I have decided to begin the adventure of renovated my unfinished basement. My basement seems to leak around the base on 2 walls. Luckily due to the slope of the basement it seems to normally drain along the one wall and directly into my sump pump. However, I would like to utilize this space and stop the leaking all together (and get rid of that msuty smell). I've been told to paint the walls with drilock (sorry about the spelling) caulk around the bottoms. I however have no idea what type of products to use or if this is even a valid solution.
Its become a personal mission to do this work myself, so any advice or hints would be greatly appreciated.

 

Dry-lock or other sealers and caulking, won't solve this problem. The only long-term solution is to solve the problem from the outside. Unfortunately, that is also costly.

Does the water come in somewhere else and run down to these walls or is coming in there? Is it coming in above the floor and runnng down the walls?

It sounds like your builder either anticipated the problem and so put the sump pit at that end, or it just happened that way. A cheaper solution often used (doesn't make it right) is to let the water come in but control it once it gets inside using channels along the walls. The slope of the floor dumps the water into the sump pit.

 

BobF is right.

I have seen advertisements for plastic baseboards that are hollow and are designed to catch the water and channel it away. That may help the bulk of the water problem, but not the smell..

 

This article has some good info: http://www.housenet.com/iq.asp?Categ...&ArticleID=581

I had a similar problem with water running into the basement when it rained. I found one of my downspouts was leaking at the bottom elbow. A little caulk on the pipe fixed the problem (although I should probably replace the downspout eventually).

I also had black mold and peeling paint on the interior walls. I sanded that off to the bare concrete (wearing a dust mask), sealed with oil-based Drylok, then coated over that with Kilz to keep any mold stains from bleeding back through. My walls have been clean for about a year now.

If you decide to do it, use Drylok and Kilz with as much ventilation as you can! I killed many brain cells with that Kilz stuff.

 

I forgot one step (I told you I killed many brain cells): after sanding I washed the moldy spots on the concrete walls with muriatic acid, then rinsed with water (allow to dry before Drylok). Again, use with ventilation, gloves, and extreme caution. The acid gives off wickedly acrid vapors.

 

The best thing to do is inspect the grading and gutters on the outside of your house. Make sure that the ground slopes away from your house and you don't have any standing puddles of water. If the grading and gutters look fine, you could lay down sheets of plastic around the house and cover them with stone. That will keep the water around the foundation from getting wet and the water getting into your basement. I have a similar problem to yours. My water doesn't drain to the floor drain though so it is a mess. I did find a faulty downspout, and this spring I am going to regrade around the whole house...hopefully this will take care of the problem.