Hi guys, I’m just wandering in from the cooking board to see if anyone can offer me any advice on my basement.
Our house is about 55 years old, with a concrete foundation. We live in a very flat, dry area with heavy clay soil, that is prone to occasional floods. We’ve only been in the house a year, but it was a year of heavy spring rain. When the came we got quite a bit of seepage coming through the foundation wall in two places. We were completely unable to locate exactly where, it wasn’t coming from any visible cracks or pipes, it just seemed to seep straight through the wall. I’m thinking this can’t be good for the foundation, and would like to put a stop to it, but how? And yes, the gutters are fine, directed well away from the house, and the ground around the foundation is properly graded, except on one side where there’s a sidewalk, but that’s not where the leaks are.
Or maybe I’m being too anal and should just ignore it since it’s a once a year problem anyway?
Replies
Hi Cookimonster,
Saw you in the cooking section before while "she who must be obeyed" was on.
Since you have said that the grading of the ground is sloping away from the house I fear the only sure way of solving your problem is to dig and put a water proof membrain around the foundation. This can be a spray on rubber or a drainage board that will direct the water to the french drain at the bottom of the foundation, provided there is a french drain.
Best is to call upon a couple of foundation repair and sealing companies and get an on site evaluation, Then decide if the cost (and it will be expensive) is worth a dry basement or just live with it.
Anybody else out there have a better solution?
When cooking "If it doesn't turn out to be what you wanted just rename it"
There are some options, according to your situation:
use a mini excavator; tile and seal outside wall,
excavate and tile below footing from inside
do both
tie the drains in to a sump pump
I consider this weekend warrior level stuff since there's no basic skill involved, just hard work. Enjoy the day!
Hence my call name "weekendwarrior"
I know just enough to get into enough trouble that I can usually get the job done.
Thanks for the advice guys.
Do I need to seal the entire wall, or just the section that's leaking?
In the end maybe the best bet is to call a contractor, but I'd like to have some sense of what my solution options are going into this.
If you only do the "leaking walls" you may move the problem to the "non leaking walls"
Call a couple of contractors and get a few ideas.
I'm still trying to convince my wife to visit the cooking forum more often. She is a chef by trade and loves to try new stuff and new ideas. I will see if I can get her on this evening after the kids swim competition (summer out door pools) some where around 9PM est.
Edited 7/17/2002 11:50:58 AM ET by weekendwarrior
do the whole basement. why be wet when you can be dry? good luck!
We both replied the same thing at the same time.
Great minds think alike?
Or fools seldom differ?