Paint-on sealers and tar coatings share one weakness: they sit tight against the concrete, so any water reaching them stays put. Waterproof membrane installation from Piedmont Pressure Seal covers Winston-Salem, NC, and nearby towns such as Jamestown, Mocksville, and High Point, putting an air gap between wet soil and your foundation. Seeing the material before it goes on the wall is part of how we work.
Membrane work has anchored Piedmont Pressure Seal LLC's services since 1989, and the locally owned, fully insured contractor operates from Winston-Salem, NC. Its waterproof membrane installation covers Delta®-MS dimpled membrane from Dörken Systems Inc., GMX coatings beneath it, surface preparation, seam and termination detailing, and connection to footing drainage. Triad homeowners and builders also bring the company foundation repair, basement and crawl space work, and drainage installation.
Plenty of homeowners who already paid for waterproofing once are surprised when the coating fails a few years later. A brushed or sprayed product bridges small imperfections at best, and backfill drags rocks across it during the one hour nobody is watching.
Anything bonded directly to a wall has to survive both the soil and the concrete behind it. Settling backfill scrapes coatings, shrinkage cracks telegraph straight through brittle material, and water that reaches the coating simply waits there with nowhere to drain. Dampproofing tar, the most common treatment on existing homes, was never rated for standing water.
A dimpled membrane approaches the problem differently. Sheets of high-density polyethylene get fastened to the prepared wall with the dimples facing in, creating a continuous air gap that lets water run down to the footing drain. Our crew laps and seals every seam, details the top termination so soil can't slip behind it, and ties the bottom into the drainage below.
What the wall ends up with is a barrier that doesn't depend on a perfect bond to work. Water drains instead of pooling, cracks that open later stay covered, and the system keeps performing through decades of soil movement.
Material choice shapes how the whole system performs, and a quality sheet contributes in several ways.
Dimples hold the membrane off the concrete, leaving a channel for water to travel down rather than sit. That gap is the functional difference between a membrane and a coating. Water reaching the footing drain is water never reaching your basement.
The riskiest hour of any waterproofing project comes when the soil goes back in. High-density polyethylene shrugs off rocks and pressure that tear lesser materials. Protection surviving installation is the only kind that counts.
Foundations develop hairline cracks for years after they're built, and a rigid coating splits right along with them. A sheet membrane spans that movement without opening up. Nothing underneath has to be perfect for the barrier to hold.
Membranes fail at their edges far more often than in the middle, which makes termination strips, fasteners, and the tie-in to drainage critical. Both ends get finished properly on every wall we cover. Soil and water stay outside where they belong.
Delta®-MS systems from Dörken Systems Inc. carry a lifetime warranty along with the Delta®-MS Dry Foundation Guarantee. Documentation stays with your records afterward. Products backed that way tend to be products worth installing.
A membrane performs as part of a system, and these services supply the other pieces.
Excavation, wall repair, coatings, membrane, and drainage come together in our exterior waterproofing service. Homeowners weighing their options usually begin there.
Preparing and sealing the wall surface belongs to foundation waterproofing, which happens right before the sheet goes up. Good prep is what the membrane depends on.
Water traveling down the membrane needs somewhere to land, and exterior drainage installation provides the footing drain that catches it. Those two get designed as a pair.
Two crews can install the same membrane and get results decades apart.
Loose parging, old tar, and crumbling mortar all have to come off before anything new goes on. Cracks get repaired and the surface gets evened out first. Good material on a poorly prepped foundation is wasted material.
Overlaps, fasteners, and the top strip take time that a rushed crew will happily skip. Every seam on our jobs gets lapped and sealed the way the manufacturer specifies. That care stays invisible for twenty years and then becomes very obvious.
Dumping a bucket of rocky clay down a freshly covered wall undoes an afternoon of work. Material goes back in lifts, with extra care near the sheet. The system stays intact from installation through the first storm and well beyond.
Every veteran's project gets 10% taken off the total, membrane installations included.
Below-grade waterproofing has been our work since 1989, now under Justin Gornto, who installed these systems before buying the company. Our name sits with the Better Business Bureau, the National Association of Home Builders, and the National Federation of Independent Business.
Exterior membranes belong on the soil side of the wall, which means excavation. Interior dimple board exists and serves a different purpose, managing water that already entered and routing it to a drain. Choosing between them depends on access, budget, and what the wall is doing.
Block walls benefit as much as poured ones, sometimes more, since hollow cores fill with water and release it slowly. Surface preparation matters more on block because mortar joints need to be sound. Parging is often part of the prep on older walls.
Quality polyethylene membranes are expected to last the life of the structure and carry warranties reflecting that. Physical damage during backfill is the realistic threat, not the material breaking down. Careful installation turns the warranty into real-world performance.
Cleaning comes first, then crack repair and parging wherever the surface needs it, followed by a GMX coating on most of our projects. That coating addresses the wall surface while the membrane handles the water. Each layer covers what the other can't.
Dimples face the wall, creating the air gap that lets water drain down to the footing. Installing a sheet backwards is a surprisingly common error on DIY jobs and defeats the entire design. The flat face takes the soil pressure.
FAQs Reviewed By Justin Gornto, Owner of Piedmont Pressure Seal, a certified waterproofing contractor and Delta®-MS installer based in Winston-Salem, NC.
Talk with Piedmont Pressure Seal about a consultation or estimate, and we'll walk you through the material and the method. Seeing the difference between a coating and a membrane usually settles the question.
Business Name: Piedmont Pressure Seal
Address: Winston-Salem, NC, 27104
Phone: 336-778-0094
Business Hours:
Mon - Fri: 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM
Sat-Sun: Closed
Emergency Services Are Available Upon Request
10% Veterans Discount
Lifetime Warranty On Cosella Dorken Systems
