Basement Waterproofing The Glebe

Wet basements in The Glebe? You’re not alone.

The Glebe is one of Ottawa’s oldest and most desirable neighbourhoods and its character homes, many built between 1900 and 1930, come with century-old foundations that were never designed for a finished, dry basement. Original stone, rubble and early-concrete walls, paired with failing clay-tile drains, make waterproofing here a specialist job rather than a cookie-cutter one.

The Glebe’s low elevation beside Dow’s Lake, the Rideau Canal and Patterson Creek means a naturally high water table, hydrostatic pressure pushes moisture through porous old foundation walls year-round, not just at spring melt. Century stone and rubble foundations breathe and wick water in a way modern poured walls don’t, so the fix is about managing water, not just sealing a crack.

What we see most in Glebe

• Damp, musty stone and rubble foundations in pre-1930 homes
• Original clay weeping tile that has silted up or collapsed
• Efflorescence and spalling on porous old foundation walls near the canal

Close to Dow’s Lake, the Rideau Canal, Lansdowne Park and the wider Glebe area, if your basement takes on water, we’ll find the source and stop it.

It’s not only waterproofing, we also handle foundation repair in Glebe: leaking cracks, bowing walls and settlement, common where Ottawa’s Leda clay shifts with the seasons.