2 jobs, first was in Royal Oak. HO had a 10-12" thick concrete pad, about 6 x6 from back door out and against that rear porch, the porch that has/had a hefty vertical crack and other cracks on outside of walls.
See open joints? See HORIZONTAL open joint which is entirely below grade? See Roots AGAINST basement wall,huh? Many roots against walls. Raising the stupid grade cannot/will not waterproof/repair cracks `n open joints. Extending the downspouts 15 miles away from the house doesn`t either! All the downspouts do is extend water coming off the ROOF a lil bit away from a house, doesn`t seal/repair/waterproof ANYTHING!
Painting the inside of walls w/Drylok-whatever doesn`t waterproof cracks/joints either! Mudjacking slabs doesn`t either! Please QUIT with the goofy MYTHS.
Lady said she prolly contacted every foundation/waterproofing company for estimates,opinions. Most of `em tried to bs her and explain to her she needed an inside drain tile system w/sump and either....some beams or wall anchoring or piering. NONE OF THAT would have SOLVED the problems, none would have sealed/waterproofed the cracks and OPEN JOINTS on the outside of the walls.
NONE of that would have relieved/lessened the soil pressure against the outside of the wall and none would have removed the ROOTS that were pushing her wall in.
NONE of that would have stopped/prevented further water/moisture from entering those cracks and open joints because....THEY DON`T go OUTSIDE and Waterproof/repair the dang cracks and joints, SHEESH!!!
Would NOT have stopped/prevented any insects including TERMITES from gaining ENTRY-THROUGH-cracks/joints, come on! And if there are high levels of radon insoil those inside systems do NOT stop/prevent its entry either.
Most of this back wall was done before, outside. It was......DAMPROOFED and backfilled with the SAME SOIL, not very wise.
You see it/damproofing and backfilling w/same soil did NOT LAST! They didn`t use hydraulic cement in/over cracks `n joints, nah. Just rolled/sprayed on thin coat of asphalt/tar.
And it`s the rock-hard SOIL and ROOTS and concrete pad that CAUSE the problems YET....many recommendations from other companies could care less and/or are simply INCOMPETENT. Yep, their ideas was to leave the roots/soil and concrete right against the wall! lololol
Somehow, magically an inside drain tile system with some beams OR some wall anchoring crap OR helical PIERING is going to REMOVE the soil AND roots and concrete off the wall and don`t forget, there are wide open cracks and joints! What, leave all this open? Leave the soil and roots against the wall? Have they completely lost all their marbles?
One more thing please....most of these cracks and ALL of the wide open joints are NOT VISIBLE from inside the basement, thats right. Soooooooooo....ANYONE, any structural engineer,any inspector,any contractor etc who ASSUMES there are no cracks/open joints on the OUTSIDE just because they don`t see any on the INSIDE hasn`t a clue,is incompetent with their assumptions and shouldn`t be voicing their rookie-opinion to anyone, dang it!
Can't believe somebody left all those tools stuck in the wall...lol...and don't tell me you disturbed all the nice lady's landscaping...when will you ever learn??
Architect (NY) and Home Designer (PA)
Posts: 2570 | Location: Tobyhanna, PA | Registered: 24 October 2005
I have a problem, I recently started to redo my basement and started to notice mold along my basement wall. Also where the wall and the floor meets the cement blocks are damp. But in a few area not the whole length of my driveway which is about 120 feet. I also notice a two horizontal cracks towards the back of the house. The crack towards the rear, you can actually see it from inside and outside. And i would say alittle bigger than a hairline crack. I have spoken to so many contractors where the price ranged from 17,000 Mid-Atlantic to 13,000, to contractor who get mad when you aske them about their warranty then ontop try to charge you extra fot it 1,500 to be exact. Now I may be ignorant to this whole thing but i do my research, which led me here. Can anybody suggest anything that would help the cause. The house is about a 100 years old i share the driveway, i am located in brooklyn, I have a garden in the front of the house. Which makes me wonder can the water run through a crack in the front of the house and travel down the side of the interior. The driveway slopes down towards the back of the house.
You got a host of issues here. First off. Stay away from the big boy water proofing companies. Their warranty against water intrusion is only for a few feet from the repair that they will be doing. In fact what they will be doing is water control not water proofing. By installing inteior water drainage all their doing is controling the water once it comes in the home. What is needed is exteior water proofing. The cause of your problem is that any water proofing that was done when the house was built has failed. There is most likely a drainage pipe surrounding the exteior of the foundation of the home. This pipe over time has begun to crush and fill with sand and silt. Once it fills up it fails to drain the water pressure away from the basement wall. Which is causing that white stuff on the basement wall by the floor Its not mold! Big boy water proofing companies tell you that it is just to scare you into thinking that it is. Did they test it, I do not think so! What is needed is to remove this outside pipe and replace it with new pipe and drainage. The crack you talked about has develped because of pressure along the wall. If you check the level of the wall and its still straight what caused this crack is freezing soil pushing against the foundation. your right in assuming that the crack in the foundation wall by the garden is causing some of your issue. A good quality local water proofing company can do localized exterior repairs. But Be prepared to do more then just that. As once they open the wall they will most likely will find other issues and need to go farther then origionaly thought. If the driveway is sloping towards the home you need to get that fixed. All the driveway is doing is acting like a big gutter and allowing water to flow towards the foundatin of the home. All this extra water is putting a strain on what little water proofing is left that is working along the foundation of the home.
Posts: 1123 | Location: New Jersey | Registered: 31 January 2006
New York City is a whole different animal. It is expensive to do business there, so prices there cannot be compared to prices elsewhere. Construction is heavily regulated, and there is corruption in the departments that regulate.
But to answer your question, yes, water can enter the foundation in one place and travel to another place. If water is in the walls, it frequently makes its appearance at the base of the wall at the joint with the floor.
In order to comment further, we would need to know what your foundation walls are made of, and how much room you have all around your house to work in.
A hose test might reveal where the water is entering. You will find instructions for that in posts by LicensedWaterproofer or LicensedWaterproofR (same person, different nicknames).
Architect (NY) and Home Designer (PA)
Posts: 2570 | Location: Tobyhanna, PA | Registered: 24 October 2005
Hey guys thanks for your input it makes me feel alittle easy. Knowing there are people out there who actually care and know what they are talking about. Thank you. Okay, the house foundation is built with cement blocks, I notice it a very few places but the part where the mold is which i look at again is at the corner of the house. There was a few spot of the white stuff. The driveway was built on a tilt so the water drains between my house and my neighbor house towards the back of the house into the back yard. The front of my house i have a good 15 feet to the street. The driveway that i share is about 10 feet across. And my back yard goes back about a 75 feet. The other side of the house is attached. By the way i notice this one contractor who was doing this same job to a church back filled the area that he dug out around the church with regular red bricks and old cement slabs. Now i don't know but is that noraml, He was one of the contractors who was charging 13,000 for the job. Oh yeah, when I hire somebody and they excavate the ground around the house what is the right way to redo the foundation properly with out cutting corners. Once again thank you guys for your advice, It's my mothers house and i'am trying to help her get the job done the right way with out getting robbed in the process. Again thanks oh yeah my mother thanks you guys to
In the first place, the "white stuff" is very likely efflorescence and not mold. It is essentially salt, and is not harmful. There are products sold that will dissolve and remove it. Those salts exist naturally in concrete products and mortar, and are driven out to the surface by escaping moisture. So, probably don't worry about the efflorescence.
Now. The trick is to try to locate the source of water that may be causing the efflorescence. The hose test may help, but if the driveway is right up against your house, it will be hard to tesat there. Is that the wall where there are horizontal cracks? If you lay a straight piece of lumber up against the cracks, can you rock the lumber back and forth, or does it lie flat aginst the wall? If the driveway wall is the wall with the horizontal cracks, the cracks may have been caused by heavy vehicles in the driveway. Does your neighbor have similar cracks?
Architect (NY) and Home Designer (PA)
Posts: 2570 | Location: Tobyhanna, PA | Registered: 24 October 2005
Richard is correct about the efflorescence on the walls. A LOT of water proofing contractors tell their clients that this is mold. As far as the contractor placing cement and bricks back into the hole they dug. This tells me that they did not get the permits to dig as required and that they did not get the permits to do the job which is also required in most areas of NY. Stay away from this person. The only thing that should be going back into the hole he dug was gravel and soil. No cut up sidewalks or driveways and no bricks or large rock. Check licenced waterproofer in other areas in this forum as he has a lot of good advice on proper basement exterior water proofing.
Posts: 1123 | Location: New Jersey | Registered: 31 January 2006
Well the spots where the horizontal cracks are two in the driveway and one the rear of the building where vehicles are. The wood dosen't rocks it lays flat up against the wall. Yup the driveway is right up against the house which make it kind of hard. Funny thing is when i inspected my neighbors wall it had not one crack in it, his walls are fine.
Various reasons for that. Once being that a large truck could have been parked close to your home rather then yours. Also the back fill against the house. If your backfill has more rock in it the pressure points could cause the breakage. While the cleaner soil next to his will take up movement by displacement.
The question is what does the crack look like? are the edges rounded over and sort of smooth? Has the cracks been painted over the years? if so is there paint bridiging over the cracks or is the paint cracked as well? The answers to this will provide clues to how old the cracks are. Rounded over and smooth edges tell us that the cracks are old. Which means not to much to worry about. The Edges being sharp means that the crack is fairly recent and needs to be watched more closely. Painted with cracks means that the wall has moved sense the last paint job. By knowing when that was or simply guessing based on condition of paint will tell you the age of the movement.
Posts: 1123 | Location: New Jersey | Registered: 31 January 2006
Finsihed basement,Drywall right up against wall where...AHEM...THE problems are.Problems are a control-joint-crack and open rod holes.
Ya won`t KNOW THIS if ya don`t take a piece of drywall down OR as i did, run a water-test on the outside of wall where they water on from inside.Again, they ONLY see water on FLOOR, could have been LIED to by some other companies who may have told them their problem is under floor,crap like 'there is a hydrostatic problem under floor' and other TRASH.
This job cost $925, $50 went for stinky permit Say it like that partly because some cities aren`t there to SEE exactly how wall will be waterproofed,how wall is backfilled.Contract/job isn`t with the city, its between HO and my but,period.Enough rant on that for now,could go on!!! lol
These folks,like many OTHERS have been,will be,could be TAKEN for a RIDE from some other companies. Seen all kinds of crap,supposed remedies and, costs ranging all over the place.
Some will get DUPED into an Inside System and often a FULL-perimeter inside system,costs anywhere from $6,000-$17,000++....thats right.
Hmmm, diagnose why-where water is FIRST entering,sometimes that takes some time...and experience. As i said,cost to FIX the dang problems $925. See why many of us HONEST Contractors don`t-can`t run TV ads,radio ads,Big yellow page ads? Huh?
Some companies would`ve walked away with $3,000,$7,000 or $15,000. See where that MONEY for advertising comes from, got milk?
pizz me off,scamming twinks. And of course, many will tell ya their experts. yeah in their own minds.
By the way, CONTROL JOINTS need to be,should have been WATERPROOFED when house was built.You SEE nothing done here,like many-not all.SO,where was city inspector? Didn`t-still doesn`t matter huh.Not-code in some places huh. See who PAYS for repairs though right?
These folks already tried raisng the grade,ok? Raise the grade OVER the ROOF if ya like, it doesn`t CHANGE the FACT there is a crack in control joint,WIDE-OPEN rod holes.THOSE are-were the problems,thats WHERE water FIRST-entered. Some wanna add curbs,pour 2' concrete agst house,extend downspout extensions 55 miles away from the house,go ahead! lol
Say ya slow down pretty much most water from coming in,some moisture could still cause mold,efflorescence.Radon can still enter, so too can TERMITES,centipedes,ants etc...right into your finsihed basements. Have fun w/them
How about some homeowners who have finished basements,can`t see wall(s).
Why is it mostly-always those who install Inside Systems tell people their problems are under floor,nonsense. Mold or efflorescence on wall(s) will get worse allowing water-moisture to continue to enter.a few may have a 2 part problem w/humidity.
The sump pump won`t stop water entering through cracks etc on outside of walls or tuckpointing needs or openings around bsmt windows.Sump pump can`t do anything for mold,efflorescence that is often on walls due to water-moisture entering from the outside
pics 1-4.. vertical crack,poured wall. They tried patching from inside,still leaks.On 1st floor,drywall directly above has hairline vertical crack.No other movement inside or out.
pics 2,4,5 ...notice wood along floor
pic 5... see floor, quite a bit of water This homeowner was smart to first-remove paneling and NOT get bs`d by INSIDE Co`s. Estimate for Exterior repair $850
-Ept house-block wall pics 6,7,8...notice some efflorescence around bottom course-blocks/behind table, water stains along floor,lil mold.
pics 9,10..corner of basement,a bit of mold,efflorescence,paint peeling... 11, efflorescence been painted over
all this has NOTHING to do with any problem under the basement floor,nothing to do with condensation etc. Its on parts of wall because there are cracks,loose parging on the EXTERIOR of hollow block wall,period. Grade is already raised `n sloped away,downspouts have been extended.
for those w/finished basements or, where some companies install a sheeting against part or most of basement wall there is often mold,MORE than this,not much here.. wall was recently cleaned. Crack(s) widening and sometimes a wall bowing in...YOU won`t know it cuz you can`t see it.You may eventually begin to get a whiff of mold,down the road.
