wet basement

[twigie]

There are step cracks in my basement wall and some other cracks I found
I had someone look at it and he told me he would fix the cracks in the wall, grade the ground out front to slope away from the house, and dry lock the basement, I have been told by freinds that dry lock is not a good idea other freinds tell me it works good? Who do I belive?

[ECP]

In reverse order - DryLok to stop water. I assume that you are speaking of the paint sealant DryLok. Paint does not fix problems it covers them up. If you have a water issue it needs solved not covered.

Next, you have stair step cracks. Small wall cracks or small cracks in mortar are usually not a concern. If these cracks are displaying a pattern and are growing then you may have a problem.

I would recommend that you have another reputable company take a look and evaluate your situation.

[EBS Engineering]

I agree with ECP. Any coating on the wall (if applied on the inside) will eventually come off. If the wall is leaking and you apply a coating, the water will still be there and eventually the hydrostatic pressure will push it off. If it isn't leaking then there's no point to the coating.

Since you mentioned step cracking, I'm assuming that you're basement wall is concrete block and the cracks are through the mortar only. This is typical of concrete block walls. Whether it is something you should be concerned about is dependent on the size of the cracks, their direction and whether or not they're moving (getting bigger or smaller or moving horizontally or getting longer). This applies to cracks in poured concrete foundations as well.