Basement waterproofing in the Highlands, Louisville, KY

Homes in the Highlands

Century-old foundations, high water tables and basements that want to be living space

The Highlands, from Cherokee Triangle down Bardstown Road through Deer Park, Tyler Park and the Douglass Loop, holds a large share of Louisville's pre-war housing: shotguns, bungalows, four-squares and Victorians on stone rubble, brick and early block foundations, most with basements that were built for coal and laundry, not bedrooms. Beargrass Creek and Cherokee Park sit in the valley alongside, and the water table follows the creek.

Louisville sits on heavy clay over limestone. The clay holds water against foundations for days after a storm, and the limestone underneath is riddled with channels that move groundwater in ways nobody can see from the surface. Highlands basements seep through the stone, weep at the floor, hold humidity and grow mold behind anything that has been finished. Old walls cannot be injected or sealed like poured concrete, so the answer is a drainage system that manages the water: perimeter drain, wall membrane and a sealed sump. Done properly, a Highlands basement becomes dry, usable square footage in a neighborhood where square footage is worth a lot.