I have a drilled well (132 ft) about 50′ from the house. The water line runs into the basement through a hole in the foundation wall about 9″ above the floor. Four inches above that there is a second hole through which runs a plastic conduit with 3 wires to power the pump. There is also a diagonal surface to floor crack in the concrete which is due to a bad drainage problem that has been corrected. A few years ago, I thought the crack was leaking and I filled it with waterplug, also filling in around the water pipe and wires.
Lately, there has been water over in that corner, although there hasn’t been any rain, and close inspection showed it was coming from near the water pipe and wires. Today, I chiseled away all the waterplug to get a good look at what was going on….expecting a leak in the water line. To my surprise, the water is coming from inside the plastic conduit containing the wires to the pump. I’ve cleaned and dried the area, and there is no doubt…the water is in the electric conduit. For the time being, I’ve stuffed some cloth into the conduit around the wires, and now the floor is staying dry. I can visualize some ways to plug the conduit with some sort of quick curing sealant (suggestions welcome) but the thing that worries me is why there is water in the conduit. Has anybody seen this before?
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Because of condensation you will get water in the conduit.
Normally not enough to "run".
But if you have an "open air" path between the basement and the well via the conduit you might have enough movement of moist air to get a fair amount of condensation.
They make a product called Duct Seal just for this purpose.
It is a non-harding "putty".
It comes as a gray brick warped in plastic. Lowes has it and I assume HD does also. If not any electrical supply house.
Bill, would tube silicon work here in place pf the 'duct seal'?when in doubt add garlic
Probably.One of the problems is that it makes it a PITA if you need to pull new wires.
Use duct seal. Silly not to. Cheaper than silicone and not as much of a PITA.
Any decent hardware store should have the stuff.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison
I just wanted to post an update: This past weekend, I had more problems with my well. I called the well guys out and after doing a bunch of electrical and pressure tests, they determined that the underground pipe from the well had sprung a leak. This is actually unrelated to the water in the conduit, but in the process of digging up the water line, we found that the conduit that comes into the basement is only a couple of feet long, just to protect the wires as they run through the foundation. The wires were buried without conduit except a short distance at either end. The drainage around our house is terrible: the leakage was surface water making it's way down the side of the foundation and into the conduit. The leak in the water line was over by the well, 100 ft away. I just spent an expensive day in the rain helping a guy with an excavator lay new water line and conduit.
Yeah, any conduits that pass through the walls of the house should be plugged with Duct Seal. One "brick" of the stuff will do two or three houses.
This is why any conduit run underground, even if waterproof, is considered a "wet" location for the purposes of the NEC.
Hmmm, well I'm relieved to hear this is probably nothing to be alarmed about. I should point out however that until today, the basement end of the conduit was pretty much sealed with waterplug. I have no idea what the well end looks like. Could enough air get in from that end to cause this much water from just condensation? I'm not talking about gallons, but enough to have steady seepage and maintain a small puddle a few feet square. Well, I'll just seal it up and be thankful I don't have to dig up the yard.....Thanks for the info.