Searching basement waterproofing near me or basement waterproofing companies near me — here's the honest version. The water is on the outside of the wall, so that's where we fix it: regrade, buried downspout and sump lines, and an exterior footing drain dug down to the footing. Mattoon, IL — 60-mile radius.
📞 Call (217) 809-0779 Free EstimateBasement waterproofing done from the outside, across central Illinois. A wet basement is a drainage problem before it's a foundation problem, so we work it in the order that matters: regrade the ground to fall away from the house, bury the downspout and sump discharge lines out to a real outlet, then excavate to the footing and set an exterior footing drain in washed stone. We're the excavating side — interior sealing, interior drain systems, sump pumps, and structural wall repair are other trades. Free on-site estimate: (217) 809-0779.
It rains hard, and a day later there's a damp line on the wall, a puddle in the corner, or that smell that means water got in again. You can fight that on the inside for years. The water is outside.
Brohez Trucking LLC is an excavating contractor working a 60-mile radius out of Mattoon, IL. When we say basement waterproofing, we mean the exterior work — the grade, the roof and sump water, and the drain at the footing. That is the part that takes the pressure off the wall before it ever gets in, and it's the part a machine does.
We're straight about the edges of that, because it decides whether we're the right call. We don't do interior work — no sealers, no crack injection, no interior drain and sump systems. And we don't do structural foundation repair — piering, wall anchors, or rebuilding a bowing wall belong to a mason. What we do on a wall like that is get them to it: open the outside face down to the footing, hold the hole safe while the repair happens, then drain it, backfill it, and grade it back.
The long version of the whole approach, in order, is written up here: how to fix a wet basement from the outside. If it turns out the fix is a footing drain, that's the same build as a French drain wrapped around the foundation. If it's a new build rather than a retrofit, see foundation excavation.
Digging out a foundation wall to the footing is real excavation — the Komatsu PC150LC-6 has the reach and the depth for it. The JCB 8040ZTS mini excavator is the one that gets between a house and a fence without wrecking the yard, which is most of this work in town. Track loaders move the stone and the backfill, and the dump trucks haul the spoil. See the full fleet at /equipment/.
Not sure whether you need to dig at all? Call. Half the wet basements we get called to are a grade-and-downspout problem, and if that's yours we'll say so — that's the cheapest fix there is, and telling you otherwise is how a wet basement stays wet and you're out the money.
If you searched basement waterproofing near me, basement waterproofing companies near me, or foundation waterproofing contractors and landed here, read the paragraph above first — we're one half of that search, and we'd rather you know which half before you call.
We're based in Mattoon and run a 60-mile radius: Charleston, Effingham, Champaign, Urbana, Decatur, Shelbyville, Sullivan, Tuscola, Arcola, Paris, Neoga, Toledo, Casey, Pana, Terre Haute and the townships between them. Levi owns the machines and runs them — the man who looks at your basement is the man who digs it.
What you get from a local excavating outfit that you don't get from a national waterproofing brand: we come look at the water before we price it, and we're not paid to sell you a system. Sometimes the answer is a full excavation to the footing. Often it's regrading and a couple of buried downspout lines, and we'll tell you that even though it's the smaller job.
Talk to Levi — the man running the machine, not a call center. Call (217) 809-0779.
We walk the outside of the house and read where the water goes — the slope at the wall, where the downspouts land, where the sump dumps, whether there's an old drain and whether it still runs. On a lot of wet basements the answer is up here and there's no reason to dig. Free on-site look.
Reshape the soil so it falls away from the foundation — roughly six inches of drop in the first ten feet. Flowerbeds built up against the wall, settled ground, a patio tipped the wrong way. On a surprising number of houses this is most of the fix.
Downspouts and the sump discharge tied into buried lines that empty well away from the house — a ditch, a daylight spot, or a yard drain downhill. Cheapest high-value piece of the job. Locates get called before any of it goes in the ground.
Where the water is still getting in, or it's coming up from below, we open the outside of the foundation down to the footing. Komatsu PC150LC-6 for the depth, JCB 8040ZTS mini where the access is tight. Spoil stockpiled or hauled off.
Perforated pipe laid at the base of the wall in clean washed stone — a French drain wrapped around the foundation — running on continuous fall to an outlet lower than the footing. Water drops into the stone and leaves instead of standing against the concrete.
While the wall is open, the outside face is accessible for cleaning, crack repair, and a waterproofing membrane or coating. That's masonry and coating work — we schedule the dig around your mason and hold the hole open and safe while they're in it.
Backfilled in lifts, surface restored, and the finish grade set falling away from the house so the regrade is built into the repair, not undone by it. Yard areas seeded.
Yes — from the outside. We're an excavating contractor, so basement waterproofing here means the exterior work: regrading the ground so it falls away from the house, burying the downspout and sump discharge lines out to a real outlet, and excavating down along the foundation to the footing to set an exterior footing drain in washed stone. That's where the water actually is. We don't do interior sealing, crack injection, or interior drain systems — different trade, and on most wet basements it's treating the symptom anyway.
We're the exterior-drainage side of it, working a 60-mile radius from Mattoon, IL — Charleston, Effingham, Champaign, Urbana, Decatur, Tuscola, Sullivan, Shelbyville, Pana, Terre Haute and the ground between. Levi owns the machines and runs them, so the man who looks at your basement is the man who digs it. The on-site look is free, and it comes with a straight answer about whether digging is even your fix — plenty of wet basements are a grade and downspout problem.
In the order it usually matters: first the grade, reshaping the soil so it drops roughly six inches in the first ten feet away from the wall. Then the roof and sump water, carried away in buried lines to a ditch, a daylight spot, or a yard drain downhill. Then, if it's still wet or the water is coming up from below, the exterior footing drain — excavate along the outside of the foundation to the footing and set perforated pipe in clean washed stone, draining to an outlet lower than the footing.
Once we've dug the wall out to the footing, the outside face is open and accessible — that's the one-time shot to clean it, address cracks, and get a waterproofing membrane or coating on the outside. We do the excavation, the drain, the stone, the backfill and the finish grade. Where the wall itself needs coating, parging, or masonry repair, that's a mason's work and we schedule the dig around them and keep the hole open while they're in it.
Not the wall itself — that's structural, and it belongs to a mason or a foundation-repair contractor. What we do is get them to it. Digging out a deep foundation wall by hand isn't realistic, so we excavate the outside face down to the footing, hold the hole safe and open while the repair happens, then set the drain, backfill in lifts, and grade it back. That's a real job we take: exposing a bowing wall roughly 25 feet long and 8 feet deep for the mason doing the repair.
No. A sump pump is plumbing and electrical work. What we do is the buried discharge line that carries the pump's water well away from the house — a sump that dumps two feet from the foundation just pumps the water out and lets it run back down to where it came from. Tying the sump discharge and the downspouts into a single buried line to a real outlet is one of the cheapest, highest-value pieces of a wet-basement fix.
Up front, usually. An interior sealer or an interior drain and sump is less disruptive than digging. The catch is what it's doing: the water is on the outside of the wall and an interior fix manages it after it's already through the concrete. Sealers get pushed off by hydrostatic pressure and the damp line comes back. We'd rather you spend the money once on the outside than three times on the inside — and if the grade and the downspouts are the whole problem, we'll tell you that and it's the cheapest fix there is.
It depends on how much of the list your house actually needs, how deep the wall is, how far the machine can get to it, where the outlet is, and what's in the way — a patio, a deck, a sidewalk, mature landscaping. A regrade and a couple of buried downspout lines and a full excavation to the footing around two sides of a house are different jobs. We come look and give you a straight number. The on-site estimate is free — call (217) 809-0779.
The dug area gets disturbed — no way around that. We backfill in lifts, restore the surface, and grade it smooth and falling away from the house so the fix is built into the finish. Yard areas get seeded. The JCB 8040ZTS mini excavator is what gets us between a house and a fence without tearing up more ground than the job needs.
Yes, the same way — from the outside. A wet crawl space is usually the same story as a wet basement: surface water running toward the house, roof water dumped at the wall, or no working perimeter drain. We fix the grade, get the roof and sump water carried away, and put in a footing drain where it's needed. Interior encapsulation and vapor barriers are somebody else's trade.
60-mile radius from Mattoon, IL — Charleston, Effingham, Decatur, Champaign, Urbana, Tuscola, Sullivan, Shelbyville, Pana, Neoga, Greenup, Toledo, Casey, Windsor, Marshall, Paris, Newton, Arcola, Terre Haute and the rural ground in between. Travel is built into the estimate, no surprise mobilization fee.
Yes — full liability and equipment coverage on every job, and a certificate of insurance is available on request before we start. Worth asking for on any job where a machine is working next to your foundation.
Call us and we'll come look. No pressure, no obligation — just a straight number.
(217) 809-0779 📞 Call For Free Estimate Send A MessageOpen daily, 7am–7pm · Mattoon, IL · 60-mile service radius