Interior drainage
The slab edge is cut back, a perforated pipe goes in clear stone beside the footing, and a membrane carries wall seepage into it. Runs in any season and leaves your yard alone.
Interior drainageWhat we do
Five repairs cover almost every wet basement here
Which one you need depends on where the water enters — not on which one we would rather sell.
Exterior waterproofing
The wall is dug out to the footing, cleaned, sealed with a rubberised membrane and covered with dimple board, with a new drain in clear stone. The only method that keeps the wall itself dry.
Exterior waterproofing
Foundation crack repair
Ports along the crack, the face sealed between them, resin injected at low pressure so the crack fills front to back instead of being patched on the inside.
Foundation crack repair
Weeping tile replacement
Clay tile around older Collingwood houses silts up or collapses. Replacement is perforated pipe bedded in clear stone and wrapped in filter fabric so it does not fill with fines again.
Weeping tile replacement
Sump pumps and pits
A pit sized for the water your house actually produces, a pump on a solid base clear of silt, a free-swinging float, a check valve, and a discharge line that ends far enough away to matter.
Sump pumps and pitsNot sure which one?
That is the normal starting point. Book the assessment and we will tell you what the wall is doing — including when the answer is that you do not need us yet.
Book an assessmentNot sure which one describes your basement? Tell us what you are seeing and we will look at it.
Book a free assessmentTwo-second check
Where is the water showing up?
Pick the line that matches your basement and we will point you at the repair that actually deals with it.
Pick the closest match
Why it happens here
Collingwood basements are wet for reasons you can point at on a map
The old part of town sits on a shallow floodplain between the Niagara Escarpment and Nottawasaga Bay. Runoff comes off the escarpment, the clay under most lots holds it against the wall, and the water table near the harbour is high.
- 3,000 hadrains through Black Ash Creek into Collingwood harbour
- 2 kmof Pretty River Dike protecting the town since the 1970s
- #1Collingwood is the community in the watershed most at risk in an extreme storm, per the NVCA
- 3different ground types within twenty minutes of the harbour
Walls here are under pressure for weeks at a time, not minutes.
What is under the house changes the repair
Clay — most of CollingwoodHolds water against the wall for weeks after a melt. Shows as damp patches and efflorescence, not a jet of water.
Sand — Wasaga and the shoreDrains fast, so the wall is never under long pressure. The water table itself rises through the slab and the wall/floor joint.
Fill and rubble — older coresWater finds channels through the backfill and arrives at one spot, often nowhere near where it entered.
Spring, not storms. A deep Georgian Bay snowpack releases into ground that is still frozen underneath, so meltwater runs sideways along the frost and collects in the backfill beside your wall. That is why so many basements here leak once a year, in the same fortnight. More on what we see in each town.
Materials
The pipe is the cheap part
Clear washed stone around it and filter fabric around that are what decide whether a new drain still runs in fifteen years.
Choosing
Inside or outside
Both work. They solve different problems, and the wrong one is expensive twice.
From outside
Exterior waterproofing
- What it does
- Stops water entering the wall at all.
- Where the work is
- Outside, in an open trench to the footing. The yard is excavated and reinstated.
- Season
- Ground-dependent; spring to late autumn.
- Right when
- The wall is wet through, the original drain has failed, or the outside is already open.
From inside
Interior drainage
- What it does
- Collects water that reaches the wall and pumps it out.
- Where the work is
- Inside, along the base of the wall. The slab edge is cut and re-poured.
- Season
- Year-round, including February.
- Right when
- Access outside is blocked, the water table is the problem, or the leak is at the wall/floor joint.
Warning signs
What a wall shows you before the floor is wet
Three things people describe to us months ahead of the day there is water on the floor.
Dark growth low on the wall
Growing on the bottom metre and nowhere else means the wall is wetting from behind, not from the room air.
Paint lifting off in sheets
Water pushing out through the wall breaks the bond behind the coating. Repainting is the one repair guaranteed to fail.
White powder you can rub off
Salt left behind after water passed through the concrete and evaporated. Proof that water is moving through the wall.
Other things worth a look
- Water after heavy rain, but not in a dry week
- A musty smell that comes back every spring
- Rust at the base of steel posts or appliances
- Water pooling in a window well
- A sump pump that runs constantly
- Floor tiles or laminate lifting at the edges
How it runs
A job with no surprises in the middle of it
The complaints we hear about other basement work are rarely about the drainage. They are about not knowing what happens next.
Assessment on site
Basement, outside grade, downspouts, age of the drain. No charge.
Written scope and price
Which walls, which method, what is included and what is not.
Protection and set-up
Dust contained inside; services located and marked outside.
The work
In the sequence you were shown, with photos of what is behind the wall.
Test and hand over
Water down the system, pump cycled, discharge checked, site cleaned.
Coverage
Where we work
Collingwood and the towns around it, from the Wasaga sand flats to the escarpment.
- Collingwood
- Wasaga Beach
- The Blue Mountains
- Thornbury
- Craigleith
- Stayner
- Creemore
- Nottawa
- Duntroon
- New Lowell
- Singhampton
- Meaford
Phone
Hours
Open 24 hours, 7 days
Serving
Collingwood, Wasaga Beach, The Blue Mountains and Clearview
Questions
Questions people ask at the assessment
How much does basement waterproofing cost in Collingwood?
Nobody can price it honestly from a phone call. The number comes from how many feet of wall have to be treated, how deep the footing is, whether a machine can reach the wall, and what has to be put back afterwards — a deck, a driveway or mature planting can cost more to restore than the drainage itself. We look at the house, then put the scope and the price in writing.
Interior or exterior — which one do I need?
Exterior work is the only method that keeps water out of the wall itself, so it is right when the wall is damp through or the original drain has failed. Interior drainage manages water that has already reached the wall and sends it to a sump — far less disruptive, and often the only realistic option under a deck or a driveway. Most houses need one of them, not both.
Can you work in winter?
Interior drainage, crack injection and sump work run year-round — that work happens inside a heated house. Exterior excavation depends on frost depth and access; between roughly December and March we will usually tell you honestly that waiting until the ground opens gives a better result for the same money.
Do you work outside Collingwood?
Yes — Wasaga Beach, The Blue Mountains including Thornbury and Craigleith, Stayner, Creemore, Nottawa, Duntroon, New Lowell, Singhampton and Meaford. Full list of service areas.