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Discussion Forum

Basement floor won’t drain

| Posted in General Discussion on February 26, 2000 01:59am

*
House is coming along, but this problem is haunting us. Original contractor (no longer on job) set drain for basement floor, poured slab, and lo, it didn’t slope to the drain. Instead, it sloped right down where an interior wall partition meets the floor. So former contractor then got out some sort of grinder and tried to grind the floor so it would drain. Now what we have is a rough, porous concrete slab that has grinding grooves (looks like router grooves), and it still doesn’t drain to the floor drain. The drain is in what will be our kennel area — not heavily used as such since we’re “owned” by our dogs who much prefer sleeping by the fireplace upstairs. But we will want to hose down occasionally. We have FRP on the walls up to 4 ft. Wire fence panels as kennel partitions. Our thought was to put a heavy duty cove base along the low-point partition, on both sides of it, and then just paint/spray some sort of sealer on the concrete. But our carpenter believes (and I think he’s probably right) that if we don’t make the floor right now, it will cause trouble whenever there’s water on that floor.

So what to do? Lay a heavy layer of mortar, get the slope right, and tile it? Or????

Also, (and maybe this should be a separate post) in this seemingly never-ending saga, we’ve noticed water seeping in from the outside, under the kennel doors (connect to an outside slab) and even under the block wall (interior finish = foam board and sheetrock) where it meets the exterior walkway/slab.

(This is the same block wall that I posted earlier about….with all the gaps you can see through in it. We plan to stucco when the weather warms up. In the mean time, we’ll plug as many of the gaps as we can with caulk..)

Any advice on this appreciated. Realize all these problems could have been avoided with quality control when concrete was poured, but ….(On a more cheerful note, house is almost ready to move into upstairs…saved by all sorts of help from you guys in the FHB gang…it’s as much your house as ours.) Now, if we can just do something about the basement floor?????

Thanks! Tina

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  1. Guest_ | Feb 25, 2000 05:47am | #1

    *
    If your plan is to hose down dog poop into the drain, you already have a bigger problem. You should have included this provision in your building plans. Your contractor is using band-aids for what should be a major re-do at his expense. Insist upon it, but leave the dog aspect out of it to keep from "soiling" the issue. If contractor is now safe, you'll need to hire another for this. How does it feel to be doggy-whipped? If you're like I was once in my life, you probably also based your last car choice on them. Who says pets are cheap?

    1. Guest_ | Feb 25, 2000 06:52am | #2

      *Tina, IMHO you should make the floor right, even if you have to demo part of it to get the slope right. Also, I would forego the tile. Even so-called nonslip tile is slippery when wet and a hazard to animals with only hard nails and relatively slick pads. (Our dog can't even handle dry kitchen floor tile). In addition, a really rough textured tile is a bear to clean. I don't know if a coating, such as the PVC product that is used on skating (roller) rinks would be appropriate for a kennel floor. It is supposedly a self leveling product and is not a hard, slick surface. Take a trip to a rink to see what I mean. Since you plan to hose down the area occasionally, a waterproof coating on the walls, at least the lower part, which could include a cove base or not (something to alleviate the potential water leaking crack at the floor/wall interface) should be included. I'm sure your not intending to stuff the lumpy stuff straight into the floor drain. Water infiltration should be addressed at the source - from the outside - by whatever means, such as repointing, flashing, parging, waterproof coating, cutting in drainage, redirecting water flow with gutters, curbs, etc.FWIW, Ralph

      1. Guest_ | Feb 25, 2000 04:51pm | #3

        *Steve - the reason that contractor is "former" is because of problems like this one. Our carpenter is also licensed contractor and we're finishing the house I guess as a contractor "team". He's the one with the wisdom to see that we should do as Ralph suggests...bite the bullet, demo and take floor down and do it right. No dog poop intended for drain (we're good at shoveling).Ralph -- yup, tile is slippery. Can we pour new concrete over old and broom finish it? I'm not worried about rough surface on dog paws as we live in the land of lava rock (picture New England soil/rock mix but switch all that granite to lava) which has toughened them up but good. Thanks for info...keep it comin? Tina

        1. Guest_ | Feb 25, 2000 07:36pm | #4

          *Tina,Are you trying to get the whole basement floor to pitch to the drain or just the kennel part? Localized grade changes can be accomplished with various floor leveling/topping compounds. If the whole floor is to be regraded then a tear-out is probably the best.As for your foundation problems, I hope you sent this contractor packing before he could screw up even more of your house. If he was sloppy enough to leave gaps in the mortar its hard telling what other corners were cut. You should consider hiring a structural engineer, experienced in structure inspection, to look at your foundation. I hope its not all as bad as it sounds . . .EB

          1. Guest_ | Feb 26, 2000 12:10am | #5

            *Ditto on the Consesus Here:Bust out the old concrete, Shoot a level line around the perimeter, and re-pour the slab. Allow for AT LEAST 1/4" of slope per foot.The moisture issue on the block wall is a sign of (duh) moisture from the outside weeping inside. Not enough details to suggest anything precise. But check out rain runoff from roof, and divert the water; if it is residual moisture, then it is more problematic, and you may need to excavate near the footings and wick that moisture away with ABS.

          2. Guest_ | Feb 26, 2000 01:59am | #6

            *Eric -- Not whole basement floor, just kennel, which is approx. 25 ft x 13. Drainage problem is along the interior 25-ft wall, about 6 ft. away from drain.We had structural engineer right away and new crew spent much time correcting, mostly inadequate roof trussing. Foundation is OK (not square, but structurally ok). Scooter -- We have french drains in place. Water under block is probably from roof drips...didn't want to have gutters, but looks like they're in our future.So, what are the available leveling compounds? Can they be applied directly over the existing slab? Or is the room too big?

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