Before & After Photos

 When you arrive at a cottage, the first thing you expect is the smell of nature as you get out of the car, and maybe a small fire burning in a wood stove. What you don’t expect is a musty smell coming from a crawl space, spreading throughout the entire cottage. 

A customer in Fenelon Falls, Ontario, was dealing with a musty smelling basement. Water was entering the space, and the smell was starting to render the cottage unuseable. The cottage owner reached out to Clarke Basement Systems, and System Design Specialist Ryan Hanlon designed a full waterproofing system for the crawl space. The system included a complete encapsulation with CleanSpace® Vapour Barrier, and R20 Wall Membrane to insulate the space, installed by Foreman Lucio Flores. 

The customer is thrilled that her basement is now waterproofed. Not only did we eliminate the smell, but we also blocked a hole in the foundation that raccoons were using as an entryway to the crawl space. Some unhappy raccoons but a very happy customer!

When you head up north to the cottage, the last thing you want to do when you get there is deal with a damp crawl space. The smell can be horrible, and the humidity can cause severe damage to the building.

A customer in Fenelon Falls, Ontario, reached out to Clarke Basement Systems, looking for a solution for her wet crawl space. System Design Specialist Ryan Hanlon met with the customer and inspected her cottage. He designed a waterproofing system that included an Aprilaire® MoistureLoc Dehumidifier, which keeps the relative humidity below 55%. Foreman Lucio Flores installed the dehumidifier strategically in the crawl space, complimenting the rest of the waterproofing system.

The customer is delighted that she no longer needs to worry about damage to her cottage caused by moisture and mould, and the first thing she notices when she steps inside isn’t a musty smell.

This homeowner had a wet basement every spring and was tired of the water. We installed a SuperSump® Premier Sump Pump System in the basement.

A home in Toronto, Ontario had water problems in the entire basement of the house. The house was 100-years-old with a stone foundation. They had groundwater seepage along the walls and hydrostatic pressure forcing water through areas of the thin and unlevelled, broken floor. The homeowner had to have mould remediation. Plans were made to finish the basement, so they wanted to ensure that it stayed dry and mold didn’t reoccur. The customers home office was in that room. He relied heavily on that room for his business, but due to the water, he couldn’t have his equipment in there.

They called Clarke Basement Systems to fix the water problems so they could get their business workspace up and running. Our sales rep; Ron Monk explained to the customer that they would need floor removal and replacement, WaterGuard® Below-Floor Drain, TripleSafe™ Complete Sump Pump System, CleanSpace® Vapour Barrier, IceGuard® Discharge Line System. Dave Jackson, Jose Martinez and the team were prepared to take on this messy job and turn it into a clean, dry work space. The floor replaced provided a sub-floor drainage bed and an adequate three-inch level floor slab. WaterGuard® was installed around the full perimeter of the foundation to collect water and take it to a sump pump ensuring the whole basement stays dry. Cleanspace was put on the walls to reduce relative humidity, ensure wall leaks are drained to the WaterGuard® and protects the finished walls installed on top of it. The TripleSafe™ sump system ensures the basement stays dry all the time with the IceGuard® protecting the home in the event of frozen or blocked discharge lines.

The client was satisfied because the basement is now dry and ready for finishing. They can now renovate that space and use it for their business without worrying about leakage or flooding!

At first glance, the basement in the before picture looks similar to any other basement with tons of random things stored there, but once we were able to inspect the walls, we noticed a crack from one window to the other. It is easier to see in the after picture. 

To stop the foundation wall from bowing in, Clarke Basement Systems installed CarbonArmor® Reinforcing System, which is the same material to reinforce bridges, skyscrapers and bomb shelters. With our CarbonArmor installed, this Burlington homeowner can now rest easy, knowing that the best systems available are supporting his once bowing, basement wall