If you ask the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Housing Surveyors, there are over 128 million homes in America. How many of those homes do you think have a crawl space? And how many of those are in your service area?

If you happen to live in the right part of the United States, there may be a lot of crawl spaces in your service area that you could be repairing, sealing and insulating.

Some waterproofers, especially in the southeastern states, are already catching on to the possibilities. Especially in this economy, professionals need to diversify their businesses in order to survive. With research backing the benefits, Emecole has developed some new products to seal and insulate crawl spaces to help you tap into this sector of the market.

For more information, please read our Tips to Insulate the Crawl Space resource article, or visit the Emecole.com crawl space section for more information about the EmeSeal System.

Diagnosing concrete foundation cracks can be tricky. You have to look at the shape, size, pattern and frequency of the crack as well as the correlation between cracks in the floors, location of the crack and other site factors to truly determine the problem.

Sound like hard work already? Well, Emecole started in the crack business more than 20 years ago and has a line up of products to help deal with just about any crack.

Let’s start with Horizontal Cracks. Generally horizontal cracks are either the result of inadequate reinforcement or the result of pouring new concrete on old concrete, which results in a cold joint crack. The latter is easily taken care with the epoxy and adding carbon fiber staples would be a plus. A horizontal crack which is not a cold joint is most likely a structural problem and needs carbon fiber straps along with the epoxy. You have to reinforce the whole wall for proper repair. The staples are used to keep a crack from opening where the stress is just affecting the area around the crack and not the whole wall. This is usually found on a diagonal crack.

Vertical cracks usually aren’t the result of a structural problem. It is usually the result of expansion and contraction due to thermal changes. But if a vertical crack is larger at the bottom than the top it is caused from settlement under the building. These cracks may be less serious than horizontal when found in a masonry block wall but they cracks could be quite serious when found in a brick wall, especially if bond courses are broken and there is risk of collapse.

In nonstructural cracks, it is best to use a polyurethane crack injector. Polyurethane flexes with the crack while it creates a waterproof seal to stop any possible leaks.

Marketing can be the trickiest part of any business. How much to spend on advertising? Where to place ads? How to get your name out there? But marketing a niche is even harder. You need to word your advertising and marketing material so your services match the needs of your customers, to inform your potential market just what can be done and why, because the finishing of a basement is often the real reason for their waterproofing call to you.

Because we are in the business, we understand all that the term “waterproofing” encompasses. But do your customers?  Do they know the effect of basement humidity on the overall quality of the air throughout the home? Are you using terms like stopping leaks, drying out basements or fixing cracks to describe what you do and not linking it to air quality issues? Do they know that finishing a basement should not begin until the air quality and waterproofing aspects have been performed by you?   

Those reactive customers you are marketing to, using those “solution terms,” have a problem they call you to fix. But who wants to wait for the emergency call when you could get to those customers before they have a problem (especially when the problem has a better solution for the planned finishing of their basement). 

We know that one of the most common remodeling projects—next to the master suite and the kitchen—is the basement remodel. So, why couldn’t you market your waterproofing services as “pre-finishing” services to get their basement ready to remodel?  That way you attract the proactive customers who want to have a safe, dry basement and thus improve the air quality of the entire home for a healthier living environment (not just in the new TV room, game room or kids’ bedrooms).  The best time to improve air quality of the home is before the basement is finished.

 Have you considered diversifying your marketing tactics to open up a new clientele without changing your services?  We can work with you on developing Marketing literature.  We would appreciate your comments.