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How to Build a Basement
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Dry and without a pump.
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With just this website, some advice by email, a little training, and supervision of their concrete pours, self-builders (who read books) have built their basement and it never leaked. At least 100 of them over the past 20 years.
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As soon as experienced labour (who probably did not complete school education and never read a whole book) enter the equation, there is always some lies to cover their inability to study, corner-cutting to be quicker, lack of attention to detail, and the attitude that if it will be covered over it doesn't matter.
Architects, building control, warranty providers and insurers all think that expensive products are the solution to the experienced labour problems. They think covering over the errors is the solution.
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But covering over without prior inspection makes things worse, and the Grenfell Tower proved it. It had been a safe place to live. But then the experienced labour arrived with products and took that safety away.
If you employ experienced labour they don't know how to build a basement to never leak. They cannot understand the information on this web site. Not even the pictures should you print them off for them. They need showing and a lot of supervision. I estimate about 70% of the time they are on site. The other 30% is when they are cleaning up and moving materials.
I typically save self-builders 70%, compared to a contractual agreement.
If you employ experienced labour, I can still save you 50%. The 20% being spent on my supervision and guarantee to fix any and all leaks. But if you spend less than the 20% on me, pay me to be there less than 70% of the time, then I need paying to fix their leaks, because they were avoidable. Then I can give you my guarantee.
The savings are made keeping the workers busy and productive, preventing errors, not buying lots of products, and not carrying out repairs.
You cannot save more than 50% employing experienced labour. You must pay for effective supervision, or else solving the problems later will cost you more. Looking back over more than 10 years, about half a dozen basements had leaks. All built by experienced labour paid directly by the self-builder.
The problems left by experienced labour are not what the client wants.
You have to trust me completely to
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Get the best possible outcome
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For the very least cost, and
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Avoid going wrong with the new laws and procedures
Please browse this web site. My past clients are all extremely impressed with the extent and depth of my knowledge and experience.
I only work for you, on your team, with your best interests at heart. Exactly what you should want.
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Please note. I don't go underneath anything already there.
Self Builders.
These images take you
to menus with
all you want to know.
Speed read this page first. Some of it is important to everyone.
I will answer all your questions by email: viability, what works and what won't, explain and critique what others are telling you, look through your drawings and soil report, etc. for a fixed fee. Find out more here
Just in case it is why you are here, I have a page about surviving local disturbance, war and the end of human habitat. It isn't in the menus. Only accessible
here.
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Refer the architect to my page for architects here, and INSIST that the basement is checked for leaks and all leaks repaired before the basement structure inside is covered with anything.
Your aim is to put forward your tender for the same value as before, but to spend some money on site supervision instead of more money on sump, membrane, joint strips etc. and still get paid as much as before, making more money.
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The Grenfell Tower fire has caused a lot of changes to law, legal requirements, legal responsibilities, building control procedures, and proving competence before work is allowed to start.
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Grenfell Tower Inquiry final report: "Decades of failure by Government".
Solution.
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New Building Safety Act. Client/Developer, Principal Designer, Principal Contractor. Can all be punished if any building regulation is failed. They need to inspect and sign off everything.
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New procedures for building control. Evidence for prosecution must be on file.
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New Approved Document BS8102:2022. No leaks. No internal drainage system. Supervision and better workmanship required.
All designed to force big improvements in building standards in England.
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There is a new person involved in every project. The Principal Designer. If the client or developer does not appoint a principal designer, then the new law states that the architect is the Principal Designer.
There is a new contractor involved as well. The Principal Contractor, which will be the main contractor if the client did not appoint a principal contractor.
The Client or Developer, the Principal Designer, and the Principal Contractor will all be reported to the Building Safety Regulator, by their building control body, if it is discovered later that any building regulation was not complied with. They will all be punished (the client could even go to prison).
New Principal Designer's unavoidable duty:
"pass on necessary information to contractors and explain to them how to demonstrate that elements are built properly."
But experienced labour don't know how to build a new basement properly.
And product suppliers are mostly just as bad.
They like you to think their product or material saves the day, when the truth is that they never meet your expectations. For example, they don't make concrete waterproof, the joint strip doesn't stick or stay in the joint, the sticky-back membrane tears and doesn't bond, when they seal a surface they don't fill the holes, and so on.
Product suppliers have all relied upon a pump to safeguard them from complaints, to pump out all the water that gets through hundreds of leaks the products failed to prevent and the experienced labour ignored. All products fail building regulation C2 when the workmanship is poor. It is essential not to have a pump (as far as the experienced labour can see, anyway). Knowing there will be a pump is the problem, incentivising leaks. Leaks aren't allowed any more. The workmanship has to be a lot better. Good workmanship works all on its own, you don't need products as well.
The solution is very easy to understand. It sounds expensive, but it saves far more money than it costs.
Small projects have to copy the example of big projects, much bigger than the Grenfell Tower.
There has to be a site engineer always available when the guys are getting their heads around anything new. Out on site enough of the time to prevent them not taking care. I would say that means 70% of the time until good new habits are embedded.
And inspections, limited to Building Regulation C2 compliance, before payments are authorised.
When an experienced gang build a new basement, their experience informs them that their work can leak because it will all be covered over before the client or main contractor see it, and all the leaked water will be pumped out.
The old show the young the skills and the tricks. As those since retired showed them when they were younger themselves.
How, then, is the entire gang to learn to build with care? To never leave a leak again?
They won't learn from this website in the way self-builders (doctors, dentists, farmers, marketing people, IT consultants, business owners etc etc) did.
The guys who work out on site in all weathers are people who don't read beyond the sports page.
They need to be shown.
72 lives lost in the Grenfell Tower because Government reduced red tape; architects accepted work they had no experience of; suppliers lied; Clients cut costs with no idea of the danger they caused; contractors bent rules; sub-contractors cheated; and those paid to inspect didn't.
It is very important that you understand whether you applied for building control inspections before the deadline or after.
These new laws, new duties and new processes only apply to your project if you missed the deadline.
It is worth checking. Check with your architect. Check with your building control body. Do they agree?
If you were before the deadline, and your project is under all the old rules, whizz past all the boxes with an orange border, and any wording in orange as well. They don't apply to you.
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Now everyone involved can face punishment for any and all breaches of a building regulation.
AND ALSO for not making certain, when choosing who will (a) design and (b) carry out the work, that there will be no breach of a building regulation.
The client or developer have the greatest responsibility and could be sent to jail. It's seriously important to get your head around your new, legal duties.
Building control can lose their job if they don't report you to the new Building Safety Regulator.
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Building Regulation C2 states that the floors, walls and roof of a structure shall protect the building and occupants from harm. Harm is the legal test. Harm may occur years later. Time is no defence.
Covering over basement leaks with internal drainage and pumping water out means the floors, walls and roof do not protect. If the pump blocks with mud, the basement floods, and the occupants get ill from mould, the building regulation was not complied with.
The law has been broken, and the developer should expect a fine and a criminal record.
I guarantee my clients their basement will not leak. Anything. Ever.
For 20 years I only trained and assisted Self-Builders.
Before that I was a site engineer on commercial projects: shopping malls, Excel exhibition centre, office blocks; and public projects: schools, prisons, roads, pipelines.
Now, I will train and assist Clients, Developers, and Contractors as well.
The only way I can imagine that a new domestic basement will meet all the rules, built by contractors, is for a genuine basement expert to be site engineer until the basement structure is complete.
Self-builders. Most of you are educated and used to studying. You might not need training because you have no bad habits and you can understand all 63 web pages. Some of the rest of this page is aimed at those who do this for a living. However, the information is just as important to you. The other 63 pages are of most use to self-builders. Look around.
Typically, self-builders might only see me on concreting days.
Sub-contractors.
Those who do this work already need to see a lot more of me to keep themselves the right side of the law, now that the law has changed.
Just two examples.
The contractor has the duty to ensure that the work, including work by its sub-contractors, complies with all relevant building regulations. That means inspections.
The principal contractor must never accept non-compliant work. Inspections. Audits.
Or else the building control body must report them to the new Building Safety Regulator.
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Prosecution.
Following the Grenfell Tower disaster. After which no one was prosecuted. There have been several law changes.
Building control will keep a very tight history of all works, who carried them out and the evidence they were competent. Any failure, and the client/developer will be prosecuted in court for not instructing competent people.
An architect will be punished by the new Building Safety Regulator for accepting work they are not competent to design.
This tends to mean structural design and basement waterproofing. The architect needs waterproofing designed by a specialist. Someone who specifies how all leaks will be avoided or fixed. Not by someone who would cover over leaks and pump water away, because that sometimes fails and would breach building regulation C2 - prompting the prosecution of the client or developer; as well as the architect facing a grilling and sanctions by the new Building Safety Regulator.
A contractor not able to prove they are competent will not be allowed to start work. This applies to main contractors and sub-contractors as well. If a main contractor turns a blind eye to non-compliant work by a sub-contractor, the main-contractor faces whatever retribution the Building Safety Regulator decides.
If building control does not keep adequate records of competence as well as works, they could lose their certificate to practice.
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Government is forcing build quality to improve. New habitable basements must be proven not to allow any harmful effects to the structure or persons.
The British Standard 8102:2022 says very clearly, in Table 2, Grade 3. 'No water ingress or damp areas is acceptable.'
It is very easy to build without any leaks. Have none to repair. Prove there is no leak, even during very wet weather, by inspection after the roof is on and the windows are in, and before the basement is covered with anything on the inside.
The client or developer face unlimited fines if anyone they chose to work on their behalf, whether design or works, allows any harmful effect from damp or flood.
If the architect's design allows water through the walls, floors or roof, the architect faces enforcement powers, regulatory tools, and sanctions. (Government web page).
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The following has been normal practice for many years. Whether the new rules apply to you or not, the following should now completely change.
Most new houses with a basement have been built by a main contractor who knew nothing about building a basement. The main contractor organised a sub-contractor who said they do this sort of work all the time.
But what they really do all the time is the steel reinforcement and formwork on commercial projects where the main contractor has engineers on site monitoring everything. As well as quantity surveyors who do their best to find reasons not to pay the sub-contractors in full. They don't ever get paid in full, so they learned to cheat and they have been cheating for at least 40 years. Because that's how it is. One side doesn't pay so the other side cuts corners.
But the main contractor for a new house has no-one on site while the basement is built. The sub-contractor knows they can cut more corners, not get caught, still get paid.
Long before the house above is fully weathertight, with rain and debris still finding its way into the basement (meaning you have no idea whether it is leaking or not), the basement needs to start getting fitted out. Because the timetable is paramount to getting the new house sold before it is complete to reduce borrowing at the bank.
The internal drainage system comes with a guarantee for labour and materials (covering only the internal drainage membrane). The sub-contractor's work and the concrete don't come with any guarantee. The whole house comes with a structural warranty. But the structural warranty excludes beneath ground waterproofing.
The next people to enter the basement are labourers who pump out the water and clear all the rubbish to a skip.
Then the internal drainage supplier covers the floor and walls with internal drainage membrane. Hiding the defects and the leaks.
And the fit-out of the basement gets underway before the roof is fully on and rain still finds its way into the basement. This time, sitting on top of the membrane, on the side that is supposed to be dry.
If the holes covered over are big enough, and you can see on this page there is plenty of potential for big holes, then during persistent rain the pump will block with mud and the basement flood. Any mould and the law was broken. But the new owner had no redress, usually.
Let's list all the new laws that are broken should this happen today.
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Client's duties.
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Instructing an architect not competent at designing basement waterproofing.
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Instructing a main contractor not competent to build the basement not to leak.
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Principal designer's duties.
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Started work without ensuring the client is aware of their own legal duties.
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Accepting instruction for work they are not competent to carry out.
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Not specifying all leaks must be fixed.
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Failed to both explain to them how to demonstrate, and failed to inspect to confirm, elements are built properly.
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Not making sure the design complied with building regulation C2.
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Principal contractor's duties.
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Did not co-operate with the client, designers and contractors to make sure the building work complies with all relevant requirements.
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Did not ensure that the building work was planned, managed and monitored.
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Did not make sure building work, that they and others they managed carried out, complied with all relevant requirements.
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Accepted non-compliant work.
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Sub-contractor's duties
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Did not co-operate with the client, designers and contractors (including the principal designer and principal contractor) to make sure the building work complied with all relevant requirements.
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Did not make sure building work that they and others they managed carried out complied with all relevant requirements.
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Did not provide each worker they were responsible for with appropriate supervision, instructions and information.
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Did not speak up earlier and make it known to the client, principal designer and principal contractor that internal drainage is not approved, nor a valid explanation for its use given by the design team.
That's 15 offences committed that the building control body must enforce or else they will lose their certificate to continue.
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In 2022, the British Standard changed to champion my methods over internal drainage. It says: fix all the leaks. It says: an internal drainage system does not waterproof and is not a waterproofing defence. The Standard does not want you to let any water in.
If the client allows any internal drainage to be fitted covering over any leak whatsoever
because a salesperson (CSSW), an insurer, or a private building control body told them or their architect they must, and the basement floods when the pumps all block,
Either or both
The client wasted tens of thousands of pounds on products that will not work, and will have to be ripped off and thrown away to get to the leaks and fix them all, if the basement floods.
The client or developer will go to court, be found guilty, and punished. And a criminal record.
The architect, CSSW, insurer, and privateer inspector might also be found guilty by the Building Safety Regulator. But regulator sanctions will be less harsh than court sentences.
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I make the workforce build with their clients' best interests at heart. I make them slow down and take care. They will save their client several tens of thousands of pounds, even if they charge a little more for working a bit slower.
Not a drip has got through, round, or over more than 100 basements I built or helped build since 2013.
It isn't about products. It is about care. High quality concrete won't leak. It is holes, cracks, honeycombing, uncompacted concrete like kickers, and dirty joints that leak.
If you are a sub-contractor or main contractor, you should include the cost of digging and installing a sump, internal drainage, products for joints, and filling tie bar holes - without stating you will use them.
State, instead, the basement accommodation will be fully protected from any water ingress or damp from outside the structure.
If your tender value is the same as before, but you don't buy or put in a sump; internal drainage; and products like joint strips; and you spend half the saving with me to explain everything technical, organise the rebar, formwork and concrete; supervise; inspect and sign-off; you will make more profit.
The client saves as well because there won't be more problems coming to light later.
Find a way to be paid for all the usual products despite using none of them.
The first time, you might be giving me £10,000 to make your site team succeed. The second time only £5,000. After that only £2,500 to be there when you pour concrete.
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I can cover the whole of England by email. But I only train and supervise in the South East of England (everywhere East of a line from Derby to Southampton) excluding London if I cannot drive in easily, or park on site, or park close by outside.
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I am prepared to be everyone's Waterproofing Specialist for a new-build domestic basement not going under anything already there.
I am prepared to train everyone, within reach, who wants to have a go or needs to change their ways.
This is the new process.
I got parts clarified by the government section in charge of these things. You can read the whole letter lower down.
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Either, BS8102:2022 is complied with. No Leaks.
Or, "demonstrate that the Building Regulations requirements have been met by some other acceptable means."
If anyone, whether building control, warranty provider, client, or architect tell you to install internal drainage. Quote this to them. You can easily save the two pages lower down as images to your computer and attach them to emails. Demand they demonstrate and take full responsibility for their wrong specification.
If I am already your waterproofing specialist, I will do this on your behalf.
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BS8102 has a whole chapter on fixing leaks. No ingress of water is acceptable in a new domestic basement. Table 2. Grade 3.
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The design team should include a waterproofing specialist.
For too long, this has been someone selling internal drainage or membrane. But now that internal drainage and membranes are both officially not waterproofing measures, these people (CSSWs) are not even waterproofers, let alone specialists. The waterproofing specialist should be me.
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The legal test is to comply with Building Regulation C2, which says that the walls, floors and roof of a structure must protect the building and those inside from harmful effects.
Obviously, if the basement leaks nothing at all, there could be no harmful effects from water in the ground or rain falling beside it.
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The Building Safety Act 2022 is fully in force for those who missed the deadline. It says that the persons or businesses responsible for designs and works must be competent. For some stages of bigger projects, they must prove their competence to the building control body and get their approval to start before they may start; as well as sign-off when they finish.
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There needs to be agreement and compliance from everyone that your basement
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Will be designed to comply with BS8102:2022. No leaks.
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Confirm that the contents of the ground investigation report have been considered and where relevant acted upon.
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Full details indicating the methods and procedures of protecting the habitable basement from water ingress.
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Details of materials used including third party accreditations.
(Notes. A recent court case determined that a BBA certificate does not amount to a form of guarantee or passport to compliance with building regulations). Other court cases, years earlier, made it clear that doing what you believe everyone else does is no defence against negligence, if the others are being negligent themselves: Bolam test; Albrighton.
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Details explaining how any leaks will be found and fixed to comply with BS8102:2022.
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Compelling evidence that someone competent is taking responsibility.
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Sign-off by the building control body at the end, probably not before a final inspection after heavy rain.
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Also effective, the procedural changes to building control make it mandatory that the inspector records everything so that if there is a failure the client or developer, and anyone else partly responsible, can be successfully prosecuted.
Without all the above you don't get your completion certificate at the end.
You should note that when a private building control body or a warranty provider insist on a guarantee for basement waterproofing, and perhaps an insurance backed guarantee, that they may be forcing you to deviate from the law, and they may be breaking the law themselves.
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From Part C of the Building Regulations "Site preparation and resistance to contaminants and moisture".
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I wrote to Dame Judith Hackitt and received this response from DLUHC, explaining regulation C2 and the British Standard.
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If your new domestic basement is a single or double storey structure built and proven not to leak at all, it is compliant with Building Regulation C2 and BS8102:2022 and you should not have to explain any other detail to anyone.
As the letter says, if anyone wants you to depart from the Standard, they must "demonstrate that the Building Regulations requirements have been met by some other acceptable means."
I invite you to prepare yourself for some tough conversations with your architect, your building control body and your insurer about this, because they are all likely to want internal drainage, which is the very product that covers over and hides bad workmanship by contractors, allows leaks, allows floods and causes ill-health. Internal drainage causes the law to be broken.
You have this web site and all its evidence on your side to help you.
Building Regulations have always said that occupants and the building must be protected from harmful effects. That is the legal test.
Some history behind the current British Standard.
The Approved Document, BS8102:2022 replaced BS8102:2009 as the only Approved way to prevent harmful effects on March 31st 2022.
BS8102:2009 failed.
BS8102:2009 said let the water in and pump it out. That may have been OK at first, but contractors learned they still got paid when their leaks were covered over, and as the years went by they left worse leaks. But bad leaks leak mud as well, which block pumps that lead to floods, mould, and harmful effects. The law broken. BS8102 had to be changed.
This is evidenced by internal drainage system quotes nowadays including removable skirting boards or panels, a maintenance contract to clean out mud at regular intervals, and more pumps. We saw 4 pumps specified by Maclennan for a lower ground floor only 1m into the ground.
From BS8102:2022:
3.16. A cavity drain membrane is not considered to constitute tanking.
4.2.c refers to the waterproofed structure;
6.2.3 the water resistance of the structure should be improved;
Table 2 in 6.2.4 only allows internal drainage where leaks are allowed, such as a garage or workshop. Not in habitable accommodation;
and, the structure of a habitable basement should not leak. Table 2, Grade 3. 'No water ingress or damp areas is acceptable.';
and, if remedial work is not possible, the design should be altered;
10.1 defects or elements that might result in unacceptable leaks should be remedied.
11. Fix leaks.
11.1.A.2 Complete replacement if repairs not possible.
Not all leaks can be repaired. Leaking concrete kickers cannot be repaired. Honeycombing cannot properly be repaired. Both of these leaks are structural defects as well. Hundreds of tie bar holes can be repaired but some will be missed. Cracking can continue for years if the structural engineer fails to address cracking fully - and many don't address cracking at all.
The best approach, by far, is to build without leaks and sufficient steel reinforcement to prevent cracks.
The basement structure should be inspected after it is weatherproofed (roof and windows complete) cleaned and dried and after a period of heavy rain. Nothing should cover the basement structure, inside, before it is known not to leak.
I have five fees.
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£199 to answer all your questions by email, comment on reports, critique a set of design drawings.
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£50 per hour for other work at my computer, such as creating your steel reinforcement schedule from your engineer's drawings.
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While I am your site engineer on site 65% to 75% of the time over 6 weeks or more, £300 a day. Plus accommodation.
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Otherwise, £400 for a visit to site to give a bit of advice or attend a concrete pour.
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Or £500 for a visit to site to give training. Maximum 8 hours at site. Plus accommodation the night before.
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£1000 to be your waterproofing specialist, to be a part of your design team, to work with you to get building control body approval to start, and work with you to get your Insurance Backed Guarantee or the requirement taken away.
Your team starts with your architect. It includes your building inspector, and it includes your workforce - which might mean a main contractor and a sub-contractor.
My page about being your Waterproofing Specialist to BS 8102 : 2022 here.
You can click on the Menu Page buttons above (and at the bottom) to access all 63 pages.
You can read to the end of any page and click on the Next Page button.
Free Guarantee. Sadly not backed by insurance because I am now too old.
My Guarantee is that there will be no visible ingress of water through the structure, whether through concrete or joints, if you pay for sufficient training and do as I explain. No one else offers such a useful guarantee.
This means I am unique guaranteeing workmanship - mine and yours as well. Subject to entirely reasonable terms and conditions.
You can read the details on my guarantees and warranties page here.
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Me watching everything.
My clients choose the timber based upon what they can best use in the house they build. That way, the formwork is very cheap. My way is simple.
This is me on the concrete pump.
Someone following with my poker
and the same wall a year later with no other waterproofing against the concrete you see poured above.
You can see the slope in the top of the wall below, and the additional timber to create that sloping top in the photo above.
If you used either a hired-in formwork system or ICF you would find that sloping top difficult and prone to bursting.
I know how I save a lot of money, because many clients acknowledged how well the work continued.
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I get people working by knowing what they need to do, avoiding their stopping to have frequent meetings to come to an agreement between themselves.
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I get people working by showing them how, and I get them up to speed quickly.
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When this client sent me this photo, he was providing me with a reference for another prospective client, and this is some of what he said
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"we are very proud of the work Phil did for us and how he pulled the project together. The finished result is outstanding.
Phil has extensive experience and all of the civil engineering people we had on our development held Phil and his experience in high regard.
Phil has a very direct manner and gets things done.
Phil always without questions works in your favour.
Phil will save you a lot of money.
As you can see, I can’t speak highly enough of Phil and the work he does. He made such a difference on our development and we have been delighted with the end product. Our development actually sits in water so we needed every confidence we would have NO leaks. I have taken a picture of it today and attached it here. You can’t see the underground elements too well as they are below the water line
I have another house build on our current site that involves concrete near water and Phil will be doing that job too - he does not know this yet but he does now."
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This was the same basement viewed the other way when I returned to pour the concrete ground floor on the steel frame.
The client kindly sent me another photo showing the progress..
Every basement build is different with its own special problems that only come to light as you do the work. Success requires experience. I am the experience you need without making a fortune out of you.
I live in Essex and I am happy to travel anywhere in the Home Counties, down to Southampton and North to Nottingham and Derby.
But I do not like going into London.
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I am not registered for VAT
New dwellings can get all the VAT back from building costs but not from design, management or hire costs.
I will bill you personally for everything you get from me, free of VAT.
Please Note.
I don't give anyone credit.
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Call me, Phil Sacre:
Email me:
This Home Page is where you find my menus to all the other pages.
Two menus.
The first menu is your basement building questions answered. The second menu is your basement construction manual.
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This section is discussing how you might build and which methods and products available I would tell you not to use.
The next section is how to self-build yourself.
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This second menu is intended to be a complete build manual to build a new basement structure waterproof from the reinforced concrete alone.
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Back to the Basement Building Questions Answered
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Forward to the Basement Building Construction Manual
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For a fixed fee of £199 I will answer all your questions by email. More details here.
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Next Page
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The Page After That
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