Pictured: Back row: Heating and plumbing expert Richard Trethewey, host Kevin O'Connor, master carpenter Norm Abram. Front row: General contractor Tom Silva, landscape contractor Roger Cook.
Photo: Matt Kalinowski

Last June our East Coast distributors, Bill Della Sorte and Greg Maugeri from New England Dry Concrete, had the unique opportunity to feature Kryton products in an episode of America’s most trusted home improvement show, “This Old House”.

It was an exciting project – an old Italianate family home in the Boston suburb of Arlington was in need of a major restoration. The family wanted to expand the living area not only upstairs, but also to turn the unfinished basement into a finished space.

Built in 1872, the basement was built available stones from the original excavation, surrounded by brickwork. A downspout was pouring water near the brickwork, which badly deteriorated the mortar, allowing water to infiltrate the basement.

After cleaning out the damaged joints, Kryton’s Krystol Mortar Admixture (Also known as “Type E Additive”) was added to the fresh mortar mix before the mortar was applied to the joints. After it set, the crystalline chemicals went to work, reacting with water to create millions of needle-like crystals to block the pores and capillaries within the mortar itself from any water or moisture infiltration. This additive will continue to work for the life of the mortar, only growing stronger with time.

On the other side of the wall, where the fieldstone made up the basement’s interior walls, the damaged mortar needed to be repaired with another solution from the Krystol Line – the Krystol Crack Repair System. This three part system uses crystalline waterproofing every step of the way. It starts with Krystol Plug, which is a fast-setting cement used to immediately arrest the seepage or flow of water through concrete voids. Next, Krystol T1 was applied to bridge the old cracks to the new repair with its concentrated crystalline material. Lastly, a high-strength crystalline mortar – Krystol Bari-Cote – was applied to hold in the high crystalline layer of Krystol T1, and to bring the repair to flush with the rest of the wall. As an extra measure, a slurry of Krystol T1 was applied as a brush on over the all the existing mortar in the basement.

Greg and Billy enjoyed the interesting project, and the opportunity to demonstrate the real world benefits of the Krystol technology to viewers.

The episode is now available for viewing on www.thisoldhouse.com/tv by selecting “The Arlington Italianate House” project, and episode 12 titled “Quest for a Dry Basement”.