basement leaks between cinderblock and concrete pad

Hi,

In the last 5 years I've had 2 incidents where I've had water seep into the basement. ( 15yo house ) In both cases, there was 100mm to 200mm of rain in one day, preceeded by a few days of normal rain.

In the first case, we got about 2" of water in the basement. I tracked that down to open vents at ground level that the owner had built. I sealed those up.

In the most recent case ... a few days ago, we had a similar amount of rainfall. The parimeter of the basement was damp to wet, with a visable puddle in one area. The seapage seems to be from the point at which the cinderblock wall meets the concrete floor.

There are no eves on the house, and the water trenches about 2' from the basement walls. This is an obvious problem, and I'll correct this.

My question is this. Given these circumstances, is it appropriate to use some product on the seam at the foot of the wall / pad to prevent this from happening in future heavy rainfalls, given that the eves situation will be corrected?

Thanks,

Jonathan

 

sounds more like a drainage problem outside to me, to correct, dig a trench around the house, say a foot or so deep, line it with heavy plastic, drop in a drain tile(PVC pipe with holes in it) and route the water a good distance away from the house and cover with course aggregate (2" clean or so)...that should take care of the water sitting around the house....and if you're ambitios it can't hurt to patch the seem around the bottom of the wall either.

hope this helps

 

Thanks Jproffer,

I was thinking that if I diverted the water with eaves troughs, that an interior sealent on the seam might be sufficient, as the problem only shows up under extreme circumstances.

From reading all the other basement posts, I'm sue your suggestings would be the most likely to succeed.

thanks again,

Jonathan

 

ahhhhhhhhhh...misunderstood the "eaves"...u have no gutters?.....then yeah by all means try that before diggin for hours and hours around the house

sorry for the misunderstanding.... ...but if theres anything else we can do just post back...good luck

 

jrwhite,

Take heed to what jproffer is suggesting. It will save you money and could resolve your issues but the gutters is another issue that you should pursue now, regardless if you have a flush roof line.

The recommended approach is to evaluate the gutters, downspouts, and surface grading around the house. Shrubbery close to the home can also be a problem and root systems that will cling to and in some cases try to grow into any cracks within the foundation.

The best way of keeping water away from a foundation is to divert downspouts away from the house - use extensions if needed. Slope the ground away from the house to be effective. In that way any rain, snow melt, etc. will not drain down into the soil near the foundation. For any water that does drain down into the soil near the foundation, and also for any excessive ground water already in the soil from a high water table, a perimeter drain tile and stone or gravel backfill would be another type of approach but this can be costly. Start cheap, wait and see how it all works before going to drastic measures.

Basement water leakage is very often the result of improper exterior grading, settled/cracked or otherwise improperly sloped exterior paved surfaces, a lack of proper gutters, etc., and sometimes a combination of more than one of these. Very often, the cure can be as simple as correcting one of the above mentioned deficiencies.

Take a look at this,

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distrib...s/7051-04.html

Hope this helps!

 

Hi jproffer and Doug,

Thanks for your posts. I really appreciate it. The members here are very generous with their time.

The eaves ( gutters ) are the first plan of attack, as it seems to be the biggest flaw right now.

The house is on a West / East slope.

On the West ( high side ), I plan to put in conventional gutters that ( hopefully ) could feed into rain barrels.

The East side has several gabeled windows, and conventional gutters would look horrible. The East side has a flat ( or possibly negativly graded ) flower garden that extends about 3'. The overhang on the roof ( 2 story ) is about 1.5'. So, the spill from the roof trenches into the negative slope. Right after the 3' garden, the land slopes down dramatically (4" / ft or more ). I was thinking of trying a product called Rainhandler. www.rainhandler.com, To divert the spill a few feet away from the foundation onto the steep grade. Any opinions?

On the inside of the basement I was thinking about using Xpex or something like it. Any thoughts on that for this type of situation?

Thanks again for all your help,

Jonathan

 

rainhandler looks like it may work...another approach would be to regrade the flower bed(i know that means removing and replanting flowers but the basement will be dry)....DISCLAIMER: I assume no responsibilty for loss of limb, life or marriage over doing this, and it MAY very well be easier to just remove the water from the basement, say a straw and a glass, throwing it out the window... ...ok but seriously...that would probably do more good than rainhandlers, and would be cheaper. Just make sure when/if you regrade the flower bed, add dirt/topsoil...TAMP FIRMLY.....LET SETTLE(say a week or more).....add more soil......TAMP AGAIN...SETTLE AGAIN...VERY IMPORTANT....if u fill it loosely, you will only benefit one way(assuming u enjoy sleeping on the couch, after ripping up flowers TWICE, or three times )

Another thought on regrading....while the flowers are out anyway....may not be a bad idea to put down a layer of heavy plastic there too(unless it would have some adverse affect on the future flowers...my thumbs are normal color so you'll have to decide that one on your own)

Good luck and have fun whatever you do

 

oh...you probably would have....but if u add plastic under the flower bed...make sure its deep enough so your flower bed don't slide out in the yard when it gets wet