I should never listen to the customer….
Customer explained that the basement window wells would fill with water during heavy rains and then leak into the basement. So I proposed a sump pit outside the windows with a drain running from next to the windows to the drain and pumping the water out to the street.
Before I started the outside work, I started the inside work (customer was out of town, so less inconvenience to them…).
I removed the damaged drywall and then had the opportunity to witness what happens when there is heavy rain.
The two pics show water that is not coming from the windows (the sump pumps in the window wells were working). The level is four feet. The floor is about seven feet below grade.
There is a sump pit/pump in another corner of the basement with a four inch black corrugated pipe running into it (pipe appears to be running parallel with the exterior wall a foot or so inside of it). Water was running into the pit steadily.
I’m guessing the original plan of a three foot sump pit and the maybe 18″ deep drain lines will not prevent the water intrusion in the photos.
Would a drain line under the slab along that wall and into a sump pit work??
Or…..??????
Rich Beckman
Replies
I don't know how difficult it would be... but the textbook approach is to excavate outside to below footing level, waterproof the concrete, install drain tile, and backfill with drain rock... and it sounds like you'd have to run the tile into a sump. If you propose to SOLVE this problem then you need to blast it with both barrels.
Well, first thing to do is look at the grading outside. About eight times out of ten you can eliminate problems like this by simply fixing the grading so that no water stands within 10-15 feet of the foundation.
But the fool-proof way to fix it is to excavate below the footing, install tile, then waterproof the foundation walls and install a drain plane (gravel or a plastic drain grid) against the walls. All this of course must run to a sump pump unless you have enough slope on the lot to run to daylight. And then you hope the power doesn't fail. (So you still want to fix that grade.)
Also need to check out where the downspouts are dumping.
Yeah, that's a major part of the grading issue. Especially if downspouts are dumping into tile, need to make sure that being carried away from the house and not simply seeping into the ground.Also, any large concrete slabs -- driveway, carport, patio, etc -- need to be sloped away. Mud jack them if they've subsided over time.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin