Historic J. Monroe Parker Mansion Waterproofing in Davenport, IA

Challenge

The J. Monroe Parker house was built in 1881 by James Monroe Paker who was a wealthy davenport financer. The home was designed by 19th-century builder T.W. McClelland. The home features a mansard roof, multicolor slate shingles, wrought-iron roof cresting, brackets, moldings and fanciful window surrounds. Today the home is associated with Delta Sigma Chi Fraternity of Palmer College of Chiropractic. They have recently been given a grant to update the home.

One of the first concerned they wanted to address was the basement of this home. For the past seven years, the home has had water issues that were concerning to its residents. The water in the basement prohibited residents of the Delta Sigma Chi fraternity home from using this space. They also feared using this space as storage because they were worried about the potential water and mold damage to their personal items.

Solution

When bidding this job Design Specialist Troy Hamilton and Mac McDaniels did a full estimate of the home inside and out to make sure that the system they were designing was the proper fix for this historic home. The infrastructure alone was a challenge to deal with, but Mac and Troy work diligently in making sure that the home would be safe and waterproofed.

Foreman Dillon Heard and his Co-Forman Cory Clark This large ten room basement had a full four hundred and twenty feet of WaterGuard. WaterGuard is a channeling system that is placed along the perimeter of the home. The challenge with this large historic home was that the home had few straight walls and the WaterGuard system had to be cut in many different sizes and placed. Four TripleSafe sump pumps were added to the home to make sure that the home stayed dry. The TripleSafe sump pump is a three pump system that comes with a battery back up and WaterWatch alarm. The battery back up is used to keep the pump running in the case that the power goes out. The WaterWatch alarm is placed at the top of the pump and will alert you in case the water in the pump gets too high. The walls had a layer of CleanSpace added to them. CleanSpace is a barrier that is installed on the walls, similar to a very thick pool liner and will help keep out moisture.

While working on this project Dillon and his crew made sure that they were in constant contact with Anthony Woolever who is in charge of looking after the home from Palmer College of Chiropractic. It was important to Dillon and his crew to keep him very close to the project due to the historic nature of this home.

MidAmerica Basement Systems proudly works with Residential, Commercial and Historic sites around Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois area.