Brothers and sisters, let me speak to you about the healing power of crystals! I'm not talking about curing your sprained ankle with the wave of a Swarovski. I'm talking about fixing your leaky elevator pit / foundation wall with a specialized repair material known as crystalline waterproofing.
Crystalline waterproofing was invented in 1943 when Danish chemist Lauritz Jensen patented a revolutionary capillary active waterproofing compound. These compounds migrate into the pore structure of concrete and grow crystals, reducing the concrete's permeability. In contrast to membrane type coatings, which are susceptible to delaminations, blistering, etc, crystalline waterproofing becomes (not to sound too crunchy here)...one with the concrete.
Under a microscope, this action looks a lot like the "Magic Rocks" science experiment your grandma got you for your birthday.
You never wrote her a thank you note, BTW...
Crystalline waterproofing can be delivered in one of two ways. 1) It can be incorporated as an admixture directly into fresh concrete. 2) It can also be topically applied as a coating, like Euclid Chemical's Vandex Super. This coating can be put on either the negative (dry) side or the positive (wet) side of a concrete wall.
Typically, placing on the positive side will yield the best results, but especially in repair situations, a contractor is not able to gain access to the wall from the outside. Therefore, they have to apply the material from the inside.
So if you have a wet foundation wall, an elevator pit or any other area that might need some help drying out, don't forget the power of crystals!
You can learn more about Vandex crystalline waterproofing here in this video.