Water in basement
#1
Member
Thread Starter
Water in basement
My old house was built with a dirt floor basement. Someone at some time put cement in the floor, probably no more than 2" thick in the thickest parts. Not level, falling apart. It used to be that if I got 3/4 inches of rain it would start to flood. Now it does it with just a hard rain. I went down there tonight and there is a spot in the middle of the floor that is shooting water about 3" high. It is about a 4" hole. I am afraid if I just plug it with cement it will just force it out somewhere else. I don't have the money to have someone come in and run drainage around the foundation. I have gutters and the ground is sloped away from the house. Any ideas? Thanks
#2
I moved your thread here as I think it's a better location for it.
It sounds like you're in a high water table area which means the area around your house is saturated with water a good deal of the time.
Possibly you have an underground spring nearby ?
If there is water coming up thru the basement.... you won't be able to keep it out with concrete floor. Ultimately you're going to, at least, need to dig a pit for a sump pump. You need a location lower than the floor so that the water can be removed before it comes up thru the floor.
The other pros will stop by and add to this.
It sounds like you're in a high water table area which means the area around your house is saturated with water a good deal of the time.
Possibly you have an underground spring nearby ?
If there is water coming up thru the basement.... you won't be able to keep it out with concrete floor. Ultimately you're going to, at least, need to dig a pit for a sump pump. You need a location lower than the floor so that the water can be removed before it comes up thru the floor.
The other pros will stop by and add to this.
#3
Part 1 is the sloping of the ground away from the house so gutter and downspout water runs away. Part 2 is a subfloor perimeter drainage system with sump pump in the basement or around the foundation footings just outside.
#4
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Thread Starter
Thank you PJ, yes this is a better location for this post. I didn't realize it last night but I awoke this morning to find that I got 2.5" of rain in a couple hours. When we get a rain like that the storm drains in the street overfill so I think that is part of the problem. I do have a sump pump at the opposite end of the basement and the floor is slanted towards the pump. The hole where the water is coming up is about 5/6 feet away from the wall. I wonder if I added another pump by the wall if it would help?
#5
Member
Ideally there would be a gravel base under that thin slab so water could flow to the sump pit before it surfaces. Probably no gravel. In that case you need to get another pit as close to the erupting water as possible. It may not be exactly at the hole you see. But another pit is the first step.
Bud
Bud
#6
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I'm from Michigan so we've had a lot of problems with high water tables over the years. In one of my old houses I had with my first husband we had a lot of problems with both rain flooding and a faulty sewer system on our end of town. It got so bad, it got to the point where my dad helped us cap off a bunch of pipes with cement and we installed a few cheap sump pumps to run outside. I don't know if either of those are feasable for you, but a sump pump might not be a bad idea to help keep things dry when you're not there to keep an eye on it.