block. Block is hollow. Wet soil pushes water into the cores, the cores fill, and the water weeps out at the bottom course or along the cold joint, leaving a white crust on the face of the block. Block walls are also the walls that bow. Saturated or frozen soil pushes on a wall made of separate units held together by mortar, and a long horizontal crack partway up the wall is often the first sign that it has started to lean in.

That is why we look at the whole wall before suggesting anything. A single leaking crack in a poured wall may need only foundation crack repair. A block wall that is damp along its whole length needs a way to drain. A wall that has started to bow needs support as well as water control, and for major movement a structural engineer is the right person to assess it first.

“They figured out the problem of why water was getting in my basement and fixed it within the next day! Very honest and a trusting person!”

Lindsey F., Google review

Old Mines and Ground Water Under Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant sits over old coal workings. On PA DEP's Mine Subsidence Insurance risk map, about 86.1% of the borough falls inside the "Underground Mining Area", and at the town's Census center point the map reads "Underground Mining Area - Insurance is recommended". Across all of Westmoreland County the share is about 28.9%, so the borough is far more undermined than the county around it.

DEP offers mine subsidence insurance because, in its words, "homeowner's insurance usually does not include it", and it gives the price itself: "Residential coverage of $150,000 costs $41.25 a year." Our part is narrower. We repair cracks and walls; we don't diagnose mine subsidence. If cracks open suddenly, a floor drops or a wall moves within weeks, contact DEP's mine subsidence program first. Cracks that open slowly over years, from water pressure, frost and age, are the kind we fix.

The soil adds its own pressure. In the NRCS soil survey for Westmoreland County, 87.1% of the county's soil acres are rated "Very limited" for dwellings with basements, and ground water near the surface ("depth to saturated zone") is a limitation on 49.3% of them. When the ground around a basement fills with water, that water presses on the walls and up under the floor. This push is called hydrostatic pressure, and it drives water through every crack, joint and porous block it can reach.

Rain, Snow and Freeze-Thaw in Mount Pleasant

NOAA's 1991-2020 normals for its Mount Pleasant station give 43.94 inches of precipitation a year, 13.22 inches of it in June, July and August alone, plus 29.8 inches of snow. The station counts 130.4 days a year with a low at or below 32°F, but only 31 that stay at or below freezing, which leaves about 99.4 days that freeze and climb back above 32°F. Each time, water in a crack or a soaked block freezes, expands and opens the gap a little wider.

A lot of basement water starts on the roof. A downspout that empties against the foundation puts the runoff from a whole section of roof into the soil right beside the wall. Pennsylvania's building code requires that "Lots shall be graded to drain surface water away from foundation walls. The grade shall fall not fewer than 6 inches (152 mm) within the first 10 feet." Many older lots have settled flat or even toward the house. We run gutter lines and downspout extensions that carry roof water away and deal with standing water in the yard, and we put in interior and exterior French drains that collect ground water at the footing.

Free Basement Inspections in Mount Pleasant

A visit starts with a free inspection. We walk the outside first, checking gutters, downspouts and grade, then look at the basement walls, the floor, the cold joint and the sump pit. We tell you where we think the water is coming from, what we would do about it and what can wait. We believe in honest work and doing the job right the first time.

KAE Solutions is locally and family-owned, fully licensed and insured, a Pennsylvania registered home improvement contractor (PA203391) and BBB Accredited with an A rating. Our Google profile shows 5.0 stars from 13 reviews, and you can read them on our reviews page. The other towns we serve are on our service area page. Call (724) 912-8151 to set up a time.

Water Getting Into Your Mount Pleasant Basement?

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