Basement waterproofing in Portland stops water at 3 points: the cracks it enters through, the pressure that pushes it up under your slab, and the humid air it leaves behind. We have kept 9,800 Portland basements dry since 1994, through every wet season since, and every system carries a lifetime transferable warranty. Book a free inspection today.
Call (877) 569-0306Eleven winters of moving boxes to higher ground, and this January the floor was bone dry through a week of steady rain. The crew laid plastic over everything, hauled the spoil out by bucket and swept up each evening. Marcus explained the cove joint problem in a way that finally made sense.
Two other companies wanted to tear up my entire basement floor. These guys looked at it and said the water was coming through two cracks, injected both, and charged a fraction of what I was quoted elsewhere. Two wet seasons later, still dry. They diagnosed instead of selling.
The musty smell in our bedrooms is completely gone, that alone was worth it. Humidity went from 78% to 47%, the floors are noticeably warmer through the winter, and our PGE bill dropped. Honestly did not expect the energy difference.
Our kitchen floor had been bouncy for years and I assumed it was just an old house. Turned out three joists had rotted at the sill. They sistered them, set proper piers, and the floor is solid for the first time since we bought the place.
Excellent work and the water intrusion is completely resolved. Only reason for four stars is scheduling slipped by about a week during the November rush, though they were upfront about it and knocked something off the invoice.
Called at 6am during an atmospheric river with water coming in. They had someone here before nine to look at it and did not gouge me on emergency pricing. The permanent fix went in the following week and I have not thought about the basement since.
They did the structural work first and then sealed it, and explained exactly why that order mattered. Another company had quoted just the liner, over rotted joists. Glad I got a second opinion. The house sold without a single crawl space comment from the inspector.
They came out, spent forty minutes, and told me my problem was a downspout dumping straight against the foundation instead of into the drain line, a $40 fix I could do myself. Did not try to sell me a thing. When I do need real work done, there is no question who I am calling.
Ninety-year-old house that had never had anything done to it. They worked straight through January in the rain, which I did not think was even possible, and kept the site cleaner than I expected. Clear pricing and written moisture readings at the end.
One corner of the house had been sinking for years and I kept putting it off. They found the cause during the inspection, explained push piers versus helical piers in a way I actually understood, and the door that never closed right now shuts like new. Wish I had called sooner.
These are the 6 basement problems we see most across Portland. Standing water is usually the last sign to show up, not the first. We can fix all six, often for less than homeowners expect.
Water can push through small cracks or porous block in the wall. It often shows up first as a wet patch or a dark stain that spreads during wet weather.
Water can rise up through the slab when the ground underneath gets too wet. This is called hydrostatic pressure, and no floor paint can stop it.
The seam where the wall meets the floor is called the cove joint. It is one of the most common places water gets in, and it is easy to miss on a quick look.
Water pooling on the floor is the last sign to show up, not the first. By the time you see it, the problem has usually been building for a while.
A musty smell and a white chalky mark on the wall both point to moisture moving through your basement. High humidity feeds mold before you ever see a drop of water.
One crack in the foundation can let water in for years. Most leaks trace back to a crack or two, not the whole wall.
Portland basements get wet for 3 main reasons: soil that stays soaked after storm after storm, groundwater that presses up on the footing, and old foundations with drainage that has not kept up. These 3 things stack up across Portland. The one causing your water decides which system you need.
Portland gets about 36 inches (91 cm) of rain a year, spread over roughly 155 rainy days. Most of it falls between October and May. Basements do not fail on the heaviest day. They fail once the ground has been wet for six straight weeks with nowhere left to put the water.
Rain that cannot soak deeper into the ground stops on the first dense layer it hits. It sits there, pressing sideways on your footing and up under your slab. This is called hydrostatic pressure. No paint or coating can hold back water pushing like this. Only proper drainage can.
Many Portland homes were built before 1940, often with no damp-proofing at all. East Portland sits on old flood silt over clay, and the west side sheds rain downhill onto whatever sits below it. Both push water sideways instead of down, and the original drain around an old footing has often silted shut by now.
Putting off basement waterproofing in Portland creates 5 bigger problems:
A properly built waterproofing system delivers 5 long-term advantages:
The inspection is free and commits you to nothing. Finding out yours is a small fix counts as a good outcome, and it happens more often than most homeowners expect.
Find Out Where I Stand
We inject epoxy or polyurethane resin through the full thickness of your foundation wall, not just the surface. The repair is structural, and it carries a lifetime no-re-leak guarantee.
Explore Service
We seal your crawl space floor and walls with a 20-mil vapor barrier, insulate the rim joists, and hold humidity under 55%. A damp dirt crawl space becomes clean, dry space you can actually use.
Explore Service
We repair rotted joists, sagging floors, failed insulation and settled piers before a crawl space gets sealed and left alone. Structural work always comes first.
Explore ServiceNot sure which service you need?
We cover 4 services: basement waterproofing, basement crack repair, crawl space encapsulation and crawl space repair. Describe what you are seeing and a Portland specialist finds the cause on site before anything gets quoted.
Both interior and exterior systems stop water for good when they are built the right way. What works best in Portland comes down to timing and access, not which method sounds better. Our wet winters give an exterior crew a shorter window to dig than crews get in most of the country.
An interior drain tile system goes in from inside the foundation. It does not wait for dry ground, does not disturb your trees or your yard, and does not stop for rain, which falls here 155 days a year. This is why most Portland jobs use it: the weather cannot push the schedule back.
Exterior waterproofing pays off in a few cases: new construction, a full foundation rebuild, or a house where the driveway or patio is already being torn out for other work. If the ground is already open, sealing the wall and adding a footing drain at the same time saves you a second dig later.
A brushed-on sealer covers a tiny gap and stops there. It cannot handle hydrostatic pressure, and Portland soil stays wet against a foundation wall for about seven months a year. Paint holds back nothing once water has somewhere to push. Drainage moves the water away. Paint just hides where it used to show.
| Service | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Basement waterproofing | $72 to $98 / linear ft |
| Basement crack repair | $495 to $850 / crack |
| Crawl space encapsulation | $5.75 to $8.50 / sq ft |
| Crawl space repair | from $1,850 |
The inspection that gives you a price is free. The proposal after it is a fixed price in writing, not an estimate that grows once the crew shows up. 0% financing runs for 18 months on any project, so you do not have to wait on the rest of your budget.
We start with a full inspection of your basement, covering moisture mapping, a grading and downspout review, and a hose test that shows exactly where water enters. It takes 45 minutes and carries no obligation.
From the findings we design a system for your foundation rather than a template. You receive a fixed price in writing, materials named by brand, and the change-order policy stated before you sign.
Our own certified crew installs the system, with the person who quoted the job on site. Containment goes down first, spoil leaves by bucket rather than slurry, and the work area gets swept every evening.
We flood-test the system in front of you, then hand over written moisture readings taken before and after. Your lifetime transferable warranty gets registered before the crew leaves the driveway.
Basement waterproofing, transferable
Covers water entry through the treated area, labor as well as materials. It transfers once to the next owner at no cost, which removes a negotiating point that costs sellers thousands at closing.
Crack repair, no re-leak
We come back and reinject the crack at no charge if it leaks again along the same line. Cured resin holds more strength than the concrete around it, so the repair outlasts the wall.
Crawl space liner
Manufacturer material warranty on the 20-mil reinforced vapor barrier, plus our own workmanship guarantee on every seal, termination and section of rim-joist insulation.
Crawl space structural work
Covers joists, girders, sill plates and support piers. We re-level free of charge if a supported span moves at any point inside the 10 years.
Choosing a basement waterproofing contractor comes down to 2 questions: is the water still gone in 10 years, and is the company that promised it still answering the phone at 2am in January. We have been answering since 1994. Portland homeowners pick us for 4 reasons, listed below.
We carry an active Oregon contractor license, bond and insurance, so you can check us out before you let a crew into your basement. Since 1994 we have waterproofed 9,800 properties across the city of Portland.
We are a Portland business, not a national franchise. We know this ground, from flood silt on the east side to hillside seepage above Burnside, because we have already dug into it.
Every technician is our own employee, background-checked and trained on our own systems. We test, measure and diagnose before we quote, and we cancel proposals regularly once the real fix turns out to be a downspout extension.
Every system carries a lifetime warranty that covers labor and materials, not just parts. It transfers once to the next owner at no cost, which turns a wet-basement history into a selling point instead of a repair bill.
Alberta, Portland
A century-old stone foundation taking four inches of water every wet season, dry through the wettest winter in eight years.
Hawthorne, Portland
A 1,450 sq ft dirt crawl space at 78% humidity, with mold on the joists and floors that never got warm.
Irvington, Portland
A full driveway and patio replacement already scheduled, so the foundation got excavated once for both jobs instead of twice.
Basement waterproofing in Portland costs $72 to $98 per linear foot ($236 to $322 per meter), putting a typical job on one or two affected walls between $6,500 and $13,000. Basement crack repair runs $495 to $850 per crack. Crawl space encapsulation costs $5.75 to $8.50 per square foot, and crawl space repair starts at $1,850.
Access drives the price more than anything else. A walk-out basement with room to work costs a fraction of a tight crawl space where every bucket moves by hand, and crawl spaces are what most of inner Portland is built on. Every proposal is fixed-price with the change-order policy written in, and 0% financing runs for 18 months on any project. The full breakdown, including what pushes a quote up or down, is in the 2026 cost article.
Basement waterproofing takes 2 to 3 working days on a standard Portland job. Crack repair takes half a day. Crawl space encapsulation runs 2 to 4 days, and crawl space repair 2 to 5 days depending on how much framing needs sistering or replacing.
We handle site protection, material delivery and utility locates before the crew arrives, then complete the installation, cleanup and final testing in one continuous run. Interior work is unaffected by rain, so a wet forecast never pushes your date. You get a daily update and a walkthrough at the end.
Usually not. Standard homeowners policies treat gradual water seepage and groundwater intrusion as a maintenance issue, not a covered peril, because it builds up over time instead of happening all at once. A sudden, accidental event, a burst supply line or a failed water heater, is usually covered. Slow entry through a foundation crack or hydrostatic pressure (opens in a new tab) across a wet season is not.
Flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program (opens in a new tab) (NFIP) is a separate policy, and it commonly excludes or limits basement contents and groundwater seepage too. Read your policy’s water damage exclusions, or call your agent and ask directly, before you assume either way.
A sump pump lasts 7 to 10 years. The drain tile around it, the stone, filter fabric and piping at footing level, has no moving parts and outlasts the house when it is installed with clean-outs at every corner, so it can be flushed rather than dug up.
Our warranty covers this gap with free annual system service for as long as you own the house. We check the pump, the float switch and the discharge line every year, so the mechanical piece gets replaced on schedule instead of during the next atmospheric river.
Yes, if the diagnosis says that is where the water is actually coming from. The most common thing we get called in to second-opinion is a full-perimeter quote for what turns out to be one or two cracks or one affected wall. A hose test and a walk of the whole perimeter tell us whether the rest of the foundation is dry, and if it is, treating only the affected section is the correct answer, not just the cheaper one.
Where the rest of the wall is also seeping, even faintly, that is usually hydrostatic pressure working on the whole perimeter rather than one local defect, and a partial fix would leave you back here within a season or two. The free inspection is what tells you which situation you are in before anyone writes a price.
It depends on scope. Interior work that does not touch the structure, crack injection, an interior drain tile system tied into an existing sump, typically does not require a building permit in most jurisdictions, since it is treated as repair rather than new construction. Work that adds structural repair, such as sistering joists or setting new piers, or that ties a discharge line into the storm system, more often does.
We confirm what your scope needs during the inspection and pull any required permit ourselves. You can check the general rules yourself at the Oregon Building Codes Division (opens in a new tab).
Yes, and we install one on every sump system in this city. The same atmospheric rivers (opens in a new tab) that push the most water at your foundation also knock out power across Portland, and a pump with no backup fails at the exact moment it has the most work to do.
A battery or water-powered backup keeps the pump running through an outage that can last hours during a big storm. It costs a few hundred dollars on a system that otherwise runs for a decade, and it is the difference between a dry basement in the worst storm of the year and a flooded one.
Portland ZIP codes we cover
Water in the basement, a foundation crack you have been watching, or a crawl space nobody wants to open. Get a straight diagnosis from Basement Waterproofing Portland, with fast response, fixed pricing and workmanship guaranteed for life across the city of Portland.
