If you are considering Exterior Excavation And Wall Replacement/ Rebuild

You Owe it to Yourself to:

READ THIS NOW!!!

Don’t Pay to Rebuild Your Basement Walls Twice Like Many, Many of our Past Customers Who Hired Substandard Contractors (Some of them Large Companies With Fancy Marketing and Slick Salesmen)!!!

In Order to Help You Wade Through All The B.S. (That’s Baloney Stuff, Folks!) in Your Estimates and Understand This Kind of Project:

I will Explain How We Re-engineered Super Strong Wall Re-building Use Techniques Originally Developed By the Egyptians and Romans Whose Magnificent Achievements Survive To This Day;

What Do We DO Differently???

READ ON To Discover How To Permanently Erase Your Basement Problems!

Our Innovative Mortar-less Method Has Been Nationally Tested 5X Stronger

When it comes to treating a bulging cracked or bowing basement wall most of the basement companies are completely in the dark! They may have a few different band-aid type approaches but most are ignorant of the basic causes which create the underlying conditions to allow the walls to crack, heave, shift and buckle.

I am going to let you in on a SECRET.

Most Basement Wall Problems Are A Result of Bad Framing …

NOT BAD MASONRY!

That’s Right, Bad Framing.

You see with a concrete block or other stacked masonry unit wall, the wall derives its strength from the EVENLY DISTRIBUTED weight of the house applying pressure and pushing directly down on the top of the walls.

This even distribution ensures that the heavier the house, the stronger the lateral load capacity of the wall.

When the house is applying direct pressure on top of the walls, the evenly distributed load makes the walls very strong. This is hugely important. The way that the load transfers onto the wall is via a board called a sill plate. The sill plate’s job is to transfer the load of the house directly onto the top of the wall.

When the sill plate is as wide as the top of the top block the distribution is even. When the sill plate is smaller or partial there is an un-even distribution of the load

Resulting in a wall that is weakened and that will begin to bow bulge and crack.

A partial sill plate looks like this.

A partial sill plate will put all of the pressure on the outside edge of the block

wall. This creates a very unstable wall. When other forces and complicating additional factors or problems are added to the wall, it can create huge problems!

Other factors include things like: a nearby tree with branches over the roof line (means roots pushing on wall) or roof downspouts that discharge to the base of the wall or a little bit of slight negative grade towards the house, when coupled with a partial sill plate: the result is often in total wall failure. The simple action in a northern climate of the soil freezing and thawing against the wall often results in a long horizontal frost line crack developing. This is extremely aggravated when it is coupled with a partial sill plate issue.

The sad truth is that even though many contractors will claim to know how to do a wall-rebuild or an Underpinning job, almost none of them would ever even consider correcting the underlying issue, the partial sill plate.

I have seen countless numbers of walls that homeowners just like you paid tens of thousands of dollars to rebuild just to watch their money go up like a puff of smoke because the contractor rebuilt the wall in the exact same fashion as the one that failed already and was being replaced. In fact they will lay brand new blocks right up to the partial sill plate which caused the problem in the first place! Can you imagine paying good money for the exact same thing that broke already?

I’d like to tell you a story you’ve got to hear about a job I recently did for a Mr. Ron Sewyak on state route 20 in Oberlin.

This is a sad story about a man who had to have his basement fixed THREE TIMES in ten short years!!!!!

Mr Sewyak had had the walls of his home rebuilt ten years ago using conventional masonry techniques.

They were rebuilt using 12" blocks and type n mortar. A conventional parge coat was applied and tar. New tiles and backfill were added. This is what is considered “outside waterp-proofing”.

Four years later the walls were leaking again!!!

Exasperated the homeowner had Ohio State Waterproofing install their inside outside "waterproofing system" (inside) and they hoped their problems were over.

Again he thought his problem was solved!

Sadly, I met Ron a few months ago.

He asked me to come out to his house because his basement walls were severely bowed bulging and shifted off the first course and out of plumb.

I was able to observe portions of the outside "waterproofing " system from ten years ago and the inside/outside system from six years ago both had fatal flaws but…. Neither system was the cause of the problem.

After careful inspection I assessed the real problem----BAD FRAMING!!!!

That’s right, it turned out that the first contractor (who did many things poorly) built the walls directly back up to and underneath the existing framing deficiency which caused the wall system to fail in the first place.

A partial sill plate and a lack of cribbing on the gable end walls were behind their basements problems from the beginning.

After the first winter ten years ago, the newly re-built wall began to crack... this opened water ways which made the walls leak.

Ron's second contractor performed an inside system which, while done poorly, also stopped active water puddles on the floor.

Unfortunately it did nothing to stop the structural issues, which worsened and worsened, until he was forced to call me.

So in a ten year period the walls have been repaired three times!!!!

Can you imagine???

Fortunately, for Ron I fixed them once and for all by first correcting the framing issues and repairing the sill plate; then performing a complete excavation.

Only once the earth was removed completely; all the way down to the bottom of the footer, was I able to push the walls back in line and use my surface bonding structural repair solution.

Then of course I applied three sealants to the wall one damp-proof two of them waterproof.

Then I replaced the drainage system with new thick wall pipe and stone all the way to 12" of grade separated from the top soil with filter fabric!!!!!

So why didn't I fix them from the inside???

Because in his situation, it would not work; it was not the source of the problem.

I always tell my customers all of their options .

Then I tell them what I would do if I was in their shoes.

Regardless, not all homeowners can afford an outside system.... worse... most outside contractors do not know how to install a true WATER-PROOFING system.

So the poor homeowner is left buying a repair that involves excavating the wall and using the same techniques that FAILED ALREADY!!!

There is good news…

The sill plate problem can be inexpensively remedied when the wall repair is being performed. This means you can eliminate the underlying cause rather than just putting a band- aid on it like a beam or wall anchor system.

When a wall has become destabilized due to uneven load distribution (or other factors), there is only one way to truly rectify the problem, which is to remove the earth on the other side of it, that means digit up!! Then straighten and repair or rebuild it.

The rebar you see sticking out of the pier was put in at point of construction, yet this wall in Medina,Ohio still failed!!!

Why Rebuilding A Bowed Wall The Mason’s Way

Can make It Much Weaker than Before!

When an average, ordinary mason or contractor re-builds a wall they inevitably actually end up making a new but weaker wall. That is because when an ordinary wall re-build or under pinning is done, the new wall has a gap left at the top. That gap is typically shimmed and then tuck pointed. This changes the load on the wall from direct pressure to a point load system.

Since the wall derives its strength from even load distribution… it results in a much weaker wall!

That means you’re just throwing away your money. It also leads to long term plaster cracking and wall failure.

Our Unique Super Bond mortar-less wall System is uniquely suited to wall rebuilds. In fact, we can even remove our jacks as soon as the last block is set in place!

Did You Know That the Pyramids Were Actually Built Without ANY Mortar At ALL and have been speculated to be over 10,000 Years old!

Over 12 years ago I stumbled onto one of the greatest basement wall rebuilding secrets, literally by accident. I discovered how to “glue” concrete blocks together without using any mortar between the blocks. The technique was developed in ancient Roman architecture some of which stands to this day. In fact there are 2000 year old Roman roads being driven on in Europe even still today!

Owens Corning Fiberglass spent millions of dollars testing and proving this ancient Roman technique and getting it put into nearly every major building code authority in the late 1960’s. They did tests proving that a mortared block wall is up to five times weaker than a surface bonded wall. Or, to put it another way, our walls are five times stronger than ordinary mortared walls, which means you and your family can sleep safe through the night knowing that they’re as strong as a fortress!

I began working with the process twelve years ago and have perfected structural repair strategies that employ the amazing benefits of the use of this revolutionary process

The biggest single difference is the immediate ability to apply pressure to the wall prior to completing the process. This comes from the fact that there is no mortar to squish out from between the blocks. Ordinary masons must build the new wall and leave a gap between the sill plate and the top of the block. They then beat shims in every couple of feet and lastly tuck point the gap. This is a horribly ineffective mess and does several things which guarantee the new wall will fail like the old one.

Why Dry Stacked and Surface Bonded Walls Are 5 X Stronger

The concept is very simple. Ordinary mortared walls are weak and have mortar trowelled in between them to level the courses. Many mistakenly believe mortar to be glue. This however is simply not true. A mortar joint is called a cold joint. A cold joint is a very weak porosity only, bond. Everyone knows that when new concrete is applied over old it doesn’t bond, it doesn’t adhere, and it doesn’t stick.

Actually, anyone who has ever seen a bowing basement wall will note the walls can be cracked all over but still don’t give in. That is because the downward pressure of the house exceeds the pressure exerted from the soil.

The concept behind a surface bonded super-wall is simple.

Just imagine a wall made up of 8 a,b,c wooden kids blocks.

Stack them up in your minds eye. Now just imagine that you apply pressure evenly from the top.

The more pressure you add the stronger the blocks get.

Next, imagine putting your hand on the top but only covering half of it.

See the blocks go shooting across the room.

You See Even load distribution is EVERYTHING.

Now Imagine those same abc wooden kids blocks were stacked up, but with duct tape going up both sides of the blocks.

Now, add imaginary pressure- that’s right; incredibly strong! By applying a surface bond you are in effect turning the whole stack into a bond beam. Amazing!

In real life, the first course is laid traditionally in a bed of mortar to level the first course and the rest of the blocks are stacked on top in staggered courses just like traditional masonry, called a “running bond.” Once the walls have been completed up to the last course, our superior process comes into play. At the top course we cut the top blocks a 1/16 of an inch over the gap between the sill plate and the next course. We then take a bottle jack and lift just enough pressure to get the block in, in this fashion. This is something that could not be done with mortar. We: move, cut, lift, set. We: move, cut, lift, set.

We finish the last course, and by the time we are done… voila! Now the house is again resting its weight and transferring it directly from the sill to the footer. Of course we always correct any sill plate or FRAMING issues before we begin the repair

What makes our Re-build Technique Far Superior????

Everything!!

When other contractors rebuild a wall, what is typically done is to jack and block support the walls and remove the soil and knock out the walls.

Next they will typically clean the footing and begin to re- lay new concrete block course by course in beds of mortar right up to the existing sill plate.

Next the mason will jack the house an additional 3/8 to one half of an inch. The wall is then shimmed along its length and the jacks are removed.

Finally the remaining gap is tuck pointed at the top of the wall to fill the void between sill and top block. Virtually every contractor inexistence who re-builds walls uses this method of repair.

Problem is this method is flat out bad!!

Why you ask????

The reason is related to what we were discussing above regarding load distribution.

The masons re-building the wall using the technique just described have inadvertently changed the load distribution from evenly applied direct pressure to point load distribution!!! This means the house load is really resting on the shimmed points along the wall rather than on the top block!!

With our unique Super Bond Dry Stacking Technique this problem as well as many others are eliminated allowing us to build a new wall with up to 5X the lateral load capacity of a mortared block wall!!!

First we support the foundation using a series of basement jacks.

Next the wall is excavated and the old building units are removed.

As long as the footer is sufficient , we then lay the first course in a bed of mortar without any head joints between the blocks.

We can then begin to stack up the rest of the blocks using a running bond pattern (this means using offset or staggered courses).

We then proceed to lay up the rest of the courses all of the way up to the top course. We can then sight along the entire wall and using a rubber mallet correct any blocks out of line and make the wall completely straight prior to adding pressure or applying the surface bonding cement.

Now this is where our process becomes far superior; we now use a bottle jack capable of lifting 25 tons on the block in front of the space where we plan on setting the first top course block.

Each and every block of the top courses is cut individually a 1/16 of an inch Over the gap between the sill plate and the Second course from the sill plate.

We then beat the block in place and let the pressure of the house back down onto the wall. We then move the bottle jack measure the gap and cut the block a 1/16 over the gap, install the block and continue in this fashion all the way down the length of the wall; move cut lift set, move cut lift set.

In this fashion it becomes possible to set the weight of the house entirely back on to the wall!!

We can remove the jacks and supports and the house is now resting entirely onto the dry stacked masonry units!!!!

There is a direct transfer of load from sill through masonry to the footing. This is essential to new wall strength. Unlike the mortared block wall rebuild shimming is not required; no point load issues either!!

. Now once the entire wall has been rebuilt, we then trowel a skim coat, a stucco like slurry all over the outside and the inside of the wall. This slurry has tens of thousands of “cat hair” fibers, which used to be made of fiber-glass but today are made of super strong nylon fibers.

This process of mixing a fiber matrix into a cement mixture goes all the way back to Egypt where they mixed straw with mud before making bricks of them.

In ancient Rome the Romans perfected the art of laying dry stacked blocks without mortar and then covering it with layers of stucco cement plaster.

In more recent times, cement plasterers of the twentieth century used horse-hair in plaster to strengthen it. Today’s nylon fibers are the modern space age equivalent.

When they are mixed into to a high-strength water-proofed surface-bonding cement, which has a chemical bonding adhesive mixed in it, that makes it chemically “glue” to the wall - the end result is a super-bonded high- strength bond-beam.

This makes it incredibly tuff and you get a real guarantee of piece of mind knowing your new wall is now 5X stronger against lateral or sideways loads!!!

Next in order to protect that wall and make it impermeable to water it is essential that you protect it with a “water-proofing” system.

When a basement is re-built what the code minimums require is trowel a mortar parge coat on the wall which is basically trowelling mortar on the wall like stucco; then applying a damproof tar or asphalt sealant.

This basic technique has been used for the last 100 years.

Just imagine all of the advances that have been made in the last hundred years yet builders still seal the wall using this archaic process!

It is Guaranteed to fail every time; in fact in Cleveland, Ohio alone there are over 125 water-proofing companies in the yellow pages !!!

What these “so-called water-proofers” do is dig up the basement and actually RE-APPLY the EXACT SAME SEALANTS and utilize the exact same techniques that already FAILED in the first place!

Does that make any sense whatsoever???

This usually means re-parging the wall with porous mortar and smearing some tar on it like a monkey!

Have you ever known anyone that had an asphalt driveway?

How often did they Have-To Re- Seal it?

I can tell you I have, known many people with black top drives. When I was a kid growing up two of my neighbors had an ongoing debate about their driveways.

The first neighbor swore you needed to seal it every single year, and he did.

The second neighbor swore every two years was enough.

I can still hear them arguing now in my mind’s eye… LOL.

The sad truth is that according to the US Bureau of Standards asphalt sealants begin to break down in only 18 months, YIKES!

You see the sad truth is they were both right!

And these so called water-proofers charge an average of ten to fifteen grand just to dig up the basement and seal it again using what FAILED already.

…You See Tar Has Never Been Rated as Waterproof

When I discovered this, it sent my head spinning!

You see the reason why was, that every single “waterproofer” I knew used tar (asphalt based sealants)!!

…You See Tar Has Never Been Rated as Waterproof

When I discovered this, it sent my head spinning!

You see the reason why was, that every single “waterproofer” I knew used tar (asphalt based sealants)!!

They couldn’t ALL be wrong…. Or could they?????

Did you know that in the building codes there are actually two separate definitions for damp-proofing (tar) and waterproofing.

Damp proofing: by definition means “something that helps to slow the penetration of water into the substrate”.

HHMMM “helps to slow” sounds quite different than the definition of:

Waterproofing: “something that prevents the penetration of water” and further must pass a bending test where the membrane must be able to be bent around a cylinder.

Water proof sealants are almost all exclusively used and installed COMMERCIALLY…

(that’s because they are more expensive).

The extra costs are what stop the average contractor from offering you , the homeowner, a product that is effective and will last and “stand the test of time”.

We have developed a true SUPER DRY™ MULTI-STEP EXTERIOR WATERPROOFING SYSTEM which, uses a cement-based fiber re-enforced wall resurfacing system and NO LESS than two waterproof rated sealants.

This is by no means the cheapest of methods, however, and it may or may not be the BEST system to put into place. Which system you should use depends entirely on the specific nature of YOUR problem. There are NO miracle systems than can solve ALL basement problems.

The thing I can guarantee is if our outside waterproof system is installed it will actively drain water away from the foundation, and the water leak will be a thing of the past, not only that, but our sealants will outlast the wood on your house GUARANTEED!

I’d like to tell you a story you’ve got to hear about a job I recently did for a Mr. Ron Sewyak on state route 20 in Oberlin.

This is a sad story about a man who had to have his basement fixed THREE TIMES in ten short years!!!!!

Mr Sewyak had had the walls of his home rebuilt ten years ago using conventional masonry techniques.

They were rebuilt using 12" blocks and type n mortar. A conventional parge coat was applied and tar. New tiles and backfill were added. This is what is considered “outside waterp-proofing”.

Four years later the walls were leaking again!!!

Exasperated the homeowner had Ohio State Waterproofing install their inside outside "waterproofing system" (inside) and they hoped their problems were over.

Again he thought his problem was solved!

Sadly, I met Ron a few months ago.

He asked me to come out to his house because his basement walls were severely bowed bulging and shifted off the first course and out of plumb.

I was able to observe portions of the outside "waterproofing " system from ten years ago and the inside/outside system from six years ago both had fatal flaws but…. Neither system was the cause of the problem.

After careful inspection I assessed the real problem----BAD FRAMING!!!!

That’s right, it turned out that the first contractor (who did many things poorly) built the walls directly back up to and underneath the existing framing deficiency which caused the wall system to fail in the first place.

A partial sill plate and a lack of cribbing on the gable end walls were behind their basements problems from the beginning.

After the first winter ten years ago, the newly re-built wall began to crack... this opened water ways which made the walls leak.

Ron's second contractor performed an inside system which, while done poorly, also stopped active water puddles on the floor.

Unfortunately it did nothing to stop the structural issues, which worsened and worsened, until he was forced to call me.

So in a ten year period the walls have been repaired three times!!!!

Can you imagine???

Fortunately, for Ron I fixed them once and for all by first correcting the framing issues and repairing the sill plate; then performing a complete excavation.

Only once the earth was removed completely; all the way down to the bottom of the footer, was I able to push the walls back in line and use my surface bonding structural repair solution.

Then of course I applied three sealants to the wall one damp-proof two of them waterproof.

Then I replaced the drainage system with new thick wall pipe and stone all the way to 12" of grade separated from the top soil with filter fabric!!!!!

So why didn't I fix them from the inside???

Because in his situation, it would not work; it was not the source of the problem.

I always tell my customers all of their options .

Then I tell them what I would do if I was in their shoes.

Regardless of your suppositions, not all homeowners can afford an outside system.... worse... most outside contractors do not know how to install a true WATER-PROOFING system.

So the poor homeowner is left buying a repair that involves excavating the wall and using the same techniques that FAILED ALREADY!!!

If you are considering outside excavation and water-proofing you need to learn what makes our system the BEST and why you would never ever want any other technique to be attempted.

To re-cap the typical outside waterproofing contractor first excavates the wall then applies a basic mortar parge. Mortar is very porous, it soaks up water like a sponge.

Some of the old timers will apply a Portland cement and ironite coating. This is Portland cement mixed with powdered iron ore filings. The idea is that as the iron ore filings oxidize they will expand helping to stop the absorption; while this is less porous than a plain mortar parge the fact it still soaks up water like a sponge.

A better newer cement base coating is called thoro-seal it is a capillary blocked cement coating. While it is much better than an old fashioned mortar parge.

It is not however comparable to the first step in our Super Dry Multi- Step system.

There are several reasons for this; namely that ordinary mortar parges rely on a porosity bond to adhere to the wall. This means it is a physical bond that is locked only into the nooks and crannies of the block face.

The first coating that we apply to the wall is a waterproofed below grade surface bonding cement. The product was originally developed to glue blocks together from the surface that had absolutely no mortar in between them.

When used as a parge coat we mix it with an acrylic bonding adhesive, this gives it both porosity adhesion as well as a superior chemical adhesion to the wall; which really means once we put it on it is there to stay!

Next not only is it non-porous like thoro-seal it also is capable of holding a four foot head of water with out block penetration! That’s amazing!

Not only is it more waterproof and chemically bonded to the wall it is reinforced with thousands and thousands of tiny cat hair length nylon fibers which make it incredibly tuff and strong!!! The manufacturer claims it is the only sealant required to keep the basement dry; why do we apply two more coatings???? Well the simple answer is concrete based sealants have a fatal flaw namely expansion and contraction of the soil. You see concrete can always develop hairline cracks, which is the reason we go over it twice!

Do you remember the story in the Bible when the Israelites were in captivity in Egypt?? They were forced to mixed straw fibers into the mud for making bricks…. You see the basic concept of introducing a fiber matrix into a masonry product to increase strength is very, very old!!!!

The next step that is done by most outside contractors is to spray or brush an asphalt (tar) based seal on the wall…. Just like the story from above about the two driveways, tar is not and never will be, waterproof!!! There are a few polymer modified tars that last slightly longer than basic tar but most are not rated for more than 60 months before they get hard set and crack!!!!

That’s only 5 years!!! Crazy!!! They can be marketed under names like Tuff-n-Dri and others but they are still inferior sealants.

These guys then will cover the tar with either plastic sheeting or foam board.

Plastic sheeting is a big booby trap that will separate from the tar as it hardens and then can trap water in between the wall and the plastic creating a worse problem than before the so called repair!!! The foam board will help to keep the tar from being scratched as it is being back-filled but is not waterproof and can often attract fungal growth between the foam and tar breaking the tar down even faster !!!

The next coating in the Super Dry Multi-Step System is to apply either a vulcanized rubber or a flashing grade elasto-meric acrylic latex resin. Both are derived from latex rubber and truly deserve the moniker of Water Proof! Both were developed as an improvement to tar based flat roofing applications where the tar inevitably failed!!!!

The final coating we use was developed for underground parking garages and military bases, originally in Germany. A Canadian inventor then improved the technology and ironed out the rest of the bugs with the system so it would work permanently on regular houses. It is called an air-gap drainage membrane/ blanket system. It is the best membrane system ever developed in the authors opinion. There a many reasons why, but here are a few: it is made of polyethylene plastic which is terrible in our landfills because it does not break down but awesome as a waterproofing blanket as it will outlast the wood on your house guaranteed. It has no natural enemies other than sunlight and it is buried so it will never see the sun. It traps an air gap or blanket of air between the wall and the back fill dirt. It does this because of the thousands of dimples impressed into the membrane when it is being made. Even if the membrane is punctured it will not allow water penetration because unless the water is pressurized it cannot jump across an air gap.

After the wall is sealed the other aspects of our system are also superior to our so-called competitors… including: We never use thin wall pipe only the thicker walled rigid pipes- this is so we never need to worry about chunks in the backfill crushing the pipes .

We always leave a geo-textile fabric under the pipes before the bed of stone being used to pitch the pipes, this prevents mud from clogging them and silt from migrating into them from underneath.

We back fill the wall all the way to within a few feet of grade with clean stone--- this is to prevent the extra pressure from wet soil from being added to the wall itself!

Stone stacks on itself and drains, soil absorbs water weight!!

We separate the soil we back fill over the stone from the stone using the afore-mentioned geo-textile. This keeps the air gaps in the stone intact and prevents the soils from rinsing down into the stone bed and filling/clogging the drainage pipes!

We always replace the downspout lines bedded in stone and never ever fill soil under new driveways or concrete patio pads instead we use layers of compacted premium fill in these areas, to prevent settlement.

You can now feel confident and get the assurance that your basement will remain dry and can be re-modeled any way you like it!

Remember you house is your biggest investment- when you need basement help, call about a Super Dry Basement™ and:

Get more for your money!

You’ll get immediate service turnaround - most inspections performed in 24-48 Hours.

You’ll get the best basement waterproofing in the Midwest serving Ohio, Michigan, Western Pennsylvania and Northern Kentucky.

You’ll get the best trained inspectors in the industry!

You’ll get the most knowledgeable structural repair experts!

You’ll get immediate installation when you need it in a crunch to close a deal.

You’ll get the best guarantees in the industry!

Call Now 800-948-4947 To schedule an inspection!!!!