The most common response to the possibility of basement flooding is to install a sump pump. But your sump pump should only be relied on when other preventived measures do not work. To keep your proposed basement weight and exercise room from floating away, measures need to be taken to prevent the sump pump from being needed.

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The first step in protecting your basement from water damage is in the grading of the home site. The soil must slope away from the basement walls at least six inches in the first 100 feet. Also, if gutters and downspouts are not kept in good repair or are improperly installed they can allow water from the roof to seep into the soil along the foundation and leak into the basement.

When it rains you get a lot of water falling down around your foundation directly from the roof. This problem is made worse by clogged gutters or downspouts. To compensate for this you need adequate tile drainage around your foundation.

One solution to poor grading or roof drainage problems is a dry well. This technique is a lot less work and much less expensive than regrading your entire lot.

Another approach is to create a French drain. This consists of a graded trench filled with sand and gravel that leads water away from your foundation.

The grading of the trench is of primary importance because that is what takes the water away from the house. Add gravel up to within 5 or 6 inches of the surface. Top the gravel with a 3 or 4 inch layer of coarse sand and cover with a layer of sod or soil and grass seed. A French drain can be even more effective if you place a perforated drain pipe in the trench.

An interior drainage system can be used to channel leakage to the outside. This method involves breaking up the floor along the base of the basement walls, digging a trench, and installing drain tiles to carry the water to a sump pump or discharge point. This method does no damage to the room. The trench is then filled with coarse gravel and the floor replaced over the top.

Just as settling or erosion can cause foundation cracks, they can lead to cracks in basement walls. When this happens you should contact a basement waterproofing company to repair the cracks with a waterproof caulking material. This should be followed by the application of waterproofing materials that seal the wall surface.