Hopkins and Porter Construction, Inc Take Innovative Approach to Water Infiltration Projects
Potomac, MD (PRWEB) January 07, 2015 -- Unlike other companies, Hopkins and Porter Construction, Inc doesn't look to disrupt large amounts of an owner’s property when working on a water infiltration project. As they recently did in three past projects, Hopkins and Porter Construction, Inc focuses on problem areas, saving homeowners from having their houses torn apart.
The first of these three projects, which was completed in the latter half of December, involved a 1950s era home whose original basement foundations and interior walls hadn't been waterproofed after a large new addition was added to the rear of their home having custom tile floors, trim work and finishes. After about 10 years, water started pouring in. The homeowner found water at the base of an interior basement wall, far from an outside wall, and couldn't figure out what was happening, thinking the water was coming from a malfunction sump pump nearby or a leaking drain pipe as it only leaked in heavy heavy rains.
"We needed to cut out a small section of finished basement wall to identify where the leak was coming from, wait for the next heavy rain and find its origin. After locating the source, which was not coming up from under of the new basement slab but running under the old basement slab which was above the new slab, we cut the new basement slab out along an 8 foot section and exposed a poorly installed drain tile, did some blindside waterproofing and put it all back together again correctly. We remedied the problem," said Ken Hurdle, a Special Projects Coordinator of Hopkins and Porter Construction, Inc. "It was interesting that it was a very expensive addition by a reputable builder that just made a simple mistake. They just never thought about it, and it should have been done properly."
The project began about three weeks ago, and took about a week and a half because mother nature cooperated. In the time since its completion, the homeowner's area has seen three different heavy rainfalls, and had no visible water comes through after Hopkins and Porter Construction, Inc finished the job.
"Most companies would want to rip up the entire length of the basement floor, which would have been about 50 feet. So far there are no other apparent leaks," said Hurdle. "We advised the client about the leak, and we decided to treat just the leaking area first to avoid cutting up their entire tile."
The second of these recent projects, which was completed in early December, involved a house that had had new water lines put in 5-7 years ago. The owner didn't realize that the new pipe sleeve coming into the basement hadn't been waterproofed properly, and seven years later, he wound up getting water in his basement, but couldn't figure out how, why, or where.
"When we started looking around, we noticed a lot of discoloration and that the drywall had been getting wet for a while. We had to remove a lot of drywall, scrape the entire cinderblock wall that was blistered badly and wire brush it. We dug up the outside and went down to the foundation and waterproofed the CMU wall and where the water main had come into the house and installed a drain mat to keep water pressure off the wall. We then painted the inside area with white drylock, so you could see [if there were any new] leaks in the future," said Hurdle. "Again we didn't dig up too much foundation, we tried to keep it local. We always try to keep the repair localized, if they want to do the whole thing they can do the whole thing - if they want the 'nuclear' option where we redo everything we can if they want, but we try not to. Most basement water proofers want to do everything and won’t touch it unless they can redo the whole basement. I don't think customers are well served by spending that much money on one area."
The third project, completed mid December, involved a home from the 1920s with water coming in the basement wall after the water company had run new water lines through the neighborhood. As Hopkins and Porter Construction, Inc discovered, the obvious problem to the owner was from the water company's new lines, not that the entire section of CMU wall was blistering and peeling.
"They didn't properly waterproof the sleeve coming into the house. We had to go in and dig up the outside to expose the foundation wall and pipe sleeve, waterproof properly and install a drain mat, inside wall was scraped down, cleaned up and drylocked. The issues caused a bit of damage," Hurdle explained.
Repairing water damage, it seems, does not have to involve the complete and total annihilation of the damaged area.
"We try to solve a problem where there's a problem, and not have to disrupt an entire basement," said Hurdle. "Doing an entire basement just to fix a localized issue isn't always required, and we want to make sure we give homeowners the best options for them to choose from."
About Hopkins and Porter Construction, Inc
Hopkins and Porter specialize in maintenance, restoration, additions and custom building options. They can design or renovate bathrooms, kitchens, porches and more. They also have years of experience in custom home building with their design/build team. To learn more about their team of dedicated professionals, visit hopkinsandporter.com
Ken Hurdle, Hopkins and Porter Construction, Inc, http://hopkinsandporter.com, +1 (301) 760-2070, [email protected]
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