I'm currently in the process of drying out and repairing water damage in a basement bedroom. I've pulled the carpet up, cut the damaged padding, pulled the old, water damaged and rotting carpet tack strips.

The issue comes with the resealing of the walls. The house sits in the middle of a hill on the down slope. Thankfully the walls only leak when there are heavy rains, but I'm wanting to try to put a stop to it. It happens in two places within 10 feet of each other. I'm going to patch the concrete where the tack nails ripped up concrete, take off the wood paneling to wash the walls with bleach water to kill mold. Then I was going to patch and seal the walls inside before putting down new padding, etc. What are the odds of this failing? This is the only area of the basement on that wall that leaks.

If it helps, the house was built in the 1960's.

Thanks for your time.

 

The odds of failing are pretty high since it's the outside, of the foundation that needs to be addressed first. Look at your gutters, the pitch of the ground, hairline cracks in the foundation, etc....

 

Gutters are sound. New with guards on them. All front bushes are a couple feet from the wall. As for checking... easier said than done. Only about two feet of the basement wall on that side is exposed above ground. The electric utility and phone line also come into a box attached to the same wall. I realize that treating the interior would be a stop-gap measure. But I'm wondering now if it'll be enough to guard short term until I can call Miss Utility to mark and I can dig. I know one area is about six feet below the surface. Any other foundation area I've checked has no cracks, there isn't any cracking on the interior as far on the walls from settling, etc.

I'm not even sure how I would try to channel that area seeing as everything is coming from upslope. *edit* Oh, and from the top of the drive to the area in question is approximately 40 yards with a 10 ft difference between the two points... about a 14° slope.

 

The idea would be to seal the foundation with a membrane not necessarily to channel the water although that's good to do as well.

 

Coatings like Drylok work to point but if enough water gets behind it - the water will win! That's why it's always best to address the issue from the outside. You said the guttering was fine but what about the downspouts? is the water piped away from the house? It can be difficult to regrade on a hill like that but generally it's best to try and reverse the slope at a short distance from the house.

btw - welcome to the forums!

 

Thanks for the welcome. I'm always having my hand in auto repairs usually, home projects are usually smaller. This is the most ambitious project so far (not including the boyfriends parents home that I'm helping with. Need a scaffolding to finish that one safely). But I'm rather handy and love doing this sort of stuff, so that helps.

Anyway, there are no downspouts on that section of the roof. The two on that side are on either end of the house, both were replaced with the gutters. We had a tree fall and damage the roof and gutters so all that was replaced within the last year.

As far as regrading.... I can't even begin to imagine where I would try to pull that off. The front yard has many trees I get to mow around (yes, that's a nightmare). I could possibly see adding in a terraced area there with the ends gently sloping towards either end of the house, but that would also interfere with the front door and walk that's within 6 ft of one of the leaking areas. Also, along the walk is a low wall but it goes along the same area that the leaks are occurring. So I'm not sure how much that would help.

I was thinking to start with some Drylok Hydraulic cement. Clean and route out any loose concrete, plug it, then use a masonry water proofer approved for interior use. Once that's finished, I can do the carpets, put the walls back together, and move my daughter back into her room (I want my bed back!). Then move on to the outside, preferably without all this rain we've been getting. Inspect, patch, and seal. Then.... auto repair and then 4 more home repairs/improvements.

Again, I thank you guys for answering, giving me ideas, and things to look for.

 

I wouldn't trust interior solutions for an exterior problem.

 

Hydraulic cement and drylok is not a bad short term solution. Drylok by itself, not so much. It will flake right off if there is serious water intrusion. The stuff is more geared towards keeping minor humidity off the inside of the walls and not holding out significant amounts of water.

Patching inside won't keep water out of the wall. Water will come in and make it as far as the patch. It found its way in there because it is the path of least resistance, and once it is inside the wall it keeps looking for a path to get back out. If it can't get out where it was coming through originally, it will build up there until one of two things happens.

A) The patch wears away and comes back off the wall.

B) it finds a new way out, working its way out of a fresh crack that opens up elsewhere.

You are SAYING you plan to do this patching in the short term just to get everything together so you can get your daughter settled back in down there. If that's true you'll get away with it. What I really think I'm hearing though is "I want to patch up the inside, refinish the area, PROMISING I'll do the outside work when I get around to it, but never get around to it."

If that happens I don't think this is the last of your water issues, except whatever work you do after you seal and patch will get damaged.

 

Considering this issue impacts three things: my daughters health, structural integrity of our home, and home resale value; it will be completed. I talked to my father. He's going to help me take out the bushes and raise the ground there to channel the water. We are still in discussion about the best way to fix the walls on the outside. He think's I'm guano loco, but at least my ideas aren't being stonewalled and he agrees it needs to be patched/ repaired before any real damage to the foundation occurs.

He was worried about the hydraulic cement; worried that it would expand too much and crack the foundation. So I picked up a different cement that's rated for below-grade walls and foundations. Also picked up mortar rated s for the same purpose. I'm currently prepping the walls, making sure everything that's old, flaking, and chipping is removed (previous owners slathered the entire wall in what looks like cement and it was already coming off when I removed the first wood panel) and any broken mortar is chiseled out. Once I patch everything, I'll be using a hammer drill so I can sink in double sided anchors to attach the studs. Removing the old, rusted nails out of the concrete is being a nuisance; most of them sheared off when the bad wood was removed. And yes, I've worked the mud previously, so I'm not a total noob at it.

Also took out the window sill (just a wooden box). I'll be filling in gaps around there to stop the ants once I repair the mortar there in one of the lower corners. The person who finished this room originally just put scraps of insulation in there, but never sealed the area around the window. Everything I've been removing was done well enough to stay together but sloppy, and that really irks me.

I've been taking pictures at the end of each work day. Let me know if you would like to see any.