Basement Waterproofing Cape Town

Basement waterproofing in Cape Town is almost always a slope problem rather than a groundwater one. This city is built up the sides of mountains, so the room with water in it is usually a garage or a lower level cut into a hillside, and what arrives behind that wall is the winter runoff of everything above it.

060 357 1122

Request a Quote

Tell us what the water is doing. We come out free, find where it is getting in, and quote in writing.

A deposit secures your booking and materials, with the balance due on completion.

Our Basement Waterproofing Process in Cape Town

The method is the one set out on the parent page. What changes in Cape Town is the order of suspicion: on a sloped site we look uphill before we look down, because the water is far more often crossing the surface than rising from below.

1
Free site inspection, outside first.
Downpipes, falls, paving, drainage, and where the earth actually sits against the structure.
2
Written finding and quote.
Drainage correction where that is the fix, external treatment where the face can be reached, and an honest conversation where neither is possible.
3
The work
in the order that makes the water go away before anything tries to hold it back.
4
Follow-up and guarantee.
Fred phones after the first serious wet spell. Written, minimum 2-year guarantee.

The TurboMax crew on site in branded overalls, hard hats and harnesses

Why Choose TurboMax

We have been doing this across Cape Town since 2000, and below-ground work is where the trade has the worst reputation, for a reason. It is the easiest place to sell a coating that will fail quietly two winters later, by which time nobody connects the two.

We would rather tell you the answer is a drain. Every job carries a written, minimum 2-year workmanship guarantee, the inspection costs nothing, and Fred phones after the first proper rain to confirm the room stayed dry.

Cape Town Customers on Our Basement Waterproofing Work

Reviews from Google, alongside photographs of the details that actually let water into a below-ground room: retaining walls, paving falls, downpipe discharge points and subsoil drains.

Interior wall made good after damp treatment

Fred is a man of his word. The work they did on our roof was on time and good quality.

Chris Vermeulen

Bathroom stripped back before wet-area waterproofing

Repaired some leaks, redid the waterproofing and sprayed my entire roof with liquid rubber in 2 days at a reasonable price. They also guarantee their work for 2 years.

Raihaan Davids

Crew rolling out membrane over a newly boarded deck

Run by a hands-on owner who impressed with his honesty and integrity. After the first rains, he contacted me to enquire about the work.

Erinda Cooper

Large Cape Town property during exterior coating works

I received an extremely professional and friendly service. I was provided with expert advice throughout the project, which was completed well within time and under budget.

Dr Deon de Jager

Excellent, professional, well-priced work. And a completely hassle-free process! 6/5. Thanks Fred!

Minka Vrba

Thank you TurboMax Waterproofing for your service and after service. I can definitely recommend your professional service.

Lindie Lennox

Basement Waterproofing in Cape Town: Common Questions

Straight answers, including the ones that talk us out of a bigger job.

What does basement waterproofing cost in Cape Town?

It depends entirely on where the water is coming from, and on a sloped site that is usually the surface rather than the water table. Correcting drainage, extending a downpipe or relaying a fall is at the low end and genuinely solves a large share of what we see. External treatment where the wall can be reached is in the middle. Full excavation is at the top, and on a steep erf the access and reinstatement normally cost more than the waterproofing. The inspection is free, and it is what settles which of the three you are looking at.

My garage is cut into the slope and the back wall goes wet every winter. Is that groundwater?

Almost never, in this city. It is far more often rainwater that was never taken away: a downpipe discharging uphill of that wall, paving falling back towards the house, or a subsoil drain behind the retaining wall that silted up years ago. We check all of that first, because it is a fraction of the cost of treating the wall itself.

It is dry all summer. Can I just leave it?

You can, and most people do for several years, because the symptom obligingly disappears every October. What is happening underneath is that the wall is saturated for four months and then dries out, repeatedly, and that cycle is what eventually takes the plaster, the paint and in the worst cases the reinforcement. Dealing with it in summer is also considerably cheaper than dealing with it in June.

Someone has already sealed the inside of this wall twice and it is still wet.

That is the most common history we are told on below-ground work in Cape Town. Internal sealing of a wall under water pressure has a poor record because the pressure pushes the treatment off the wall rather than onto it. Each coat holds through summer and lets go in the first serious front. The starting point is finding where the water is arriving from, not adding a third layer.

The water seems to be coming from the property above mine. What then?

On a steep site that is a genuinely common finding, and we will tell you plainly if that is what we see. What we can give you is a clear written account of where the water is entering and what is causing it, which is the technical question. How that gets resolved with a neighbour is not something we would presume to advise on, but having the finding in writing is usually what the conversation needs.