So by now regulars here probably recognize my situation after seeing my “handle” for the posts I’ve initiated here.
With the coming of warm weather where Iive now, melting of this winter’s extraordinary snow pack has revealed some issues with leakage from meltwater that’s finding its way into my new (mid ’70’s poured foundation) basement.
Previous owner (just one) didn’t do squat to redirect surface drainage away from foundation at the front so now I have a sinking front porch sidewalk that’s allowing water to puddle.
There’s a small room (“root cellar”?) formed integral with the rest of the foundation. On top, rather than exterior walls there’s a cast-in-place slab that serves as the front porch in front of the front door. The sidewalk between porch (one step down) to driveway 20 feet to the north has settled badly & will be replaced. Presently surface water is pooling at the porch / sidewalk juncture then finding its way thru a crack in the corner of the root cellar’s concrete walls.
Not much water, maybe 3 – 4 gallons in 24 hours since yesterday afternoon. I envison worse when summer’s toad stranglers dump 3″+ in a couple of hours.
Prior owner had parged the interior corner with what looks like mortar then painted over this. Of course the water’s finding ways behind & down this atempted repair.
Am I on track with plans to: 1) chisel away the mortar that’s there to reveal the extent of cracks; 2) perhaps take some kind of grinder or other tool to the crack itself to open it up somewhat (maybe 3/4 – 1″ deep, same in width?) and undercut to key in a hydraulic cement patch the full length of said crack?
Would something like Sikaflex (urethane sealant) be a more appropriate long-term cure for the infrequent flood leakage once I’ve taken steps to re-grade the surface near the foundation AND redirect runoff from gutters & downspouts on that side of the house?
Similar crack exists on the back wall, affects foundation wall full-height propagating from a basement window opening. Once again mortar’s been applied but in this case no leakage – yet – as it appears some work was done to improve surface drainage adjacent to this wall.
I envison applying the same ‘cure’ to this crack before making any plans to finish the basement walls in any permanent fashion.
Suggestions / comments welcome.
Replies
Get the sidewalk mud-jacked so it slopes properly.
Toad Strangler!
Love it. What a great expression.
As to your water problem, DanH is right. Fix the grade and sidwalk. Until you do, the water from there will be likely to overpower any interior measures. Mud-jacking may be your cheapest bet, unless you want to replace the sidewalk for some other reason.
Nope,
concrete sidewalk & asphalt driveway are too far gone to consider salvaging either. Besides, eroded / settled soil at the front needs to be recontoured also. Sidewalk's cracked in several places, pulled ~ 1-1/4 - 1-1/2" away from porch & dropped maybe 3/4" at that edge, over 1-1/2" on street side. Driveway's a disaster, knew when I first set eyes on it last Oct. it had to be R&R'd, already have funds budgeted for that.
So the jist of this is "don't bother with the cracks as long as surface drainage is improved to the point water won't run the wrong way" huh?
It certainly doesn't hurt to fix the cracks, and for a "basement" foundation it's worthwhile excavating as much as you can and applying a membrane on the crack.
But proper drainage is job #1.
Agreed
on both counts.
Haven't lived in the place long enough yet to know whether excavating could be done by hand or if I'd need a smallish excavator. Too, some places fairly close-by there's exposed sandstone bedrock common to the whole area so excavating enough to work down at footing level could get really involved.
First goal is new flatwork, contoured & pitched to move surface water away from foundation. That's a straightforward task.
While grading and creating swails to passively move water away from your house and foundation is a good idea..............placing flatwork over areas next to the foundation w/o first dealing with waterproofing and below grade drainage could be a waste of money.
Make the plan so step by step you can alleviate the problem for a long time w/o having to change things later. Like roofing, you start thinking about water from the bottom up.
Best of luck.
Thanks Calvin,
- what you've suggested is typically how I approach things in general.
I knew when we made our offer for this place that it was a "leap of faith" kind of thing. The home inspector's report didn't help much & I'm still bruised from kicking myself over not making time to get up there to walk around the place with him when he was doing his survey.
3/4" stytrofoam beadboard, construction-glued to the inside of the foundation all around didn't give me much confidence that there wouldn't be 'issues' like this as it was evident in some places where staining at the bottom showed signs of water from before. Now I know what was left for us to deal with when the prior owner moved on. Probably smiling.
(I'm looking forward to warm enough weather to take a peek under the first course of hardboard siding & OSB sheathing at the bottom edge someplace, try to suss out what kind of tie system was used to secure the exterior walls to the foundation. Inside there's 1/2" of plywood on top of the foundation onto which the floor joists were placed, no mud sill of any kind or fasteners apparent. I've heard pre-fab can be done this way but it's new to me. Already envison having to Simpson-tie every other joist to the foundation somtime soon....)