08/24/2026
Keeping water out of a basement, especially a finished one, is paramount as properly fixing a wet basement might require digging around the foundation and potentially destroying expensive landscaping like a garden or patio. A small but important first step in keeping basement walls dry is to provide a capillary break between the footing and stem wall. This prevents small amounts of water from migrating from a wet footing into concrete basement walls. Here, asphaltic dampproofing that will be used on the basement walls makes for a convenient and inexpensive material to combat the "rising damp" phenomenon.
