Hi there! I am looking for some advice on my BIG problem. I bought me house 5 years ago (the house was built in 1992) 2 story, stick frame with a cinder block basement, floating floor , french drain, and a subpump. Anyway when we purchased the house we noticed a water line around the basement walls about 2 feet in height. We never saw any water and just assumed that there was a previous flood. We purchased Dry Lok to seal the walls. A terrible rain had struck about three days after we applied the dry lok and I noticed some water beading at the lower section of the wall around the perimeter of the basement. I felt the wall and sure enough there was a large amount of water wicking through to the inside and traveling down to the french drain into the sub pump. I called a few people and they stated that we needed to dig up the whole foundation on the outside of the house to the footers and apply *****athamne to the exterior foundation to seal it. Were looking at 1,000's of dollars. Not where I was headed! I suggested to my husband to take a small drill bit and drill each brick on the inside to drain the walls. He did, and I am not kidding we must have emptied at least 20 gallons of water if not more out of these walls. Now I don't know what to do to prevent future water build up, leaking or anything else that my be harmful to my plans of finishing this basement. Please help!!!!!!! Mary

My goodness, Mary, have you read ANY of the posts in this section of the forum? If you have, you will know that the one and only way to keep water out of your house is to do it outside where it is entering.

Yes, you must dig, but you only need to dig where the walls are admitting water. You determine that by means of a simple test with your garden hose. The procedure is written in this forum many times, mostly by LicensedWaterproofR...find his recommendations, because they are the clearest.

You may only have to dig in one small area, or the other extreme is that you may have to dig all around your foundation. The test will tell you the extent of the problem.

What you are experiencing is just more proof that an inside french drain system (also known as a disposable income diverting system) cannot stop water from entering a foundation. You have also learned that nothing applied to the inside can stop water from entering, either.

You have to do a diagnosis, for which the hose test is the beginning half. It will tell you where water is entering. When you dig, you will probably discover why it is entering. The possible reasons are: (a) cracks in the foundation; (b) insufficient dampproofing on the foundation; (c) high water table causing hydrostatic pressure. (assuming the water isn't entering above ground)

Once you learn the cause of the water entry, you can determine a cure, but not before. If it is (a) or (b), patching with hydraulic cement, applying a heavy coat of dampproofing, applying 6-mil polyethylene film, and backfilling with pea gravel will likely solve the problem. If the cause is (c) high water table, you may need to dig all round and install a french drain on the outside of the foundation where it should have been in the first place, after doing the repairs and applying dampproofing and film.

As your house was built in 1992, it may be that spray-on dampproofing was used, and this method does not apply a sufficienly thick coating of dampproofing. Therefore, the dampproofing may have failed. Or your foundation may have been backfilled with rocks (very possible in certain parts of Pennsylvania), stumps, or construction debris, which over time can cause cracks. Maybe heavy equipment was run too close to the foundation wall, and this can also cause cracks. Or maybe tree roots have caused cracks.

A few questions: do you have neighbors very near your house? Do they also have water problems? What region of Pennsylvania are you located in? Are your roof downspouts (sometimes called "leaders") connected to an underground piping system, or do they discharge above ground? How does your lot slope, generally? Does the outside grade slope away from the foundation for at least six feet? What is your soil like, generally...sand, clay, rocky?

quote:

s your house was built in 1992, it may be that spray-on dampproofing was used, and this method does not apply a sufficienly thick coating of dampproofing

richard, i asked in another thread if damp proofing instead of waterproofing was fine and you said yes. the above statement seems to contradict this statement. can you explain? thanks.

FYI the damp proofing stuff i found at home depot is karnak 112AF. here's a link for the description below. it states if there's hydrostatic pressure use another product they sell (which i haven't seen at home depot) called 88R Aqua-Block. thanks.

http://www.karnakcorp.com/Product_Data_PDF/112-Damp.pdf

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Originally posted by Rikky:

quote:

s your house was built in 1992, it may be that spray-on dampproofing was used, and this method does not apply a sufficienly thick coating of dampproofing

richard, i asked in another thread if damp proofing instead of waterproofing was fine and you said yes. the above statement seems to contradict this statement. can you explain? thanks.

There is no contradiction at all. Before the advent of spray-on dampproofing, dampproofing was brush-applied, often in two heavy coats. The spray version is usually applied much too thin, which results in a breakdown of the dampproofing and creates a way for water to be absorbed into the porous block wall.

Both methods are called "dampproofing", but one method is far superior to the other.

Rich,


I guess we have our work more than cut out for us. We have what appears to be several negative issues that may be causing our PROBLEM. We live in Bucks County near (about 6 blocks from the creek(above the creek), hard, rocky dirt, and our property is definately not sloped enough away from our house. We dumped a few tons (by wheel barrow) around the foundation, and tried to slope it away from the house. I guesss where going to have to restart. Thank you for your advice.... I'm sure I'll be back for further assistance.... Thank you!!!!!

Find the instructions for the hose test, and follow them carefully. That will define the EXTENT of your problem. Even if you see water around the full perimeter of your basement, it isn't necessarily true that the water is ENTERING everywhere. Water can flow from block to block in the hollow cores, and can get everywhere from very few places.