Basement Waterproofing

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doomonyou

Joined
May 3, 2003
Messages
149
You guys seem to have the answers to everything so I will ask a tough home repair question. Does anyone know anything about basement waterproofing? I really don't want to dig around the outside of the house. And I can't use dry lock paint on one wall due to some one in the past painting the wall. I only get water when it rains heavy. It is becoming a real pain to clean up after I get a leak.
A friend of mine had an outfit come in a jack hammer the floor and run pipe to a sump pump. I am thinking of having this done also. Anyone have any ideas.
 
I know you don't want to hear it but your best bet is digging up all around the foundation and putting on some waterproofing on the outside. Another slightly less laborious option would be to find out where the water is coming in and just dig up and waterproof that side of the house.

Other things to consider are what is around the foundation where the water comes in? If it is just soil you might consider putting in concrete, as soil will soak up water, but concrete can be pitched slightly to direct the water away from the house.

As for using a sump, well I am not a big fan of that idea. That means water has already gotten into your house, and is doing damage. Water will travel up walls and over time cause rot, mildew, and all other kinds of problems.

We had this problem in my house, and I wish we would have just waterproofed the whole mess, but my dad just wanted to pour concrete. We did pour the concrete, and it has helped out a lot, but we still get water sometimes.
 
If it's just that one wall, you could also look at the landscaping on that side to redirect the water further from the house. Change the grade.

If it's coming in from a neighbors yard, you might have recourse for him to fix the problem in his yard, but it can be hard on neighborly relations.

If there's a roof downspout, an extensiion away or pipe it to a dry well, or even a rain barrel are all good options.

The best is to dig up around the house...

Phil
 
When I moved in we too had some problems during heavy rains.Heres what I did,and it worked well for me.

Regrade so water flows away from house.Put extensions on downspouts (underground) and ran them into a drywell.

Drilled weapholes in base of blocks.

Put in a back up sump that runs even in a power outage.

No longer have an issue with water. :)
 
My house flooded sveral years ago. My house had gutter downspouts on four sides. I opted to have new gutters installed with two larger downspouts instead of the four. This moved the water away from the house better. The two downspouts I removed were putting water near the place where water came in.

A few years later I flooded again. Mostly because every so many years we get periods where it rains a lot and the ground gets saturated.

I broke down and had a company jackhammer inside, put gravel and pipe along the foundation, concrete back over it, and install a sump pump. Water doesn't come in now. It has worked very effetively.

The only concern I have is if the power were to go out.
 
Thanks guys, When I was in high school my parents house used to leak all the time so me and some friends dug around 2 sides and waterproofed it from the outside. Let me tell you that was MANS work! It did the job though. Now that I am a little older I really don't want to go that route! I have thought of adding some dirt around the house to change the grade. I am really considering having an outfit come in and do the inside work with the removing of the floor and installing the pipe deal. My friend did this as I sed before and has had no problems. His basement was so bad you could spit on the ground and it would leak in. I have also found a company for the do-it-yourself guy. www.waterproof.com They sell a floor board type of system that you drill into the block and it routes the water to a drain which I have already. Well gotta clean up some water :D
 
doomonyou-

If this is a recent purchase and the seller did not disclose that the house leaks, you may have legal recourse. While I'm not a big fan of lawyers or litigation, it might help you to recover some fairly expensive costs...

Just something else to consider...

~ Blue Jays ~
 
nah, it has been on going from what I gather. I can thank my GF friend for this. She wanted to buy the first house we looked at. "Because it was Perfect :rolleyes: " I should have raised hell after the first leak but I did'nt. On the disclosure sheet the seller is required to fill out they stated that "one wall gets wet with a heavy rain." They forgot to mention that the floor does too! :mad:
 
Hey Doom....

If it's a serious problem,,you are going to have to go to extraordinary lengths to prevent this problem....

first line of defence would be to direct your roof water away from the house as much as possible....

The next thing would be to install a decent sump pump system around the inside of the house.. This would be at the very least.

Waterproofing the inside wall is a bandaid solution, as water is still getting at the foundation, and will cause serious structural damage over time... The proper way to do this is from outside.

Under serious conditions a sump with an external pump is nice to have.. Our new house(my Dads house) that we will be moving to has Extensive interior/Exterior pump systems, plus a redundant back up system in case of failure.. This is backed up by a generator to run the sumps....

If your basement has drains I would recommend they be sealed. A lot of times it's the drains that let the water into the basement when the storm sewers back up,,it backs up into your basement...

A high water alarm is Also a must. I have twin water alarms set to go off at different levels. One of them is wired into our bedroom..When it goes off,,it WILL wake the dead.

For the money you will spend to do this, you will have piece of mind, knowing that you have a well sealed basement with systems that work, and backup systems in place....

ttyle

Eric....
 
I have a similar problem. The downstairs of my house is underground for the most part and im the lower point out of 10 houses near me. The water comes in through the wall and flows out the door into the garage. At times it was nearly an inch deep. i had a contractor come and look at my home, he had just finished building my parents house and i had grown to trust him. He told me that if money was no object to regrade the yard sloping the landscape away from the house at least 15' while i had the equipment in the yard go ahead and dig down to the footers and waterproof everything. This is a big cost factor as i would loose a 25/30 deck, concrete stairs, and have to move my 2 air compresors and ductwork for them. My second choice was to do the trenching and sump pump idea with a company in Knoxvile TN. he said it moves the water out fast as soon as it comes through the block, they drill holes in the block in some places to prevent the static pressure from harming the wall. i'm going to go with the second idea first as i dont want to destroy my yard. the sump pump is supposed to move the water out really fast to minamize water damage, that plus a dehumidifier should take care of the prob pretty well.
 
If it's just cracks in the foudadtion it should be relative an easy fix. There are several companies out there that drill out the crack and fill it with an epoxy resin. Might cost a couple hundred buck but it's a lifetime warantee. I had a crack that I had this done to, under a home warantee, and it has been dry ever since, 3 years and going. I would go this route before you start digging up your foundation.
 
I talked with my friend who had his basement done from the inside. This is what the co. did. They jackhammered the floor up about 8" from the wall. They then dug down below the footer and put in fine gravel. They then put in pvc pipe with holes in it. They then put in a heavy gravel, then covered it back with concrete. The whole system is routed to a sump pump. They also do something no other co. does as far as I know. They leave a half inch gap away from the wall. The co. told my friend they do this in case a pipe were to ever break the water would have a place to drain. He also said a person could actually hose out his basement if he wanted. Total cost was $2300.00, not bad I thought. I will cost me a little more do to the fact I will have to move my fuel tank, remove and replace a shower and a few other things. But, I think it will be worth it.
 
Just had the guy come through and do the estimate on my house. I have to get one side of the house done. Same idea as Doomonyou but with differant stuff. I got to expose the wall everywhere they are going cut into the floor as they also put up a kinda plastic thing on the wall to focus all the water into the gutter that they make. thier gutter isn't made of PVC its some kind of coated stainless steel. they poor concrete over top of it and then i put the wall back as well as tile back down on the floor and its as it was before the instalation. Same idea with warranty, lifetime no questions asked, if you see water downstairs they fix.
www.bdryforever.com

having delt with a wet downstairs i know that it sucks. i hope you get it solved as quickly as possible.
 
I've dealt with this at three houses. I was able to resolve all of them by getting water away from the house.

At the first place, one neighbor's gutter was broken and pouring all of his roof's water into my gutters thus overloading my gutters and causing it to spill over. He wouldn't fix it. Soon after a heavy "storm" tore his whole gutter down (wind is a powerful thing I tell ya). My other neighbor's sump pump took the water about 10 feet away from their house... to my house. I dug a small trench in their yard to move the water away from me.

Another house had most of the water coming in through a window well in the basement. Covering this window well with a plastic well cover took care of the problem in all but the most severe weather (ice storms). Regrading finally eliminated the problem.

The big fix for all of the houses was regrading the property. You want a nice grade from the house to at least 10 feet away. That can mean a lot of dirt. Lay the dirt in and pack it down as hard as you can. Drive your truck over it if you can. The harder it is, the more likely the water will wash away. If you think you've got a really tricky spot, regrade and then put heavy duty plastic down and let it come 2 inches up the wall of the house. Then put 2 inches of soil down. Of course, planting anything big will pop the plastic.

I had one friend who I could not help. His water problem was due to the water table rising during a storm. It would start in the middle of the basement and begin filling from the bottom up. He now has three sump pumps in his basement.
 
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