The most important part of a basement finishing project is the proper preparation before the first nail is driven. Although not as appealing as custom wet bars, home theaters, tile floors, etc., it's critical that homeowners are aware of the dangers that lurk in the basement. These dangers include moisture, humidity, water, insects, mold, and soil gases such as radon. A totally closed waterproofing system including basement wall protection is very important.

Video Transcription

Preparing the Basement before you Finish Hi, this is Todd from Missouri Basement with another healthy basement tip. I want to talk to you today about properly preparing the basement before you finish and what I mean by that is securing your investment before you finish your basement by installing a close drainage system. What do I mean by close drainage system? Well let’s take a look. The properly preparing the basement means protecting yourself from the inward migration of water, moisture and harmful soil gases. Now we can do this by installing a close drainage system which includes a wall vapor barrier. Now if you don’t have this wall protection, you run the risk of raising the humidity levels in the space that we call the micro environment. Therefore, you can encourage mold growth. Now I can’t tell you how many basements that we get called on that had been finished without the proper wall protection, where the mold is already started because it wasn’t prepared properly. So now that moisture is going to be channeled down into our close sub floor drainage system and gravity fed to our sump liner and now we’ve created the tight seal here at the wall floor joint to prevent that moisture and harmful soil gases for migrating back up into this environment behind our finished wall. And that’s the proper, healthy way to prepare your basement before you finish. I’m Todd with Missouri Basement and this has been another healthy basement tip.