I have a 5yr.old 2sty. home with a crawlspace and everytime it rains I have a swimming pool in the west end of my crawlspace approx. 8"-10" water(the part of the house that faces west and gets most of the weather) I don't know where to begin to get this remedied. who do I contact and what are the possible solutions and are they costly.

Aprreciate any info! thanks, Betty

Well first, let me warn you about diving...the water isn't deep enough.

Seriously, I am confused by your description of 8 to 10 inches of water at only one end of the crawl space. From that, however, I deduce that the crawl space has an earth floor which is not even close to level.

I think it's time for LicensedWaterproofer's trusty hose test. On a dry day, run a garden hose near the foundation wall and see where and how the water comes in. Does it come through the wall? Does it rise up from the crawl space floor?

Depending on what you discover, the answer is probably still the same. The likely solution will be to excavate (by hand) about 18 inches outside the west foundation wall, ans apply a waterproof membrane (LicensedWaterproofer recommends 6-mil polyethylene film, not expensive, but I have also seen waterproofing shingle underlayment, normally used on roofs, used successfully) in a thick brush coating of bituminous dampproofing, and then backfilling the excavation with peastone.

However, hopefully, LicensedWaterproofer will arrive with more words of wisdom, and explain where you might turn for someone to do the job, and approximately the price range you should expect.

Thanks Richard for the info. My crawlspace is not level and at one end of the house(the lowest end) when it rains it accumulates around 8-10' of water in that one corner of the crawl space. My lot is not level- it slopes and I get my neighbors water run off because they did not channel their gutters to the road underground like I did. So from your info I gather I need to contact a licensed waterproofer and they can assurtain the problem and can also fix it.
Apologize for my lingo but this is my first posting and I am single homeowner who is not very savy when it comes to this lingo. I just know that is not normal to have such accumulation of water in a crawlspace and with my numerous allergies(one being mold!) i need to address the problem. Thanks again!

Sorry, the LicensedWaterproofer I referred to is a gentleman who posts on this forum a great deal, and who would have more to say about your problem.

What I have to say about it is this: if the foundation were properly built and if it has suffered no failures, then water SHOULD not enter, even if your neighbor sends you The Great Flood. (well, MAYBE then...)

So, either the foundation was not correctly built, or something has failed. Unfortunaltely, there is no way to tell which, without looking, and to look, someone must dig.

In order to avoid digging where digging isn't necessary, a hose test will serve to indicate where the water is entering the crawl space.

If you see your neighbor's roof water running up against your house, then for one thing, your land is not properly graded, and maybe it should be re-graded to direct the water away from and around the house.

For your neighbor's water to affect you, your neighbor must, of course, be higher than you, but you say the water collects at the low end of the crawl space. The question is, though, where does it come in, and why?

If you read LicensedWaterproofer's many posts here, you will learn that there is no end to the number of "witch doctors" in the waterproofing business, most of whom do not waterproof at all, they simply allow the water in, and deal with it inside your house. That is not solving a problem...it is like giving an injured man a crutch rather than healing him.

I would start at the high side of your house, and run a hose full blast for about 45 minutes, and see if water begins to enter the crawl space. If it does, you've found at least part of the problem. Then I'd move the hose around to the front or back, wherever you feel that water may be running toward your house, and do it again, and see what happens. And so on, until you've done the whole foundation, and can say "water comes in here and here, but not there and there". Do only one area each day, so you can be sure where water is entering.

Now you have a "road-map" of how to fix the problem, and you can hire a contractor and give him explicit instructions. First dig, and then look. Either the foundation is not waterproofed, or it has cracked. Less likely, but possible, is that there is a high water table in your area, but let's forget this for the moment, because if that were the case, you'd probably have water ALL the time. At this point, I will refer you to any of LicensedWaterproofer's posts for further instructions about what to do.

He and I are always here, so please, get back to either of us with questions. And good luck!

Richard I want to say "Thanks" for the info. it sure has shed light on the situation.

Our pleasure.

You might want to check out www.basementsystems.com for a local distributor for you crawl space waterproofing.

Richard has some very wise advise. It is possible that you have hydrostatic water issues, (especially with the dirt floor), or it is a problem with the foundation.
Certainly you want to keep your neigbors water out of your house, but make sure your gutters, grade and landscaping are kept away from your house as well.
Consider having a sump installed in that corner,(Tepmorary solution for removing the water you should not be getting).

Simply overdig the lowest corner, set in a 5 gal. pail full of small holes in the bottom, & surround the entire pail with gravel.

Assuming I spelled pail correctly, you should be fine.

You might also want to check with someone who knows real estate law. I had a similar problem in California and the neighbors were responsible for some hefty repair costs.

Betty-I agree with all of the above-but since I see you are from TN, I will give you one more possibility IF you can find NO foundation breach where the water is coming in.This is from personal experience.We had done all of the above and could find no above ground water source.However, recalling that we had hit bedrock when digging the retaining wall to the back(high side) of the house, we found that saturation(water soaking into the ground at the high point of the hill and hillside) was following the underground rock crevices under the foundation and becoming trapped in the crawl space (where there was only 10-20" of dirt above the rock. We did install a catch basin and sump pump, as that was our best option.But we had to add additional support piers because the shallow wet dirt under the concrete caused some of them to sink.(We did not know we were building our house on mud-sort of) If you are on bedrock, you may have under- ground water seeping up.
Calling a professional foundation person is a good idea. As a woman, get references, get recommendations from friends,etc.,if this is a new house, get your contractor involved or at least a recommendation from him, get several estimates and opinions(which should be free) -and GET IT IN WRITING.
Good Luck -
Dealing with contractors Daily

Betty,
I would also check with the state building codes, in Florida a homeowner is required to keep the first 1" of rain water on their property. In terms of water this a lot of water that must be kept on the owners property. If TN has the same code you can force your neighbor to comply. If not I would have a french drain built along the property line or a swall that would channel the water to the street. Once the winter rains start you may see more than 8- 10" water.

I hope this isn't a repeat of previous posting. I had a similar issue about 3 houses ago. It turns out the sump pump had been unplugged. I plugged it in and it ran for many hours (days?) before burning out, so I had to replace it. Before running off with expensive solutions, try testing your existing sump pump, assuming you have one. Pour a 5-gallon bucket of water in the sump. If that isn't enough to trigger it to turn on, manually trigger it (lift the ball or whatever). If it doesn't turn on, you've located the problem. If you don't have a sump and sump pump, that also should be rectfied (see previous post re: "temporary sump"), but permanently. To fix the source of the water problem, you, or the neighbor, will have to dig a proper swail between the houses to channel the water away. If you have a village or county engineer, you should be able to get decent advice from him/her, especially about the swail and re-grading. And that shouldn't cost you anything.
Good Luck!

Betty, I ran into a similar problem in southwest missouri. The neighboring lot was higher than this lot, the house was lower than the street, and the lot sloped to the house without a swale to direct surface flows around the house. After careful inspection, I noticed that the sewer service line from the house penetrated the foundation wall and hadn't been sealed properly. Also, when the service line was installed under the house the trench hadn't been backfilled thus creating a perfect channel to the lower part of the crawlspace. Therefore whenever it rained, the neighbors runoff and that from the front yard collected at the front of the house where the sewer service line penetrated the foundation wall and drained through the wall and trench to the lower crawlspace.
Your house being in TN, Siber's thought about subsurface flows is also a very real possibility.

If it's underground water flow, chances are there would be water all the time.