Blog
CMU wall waterproofing – GreenBuildingAdvisor
- August 28, 2026
- Posted by: wendy
- Category: Uncategorized
Im building a house with a cmu crawl space foundation wall. Because of the slop of the land and soil the foundation for the garage changes in elevation by almost 4 ft from the high side to the slow side. The interior of the garage will be filled and tamped with a four inch slab poured. The exterior on the garage door side will be backfilled to 6 inches below the top of the cmu. At one end of the garage door side the wall height is 3 cmu rows tue other end of the garage door wall is 7 cmu rows. I have been getting conflicting options which side of the cmu wall to waterproof. Some saying to waterproof just the interior side, some say just the exterior side, some both, some to waterproof the interior and use a drainage mat on the exterior side. Mind you im in New Mexico with an average of 7-10 inches of rain a yr. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Search and download construction details
Join the leading community of building science experts
Become a GBA Prime member and get instant access to the latest developments in green building, research, and reports from the field.