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Water in your basement is not just an inconvenience. In a Cheltenham home — where the foundation might be pushing 100 years old and the soil around it has been holding moisture since before your parents were born — it is a slow, compounding problem. Every wet season that goes unaddressed is another season of mortar erosion, mold growth, and structural stress on a foundation that was never waterproofed to begin with.
Once that problem is actually solved, the difference is immediate and lasting. The musty smell that crept upstairs through your HVAC disappears. The storage space you wrote off becomes usable again. And the nagging anxiety every time a storm rolls up Cheltenham Avenue — wondering whether you are going to find standing water by morning — is gone.
For homeowners in Wyncote, Elkins Park, Glenside, and Melrose Park, where Victorian-era stone foundations and early poured-concrete basements are the norm, the right waterproofing solution is not the same one you would install in a newer home in Blue Bell or Horsham. It has to account for the age of the structure, the clay-heavy soil that swells and pushes against your walls every wet season, and the reality that this township sits inside two separate watersheds — the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford and the Wissahickon Creek — both of which contribute to the groundwater pressure your foundation is fighting year-round.
EJS Environmental Services LLC is a fully licensed, bonded, and insured environmental hazard abatement and waterproofing company serving Cheltenham, Montgomery County, and the surrounding region. We have been doing this for two decades — long enough to know that a Cheltenham basement is not the same job as a basement in a newer suburb, and that cutting corners on a 90-year-old stone foundation is how you end up back at square one after the next storm.
What sets us apart in a market this competitive is the combination of services under one roof. Waterproofing in an older Cheltenham home — the kind you find throughout Wyncote’s National Register Historic District or along the tree-lined streets of Elkins Park — often means dealing with lead paint or deteriorated materials that most waterproofing companies are simply not equipped to handle. We are. We hold Certified Lead Inspector and Risk Assessor credentials, operate in full EPA and HUD compliance, and use HEPA filtration systems on every job where air quality is a concern.
You get one company, one point of contact, and a free estimate with no pressure attached.
It starts with a phone call — and yes, someone actually answers, including nights and weekends. From there, we schedule a free on-site estimate where we assess your specific situation: the foundation type, the source of water intrusion, the condition of existing drainage, and whether any environmental hazards like lead or deteriorated materials need to be addressed before waterproofing work begins. In Cheltenham, where homes regularly date back to the early 1900s, that last part matters more than most people realize.
Once we know what we are dealing with, we walk you through the recommended approach clearly and without pressure. Depending on what your foundation needs, that might mean interior drainage systems, exterior excavation and membrane work, sump pump installation or replacement, French drain installation, or some combination. We handle permits and stormwater compliance as part of the process — Cheltenham Township’s stormwater ordinance triggers a review for any land disturbance of 250 square feet or more, and exterior waterproofing work can cross that threshold. You should not have to figure that out yourself.
The work gets done efficiently, with state-of-the-art equipment and a crew that treats your home like it matters. When we leave, your basement is dry, your drainage is working, and you are not waiting on a callback from three different subcontractors to find out what happened.
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Cheltenham’s housing stock covers a wide range — from Victorian-era stone foundations in the Wyncote Historic District to mid-century poured concrete in Cedarbrook and Melrose Park to early 20th-century brick construction throughout Glenside and Elkins Park. There is no one-size-fits-all fix for this kind of variety, and we do not pretend otherwise. What you get is a thorough assessment followed by a solution that is built around your specific foundation, your specific water problem, and your specific home.
On the interior side, that can mean drainage channel installation along the perimeter of your basement floor, sump pump installation or replacement with battery backup, wall crack injection, and basement sealing applications that stop water at the source. On the exterior side, it can mean excavating around the foundation, applying waterproofing membranes, installing drainage board and gravel backfill, and regrading to direct water away from the structure. For homes in Cheltenham’s FEMA-designated Special Flood Hazard Areas — and there are several within the township — we ensure all work is done in compliance with the township’s floodplain regulations.
Because we are also a full environmental hazard abatement company, we are equipped to handle lead paint and asbestos-containing materials that turn up during basement work in pre-1978 homes. That is not a service most waterproofing companies offer. In Cheltenham, where the majority of homes were built well before 1978, it is often the difference between a job that gets done right and one that creates a new problem while solving the original one.
This is one of the most common frustrations we hear from homeowners in Cheltenham, and the answer usually comes down to one of two things: the previous repair addressed the symptom rather than the source, or the source of the water was never correctly identified in the first place. A crack injection that seals a visible crack does not fix the hydrostatic pressure building up outside your foundation wall. A sump pump that runs constantly is managing water that should not be getting in at all.
Cheltenham’s position inside the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford watershed compounds this. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has formally documented that urbanization in the township has increased stormwater runoff and reduced the creek’s carrying capacity — meaning groundwater saturation around your foundation is a chronic, documented condition, not just a bad-luck weather event. A repair that does not account for sustained hydrostatic pressure from clay-heavy, chronically saturated soil is going to fail again. The right fix starts with understanding exactly where the water is entering and why, then addressing the drainage system as a whole.
The honest answer is that it depends heavily on what your foundation actually needs, and that is why a free on-site estimate matters more than any number you find online. That said, for a realistic frame of reference: interior drainage system installations in a typical older Cheltenham home generally run somewhere in the range of $3,000 to $8,000 depending on the size of the basement and the complexity of the drainage layout. Exterior waterproofing, which involves excavation around the foundation, tends to cost more — often $8,000 to $15,000 or higher for a full perimeter treatment — because of the labor and equipment involved.
For Cheltenham specifically, the age and construction type of your foundation affects cost significantly. A Victorian-era stone foundation in Wyncote is a different job than a 1940s poured-concrete basement in Glenside, and the assessment process needs to reflect that. We provide free estimates with no obligation, and we will give you a straight number based on what we actually see — not a lowball figure to get in the door followed by change orders after the work starts.
It depends on the scope of the work. For interior waterproofing — drainage channel installation, sump pump replacement, crack injection, and basement sealing — permits are typically not required. But once the work involves exterior excavation or significant land disturbance, Cheltenham Township’s stormwater management ordinance comes into play. Any land disturbance of 250 square feet or more triggers a stormwater management review under the township’s ordinance, and that threshold is not hard to hit with exterior foundation work.
It also matters which watershed your property sits in. Cheltenham Township has separate stormwater ordinances for the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed and the Wissahickon Creek Watershed, and the requirements differ between them. For properties within FEMA-designated Special Flood Hazard Areas — which do exist within the township — there are additional floodplain compliance requirements. We navigate all of this as part of the job. You should not have to become an expert in Cheltenham’s municipal code just to get your basement waterproofed.
Yes — and it is one of the higher-return improvements you can make before listing, particularly in Cheltenham where buyers are educated and inspectors are thorough. A wet or visibly damp basement will show up on a home inspection, and in a township where buyers know about the Tookany Creek flooding history, evidence of water intrusion is going to raise flags. It gives buyers negotiating leverage, and it can slow or kill a sale entirely.
Beyond the transaction, a documented waterproofing system — especially one installed by a licensed, insured contractor with permits pulled correctly — adds to the home’s value and gives the buyer confidence. Cheltenham homes, particularly the Victorian-era properties in Wyncote and Elkins Park, carry significant value. Protecting that investment before you sell makes financial sense. And if the work uncovers any lead or asbestos-related issues in the process — which is not uncommon in pre-1978 homes — having those addressed and documented by a certified contractor is something a buyer’s attorney will appreciate seeing.
Interior waterproofing manages water after it enters the foundation envelope — directing it to a drainage system and out through a sump pump before it can pool on your floor or damage your walls. It is less invasive, generally less expensive, and can be done year-round without major disruption to your yard or landscaping. For many Cheltenham homeowners dealing with chronic seepage through aging foundation walls, an interior drainage system combined with a reliable sump pump is the most practical long-term solution.
Exterior waterproofing stops water before it reaches the foundation wall. It involves excavating around the perimeter of the home, applying a waterproof membrane to the outside of the foundation, installing drainage board and gravel to redirect water away from the structure, and regrading the soil to improve surface drainage. It is the more comprehensive approach, and for foundations with significant deterioration — which is common in Cheltenham’s older stone and brick construction — it may be the right call. The tradeoff is cost and disruption. In many cases, a combination of both approaches is what a thorough assessment will recommend.
Yes. We offer cash discounts, and for Cheltenham homeowners this is worth asking about directly when you call for your free estimate. Cheltenham is a diverse township — Wyncote and Chelten Hills sit at one end of the economic spectrum, while La Mott, Cedarbrook, and parts of Melrose Park represent working-class and middle-class families who have owned their homes for a long time and are not looking to overpay for a necessary repair. The cash discount is a straightforward way to reduce the total cost of the job without compromising the quality of the work or the materials used.
It is also worth knowing that our pricing is transparent from the start. The free estimate you get is based on what we actually see during the assessment — not a teaser number designed to get a signature before the real costs appear. If you are comparing quotes from multiple waterproofing companies serving Cheltenham, ask each one to specify exactly what is included and what is not. That is where the real comparison happens.
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