Basement water proofing questions

Hello, I bought a house 3 years ago that had basement flooding during heavy rains. There is a sump pump but it could not keep up. I had an excavator dig an outside pit where we placed a second sump pump which we have the exterior drain tile emptying into. That has helped tremendously but water still makes its way into the basement in small puddles during heavy sustained rains.

I am researching options THAT DON'T INVOLVE EXCAVATING THE ENTIRE DRAIN TILE, so don't even mention that option. I know that would be best but I dont have the money for that and don't plan on staying in this house forever either.

Polyurethane foam was one I looked into but it is expensive considering how many cracks I have. Plus the representative I emailed told me it would ruin the foundation if I used it in the cove (where wall and floor meet). Can anyone tell me why this is?

My latest option I am looking at is Quick-crete's polyurethane crack sealant. Or maybe a liquid rubber sealant like Ames or SaniTred.

Basically I am looking for advice or stories of your attempts/success/failures to better help me to decide what is the best and cost effective way to tackle this problem. Thank you in advance for your comments.

 

Welcome to the forums.

Water infiltration problems are best addressed from the outside through grading, gutters and downspout extensions to keep the water away from your walls in the first place; painting them to try to stop the water when it's already 90% of the way in does little.

 

Mitch, does this sound like a silly idea? What if I scraped the top foot or so of dirt off around my exterior of the house by the basement (it's a partial basement), and placed sheet metal or rubber pond lining down then covered it with the dirt? As long as the grade is downward away from the house. Anyone ever try that?

I have one section in front where the cement slab by the front door is leaning back towards the house. This problem I am thinking of actually building a small wooden platform leading up to the front door to make it look nice, and underneath use the sheet metal to angle water away from the house. (This idea is just so I don't have to mess with crushing the old cement slab and redoing it. I have heard that is a pain in the butt).

Thoughts?

 

I and many others have done something similar by shaping the grade to slope away from the house and then putting down plastic with rock over the top. Landscaping and water infiltration control in one.

The slab is going to be a problem and I'm not sure how the flashing is going to help on this one since the water is coming from the yard, not from above.

 

I see. I will give this a try and see how it helps. As far as the interior I would still like to use something to seal the cracks. Do you have a suggestion as to the best product for this?

 

Nate -

You are dreaming if you think a caulk or interior sealer will provide a long term solution. You can stop one leak, but the water (and hydrostatic pressure) is there and it find another route (or leakage point) to relieve the pressure.

All of the sheet metal on the exterior will do little to eliminate the water since water flows horizontally and can go upward due to capillary action. Sheet metal will rust eventually unless you go to copper ($$$$) and it still has to be sealed at the joints.

It is unfortunate that the original exterior drain tile was not installed properly or has failed.


If you have moisture showing up at the joint between the floor and wall the only real solution is interior drain tile, which you do not want to consider. I put in my basement with the help of my 12 year old son and a few of his friends occasionally over 3 week-ends.

Dick

 

Dick, I never said I thought it would be a solution. But cracks are cracks and am I silly for not wanting ugly crack in my walls and floors. All I am looking for is suggestions on products to help with this. Even though I realize this won't stop the leaking. Not dreaming. Wide awake.

If you don't mind my asking, how much did it cost to put in your interior drainage system? And what product did you use? I can rent a jackhammer from a local hardware store to break up the concrete around the edges but like you said, it sounds like quite the big project. And how has this worked for you since you installed it.

I may only be in this house for another 5-7 years and don't really plan on finishing the basement. I have slowed the leaking down considerably thanks to my exterior sump pump but just knowing that water is still making it's way in bothers me and I don't want mold problems in the future.

 

Nate: of course the solution is to stop the water on the outside before it gets into the wall as you already admitted but I agree the expense is considerable. One option you could use on the cracks that has some sucess in my area is drilling holes into the wall along the cracks and injecting and epoxy sealant into the the small cracks and capillaries. I have seen this have some long term success. In the Chicago area this is usaully done by a plumbing contractor (not sure why). I don't believe this is a good DIY type of solution so you probably need a pro. No guarantees of course but it is an option.

 

I can vouch for the epoxy injection. I've had a few cracks in my poured foundation fixed this way and it has so far (oldest is 2 years) held up great. I did 2 of them myself with a kit I bought at a big box store. One of those had to be dug up and sealed from the outside afterwards. I had the others done by a 'pro'.

My problem I think is just a high water table. There's not much I can do about that. My downspouts go away from the house. I can't do much about the grade because the siding on the house is low, and the yard is pretty flat. The exterior drain tile works just fine. All of the water now goes to the sump pit. there's just a lot of it when it rains hard!

 

Just had a good dose of education this week thanks to mother nature. Melting snow combined with with heavy 2" of rainfall caused a lot of water to come in. Actually I was sort of pleased because in the past this would have meant 2 FEET of water in my basement. This time, thanks to my exterior sump pump there was only puddles.

I looked in the pit outside and noticed that my 1/2 horsepower sump pump could not keep up and the water level was well above the drainage tile. I have a second pump connected to a flexible hose that I think I will drop in the pit. Next time hopefully that is enough to keep the water level down below the drainage tile so the pressure doesn't send so much water into the basement.

Then I will seal my cracks with hydraulic cement and hopefully enough hydrostatic pressure is released and the seals will hold.

 

I have also considered the epoxy injection stuff but a guy who sold the stuff said DO NOT put it in the floor/wall joint or it will ruin my foundation. He also said hydraulic cement will ruin the foundation if put in the floor/wall joint. Anyone agree with him or is he wrong?

 

Did he say how it would ruin it? I can't imagine how it could, but then I'm not an expert. All it does is fill a crack all the way through, something I think would be difficult to do with cement.

 

I've worked with just about every brand and type of injection epoxy out there (both by researching/specifying, and monitoring their use and performance in hundreds of bridge rehabilitation projects), starting with Sika's products in 1971. And in those 40 years, I have never heard anyone knowledgeable about their company's products say that injected epoxy will damage a foundation. I suspect the salesman might have been confusing low viscosity injection epoxy with expanding hydraulic cement, such as S-Mite (made by Sumitomo Cement Co.). The latter is a commonly used demolition powder, and can exert tremendous destructive forces on concrete or rock structures when mixed with water and poured into confined spaces (usually drilled holes). Don't know if it would be strong enough to do any damage in the small quantities a crack is capable of holding. There are many non-shrink mortars available that could be used to float into properly-prepared cracks as a means of sealing them.