Hello all.It’s been a while since I have visited these pages. We sold our old new house and bought a new old house. The foundation is block and in sad shape. I don’t want to do major repair since this house is considered a teardown where we live and we will tear it down, but not for about ten years, that is the plan. But space is an issue and I want to make the basement comfortable for my sons. We get seepage and I know what to do for that but when we had a major rain a few weeks back water was coming in through the block like a faucet. ( in some spots). I was thinking about applying concrete board directly to the block to direct the water to the draintile and stop it from soaking the inside of the proposed wall. Any thoughts on this?
Just another homeowner…
Replies
How is the grade outside?
Are the downspouts diverted from the house?
Was this addressed in the prepurchase inspection?
How about the disclosure statment of the RE contract. The seller is supposed to reveal all known defects.
I had a wet basement in a previous home that required 2 sump pumps. A perimiter drain along all exterior walls. We framed the basement walls about 5" from the block after we used hydrolic cement in a couple of small cracks, then used 2 coats of drylock.
Chuck S
live, work, build, ...better with wood
The house is half-way down a hill. The side where the water comes in is the high side. There are no gutters but I am going to install, and I am going to install perimeter drain tile inside. There is no sump. We bought the house as a teardown so disclosure items are a non-issue. I know that I have to let the walls weep, so to say, but I worry about that heavy a rain in the future. I thought about hydraulic cement and dry-lock but without exterior drain tile I figured it would be a waste. We don't flood, even with that heavy of a rain, just seepage.Just another homeowner...
Even a little work on the outside grade to deflect water away from the house will make a world of difference. Especially don't let water stand against the foundation.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison
I agree Dan.
Many years ago, my oldest sister called me to fix a basement leak problem on a house she had just bought. She had just been awarded several thousand dollars on a warranty claim from the previous owner's waterproofing company and wanted me to advise her.
I figured out the entire problem in two minutes with one trip around the exterior of the house. The grade was sloping toward the house and it needed some downspout extensions. The fix cost her under $100 for a load of dirt and ten feet of aluminum pipe.
The "waterproofing" company could have made that same walk.
blueOur Skytrak is for sale. It has 500 hrs on it. We want 50k (you pay the freight) and we'll finance it. Drop me an email; it's a good buy.
Making that basement into a place for your sons is not a good idea with that much water down there. Your begging for health problems to say the least plus they need to have escape windows/doors in case of fire or smoke above. Ten year time line sounds like you should consider a real fix rather than just the temp patch you describe. Tear the place down and start from scratch now with a proper fix or come up with a different plan.
Escape access is not an issue for there are windows and a door, the low side being a walkout into the garage. Tearing it down and starting from scratch is far off, unless you have a couple hundred thousand laying around that you don't need. I am going to make the best of it for now, the new housing market is not the best right now and I was saving that for my retirement.Just another homeowner...
I think you are going to have to dig it up to fix it.
Inside or out?Just another homeowner...
outside.
My guess is it's going to be much less expensive to keep excess water from going into the ground than to keep it from making it's way into the foundation wall.
For a cheap fix peal back the sod/soil 6" deep by a couple feet on the uphill side that leaks and sprinkle a layer of bentonite to keep the moisture from working into the ground. I suppose you could do the same with a layer of poly. Regrading so the water goes to either side of the building may be necessary if the uphill side is flat.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
What is "bentonite". I thought of perforated drain tile in a layer of pea gravel to divert the water, but wouldn't the ground soak up more than that could handle? Someone also said that drain tile on the downhill side would be more important, static pressure?Just another homeowner...
"Someone also said that drain tile on the downhill side would be more important, static pressure?'The drain tile could DAYLIGHT on the downhill side. But just running a drain along the downhillside is worthless.If this is only during rain (or shortly thereafter) it is a surface water problem.Simplest method is to grade a swhale in high side to direct water around the house and likewise gutters with downspout to direct the water around the house.A friend of mine bougth a house that had lots of expensive work done on the inside to catch water. And they put a surface drain high up in the yard. But they let the gutters clog up and overflow and the patio sunk and the water pooled up against the house. So badly that the foundation cracked and and has a 4" bulge.After taking care of the gutters, mud jacking the patio and grading the yard so that the water runs around the house or into the drain there has not been a drop of water in the basement since.That $1000 fix several years ago would have saved $5-10k in engineered supports to hold the foundation walls.
sounds good to me. ThanksJust another homeowner...
What is "bentonite".
An expansive clay, excellent waterproofing. But it needs pressure to work. Pretty sure a few inches of dirt won't do it. I've used it successfully on both foundations and wells. Also used as pond liner.
6 mil poly works very well. We slope out 20' from the perimeter (for another reason) with multiple layers. Never had a leak, even though they're also on slopes with hill above. But we need dry dirt on the outside of the house for the heating/cooling system. Dry dirt = no leaks.
10 yrs in a house with leaky walls sure doesn't sound attractive.PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
But it needs pressure to work. Pretty sure a few inches of dirt won't do it.
That would be news to 1000s of people who use bentonite in applications with a few inches of dirt cover, often less.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
If you say so. I'm going with the mfgs recommendation and my experience. I've seen failure with insufficient pressure.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
Edited 10/23/2006 8:02 am ET by VaTom
Perhaps for best results the ideal conditions aren't simply a few inches of dirt, but in agricultural situations bentonite is often simply broadcast spread over a variety of exposed surfaces to decrease water absorption.
We're both right and both wrong depending on how you look at it. :-)
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
Bentonite is a great solution. You can get this in a product called Volclay. This product comes in sheets and looks like corrugated cardboard with bentonite sandwiched in between. Expose the exterior block, clean off the dirt as best as you can adheare the Volclay to the block just enough to hold it in place. Back fill and wet the backfilled soil. As the moisture penetrates the Volclay sheet, the paper sandwich disintegrates and the bentonite becomes gooey creating a waterproof membrane that adheres to the block. Be sure to cover beyond any visible cracks of the block. There are other products out there, this is just one that I have specfied in a similar situation and have found to work.
petey,
What is written above is good infomation. However, I'd like to recommend another idea. If the walls are unfinished, meaning no paint, driloc etc... then you should apply this product... http://www.xypex.com It works by crystalization and stops seepage cold. I used it on my cellar which is located under my porch. I was having similar seepage problems and this worked well.
Xypex is a great product for old concrete foundations and concrete block foundation that have no cracks. If your block has exterior cracks use the Voclay sheets.