AquaGuard Waterproofing Services
AquaGuard Waterproofing contractors recognize that every home is unique and therefore treat every wet basement problem as such, creating a specific solution for every issue they come across. In order to decipher the root of your watery basement and construct an estimate for your personalized waterproofing service, AquaGuard offers FREE basement inspections and evaluations. We pride ourselves on providing the most cost-effective and noninvasive resolution to your problem. Our team doesn’t want to find the easiest way to finish the job and just put a band-aid on your foundation. Our goal is to do things right and find a permanent solution to keep your basement dry forever. AquaGuard specializes in exterior foundation waterproofing for existing homes. The first step is carefully excavating around your foundation before installing a plasmatic core membrane around your entire foundation. This high-tech material is dynamic, moving with your building’s foundation and resisting cracking, deterioration, and leaking. Forming a barrier between the water outside your home and your basement, this exterior foundation membrane is a great way to ensure your basement stays dry. If you suspect your original foundation coating is starting to fail or you’re noticing leaking, our foundation contractors can help. We offer basement waterproofing for commercial buildings as well as for private residences. From churches and schools to stores and offices, our waterproofing systems can help you avoid further damage, cleanup, and restoration costs and are the premier choice for any type of basement water problem. Our commercial basement waterproofing systems are your answer for a dry, safe commercial property, and they’re not a temporary fix but a long-term solution. Are you consistently finding water leaks in your basement? Are you noticing a damp or stale odor coming from down there? Do you hate rainstorms because you know that means a wet basement? If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, you NEED to call AquaGuard Waterproofing today. We also offer foundation repairs and can assist you with the installation of egress windows. We service South Laurel and other surrounding areas.
Facts About South Laurel
The Story of area of South Laurel is essentially a story of people. As a municipality, it is not old, as Marylanders measure such matters. From the point of view of early settlement, however, it is extremely so. Only a scant generation separated the landing of the Calverts at St. Mary’s City in 1634 and the arrival of Richard Snowden. “The Immigrant,” to occupy his 10,000 acres stretching westward from South River in northern Anne Arundel County well into what–more than a century later–would be Montgomery. St. Mary’s County was erected in 1637. Calvert followed thirteen years later. In the same year Anne Arundel came into being. By 1658 Charles had become a political entity. Not until 1695 did Prince George’s take form from a realignment of Calvert and Charles. Richard Snowden, Friend, came to the friendly shores of Maryland from Wales in 1658 and the fact that his generous grant of land lay almost a hundred miles north of the Calverts’ landing place tells something of the character of the early Marylander. Settlement literally raced up the shoreline of navigable rivers and bays and to the credit of the Maryland Colonial, a contributing factor was the generally peaceful relationship existing with native Indian tribes. Captain Henry Fleet, trader, explorer, translator extraordinary and tower of strength to the Calverts on their arrival had lived among the Indians for years and known the Potomac intimately up to the head of Tidewater where Georgetown now stands. He counseled the Calverts well and was rewarded in 1635 with West St. Mary’s Manor, Maryland’s first recorded land grant. Thanks to the absence of military aggressiveness by the Maryland colonizers a generally peaceful relationship existed. It was, then, a rather peaceful area that awaited Richard Snowden in 1658. We read, here and there, of the changing nature of our Port Tobacco Creeks, the Eastern Branch of the Anacostia River and the silting of the upper reaches of the mighty Patuxent. One may place credence in such speculative recording; Richard Snowden erected his home, not on the bank of the South River where some shoreline was his, but very near the Patuxent, southeast of today’s Laurel and South Laurel. In the middle 17th century, access to navigable streams was urgent and necessary. There were no roads of importance, nor would there be for another century. Only the waterways permitted reasonable mobility. Laurel was not yet, but as successive generations of Snowdens took up the reins of the family fortunes the advent of the other became inevitable.
A third Richard Snowden became sole owner of the family’s shared iron enterprise and all of his life he was identified as Richard Snowden, “the Iron Master”, or “The Iron Monger”. One finds both in the early records. This Richard died in 1763. Laurel had been settled in the 18th or early 19th century as “Laurel Factory” a designation it retained until June 14, 1875, when it officially took its present name. The Snowdens had very early established an ironworks along the Patuxent and then expanded, later, into mills and factories. In 1824 Nicholas Snowden established a cotton mill which employed a hundred persons and flourished with typical Snowden success. This was expanded to include the main factory of woolen hats, another turning out blankets and a saw mill. With the death of Snowden on March 8, 1831, business conditions in Laurel deteriorated. The vast Snowden holdings of six thousand acres were divided among the numerous heirs. Dr. and Mrs. Jenkins presented 69 acres of their own portion to Georgetown College in 1849-50. This choice land represents most of Laurel’s present day business district.
Horace Capron who had married Louisa Snowden erected the Patuxent Cotton Manufacturing Co. in 1835 with the aid of his brother-in-law, Dr. Jenkins and O.C. Tiffany and Co. Capitalized at more than a quarter million dollars — a princely sum for those days — the project thrived for twenty years and gave employment to five hundred townspeople. Tragically, it burned to the ground in 1855, but was rebuilt and continued on until obsolescence necessitated its removal in the mid 1940’s. With the construction of its mills, it must be accepted that the first half of the 19th century witnessed a building boom, with some 500 mill workers to be housed. To the credit of some city planner of long ago, lot lines and thoroughfares were established and strictly observed. This can be noted by the few surviving mill houses at the west end of Main Street. We are not told by written town records the nature of Laurel’s local government in these early days. Quite likely there was none; the complexities of the times were few as we note our complexities today. When the mills, which represented the chief employment of the community burned in 1855, Laurel sank into a lethargic decline. In 1870, Laurel left its fledgling status and took on the rights and responsibilities of incorporated government. Maps of the day would designate the wheelwright and the blacksmith as highly important persons in the economy. The original incorporation stipulated “Commissioners of Laurel” with five elected representatives serving as such. Mr. Curley was elected President of the first board. It is of interest that his grandson, James P. Curley was a later Mayor and also that Edward Phelps, son of Edward J. held the same office seven times. For twenty years this form of government functioned to the satisfaction of local residents.In 1890, by act of the Maryland Legislature, Laurel was incorporated a second time by amendment with Mayor and City Council and divided into three wards. Also in 1890, agitation for an electric power plant, privately operated, and extended street paving projects met with success and water and sewer improvements followed shortly after. In 1937, Postmaster General James H. Farley, in dedicating a new South Laurel Post Office, pointed out that just one hundred years earlier in a similar dedication with Edward Snowden as Postmaster, this had been Laurel Factory.
As of the census of 2000 in South Laurel, there were 20,479 people, 8,260 households, and 5,055 families residing in the CDP. The population density of South Laurel was 4,785.1 people per square mile (1,847.4/km²). There were 8,621 housing units in South Laurel at an average density of 2,014.4/sq mi (777.7/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 38.68% White, 49.70% African American, 0.19% Native American, 5.61% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 2.55% from other races, and 3.23% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.26% of the population. There were 8,260 households in South Laurel out of which 33.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.6% were married couples living together, 17.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.8% were non-families. 30.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 3.06. In the CDP, the population was spread out with 26.2% under the age of 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 38.4% from 25 to 44, 18.5% from 45 to 64, and 6.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.6 males. The median income for a household in the CDP for South Laurel was $51,043, and the median income for a family was $60,028. Males had a median income of $38,559 versus $32,068 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $24,564. About 3.5% of families and 5.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.9% of those under age 18 and 3.0% of those age 65 or over.
WHERE TO FIND US:
AquaGuard Waterproofing Corp
6820 Distribution Drive
Beltsville, Maryland 20705
(800) 784-9913
