Capillary Break Coating
Applying a waterproof coating to the top of the footing blocks groundwater from wicking into the foundation walls, thereby keeping the basement drier.
Up until now I’ve used membrane-type capillary breaks to block moisture the migrates through the footing from rising into the foundation walls. The membranes are easy to work with provided there is no vertical rebar. Vertical rebar is hard to cut and piece around. On this foundation there are about 80 vertical rebar sections.
Instead we used a waterproofing coating – ProtectoWrap’s LWM200. It’s primarily used as a waterproof coating in window and door openings on concrete block walls. For us it will block most of the ground moisture from being wicked into the foundation walls. So it will help keep the basement drier.
We poured out a stripe of LWM200 along the footing and Bruce spread it with a roller. I followed behind back-brushing it into rough surface areas, pin-holes and around the vertical rebar. I also lapped up any puddles and spread it elsewhere.
It only took about an hour for the two of us to coat 130 lf. of 18 in. wide footing. By the time we made it around to where we began, the coating was dry enough to snap our layout chalklines and begin nailing down steel track to lock the ICFs into.
