I have very much the same problem that "palges40" (Paul) has had! With some variations... My water problems are ground water problems.. water comes up thru all the cracks (& the space between wall and floor) in the floor leaving every wall in the basement totally dry. I have done my research in as much as I know there is a path of ground water flow coming from several blocks away uphill and can be pretty much traced by who has water problems during the rainy season. My neighbors on either side are dry as a bone! I have a cinder block house and again no leaks on any walls. here is what I think the problem is... Hydraulic water movement under the uphill side of the footing into the area under the floor causing back pressure and then of course water in my basement. I will do the french drains if I have to but first would like to try rebuidling my sump. The house is over 50 years old and the builder put in a tiny little sump about the size of a one gallon bucket. This causes the pump to cycle on and off repeatadly during wet times... it never catches up. What I would like to do is increase the size and depth of the sump to fit the sump pits normally sold... about 36 inches deep. Here is the most puzzeling thing... I am on a ledge... and I am darned sure the sump is so small because of the ledge... Should I dig 36 inches deep into the limestone to get that depth? it would be quite a job with a jack hammer to do this. I am sure if I just opened the sump enough to expose the area between the concrete floor and the ledge... it might just relieve all the hydraullic pressure and stop most of the cracks from leaking. Am I on the right track? Thank you in advance Ralph
The deeper your sump, the deeper you can set your water level limit switches. That will give you a lower water level around your house and less pressure under the slab. This will minimize or eliminate the water coming up from under your slab or between the wall/slab joint.
This is where to start. - If it solves the problem, you may not need the perforated drain tile. - In any event, you always start at the sump.
Posts: 172 | Location: Minnesota | Registered: 28 July 2007
thanks for your input... I felt I was on the right track... but hate to jackhammer into solid ledge for 3 feet! LOL I dug outside the downhill side of the foundation and sure enough... good ole Kentucky limestone! thanks... I hope to get this started within this next week. Ralph
I'm in the same situation the others have mentioned. Small stream in the backyard, and when that floods, it floods the basement through the floor.
It's only about 1/2-3/4 thick, poured over dirt....the pressure from the water heaves the floor up, and floods the basement.
I'm thinking of doing exactly what Richard Hetzel said about breaking the floor, digging down, stone, plastic, rebar, and pouring a 4 inch slab overtop....any other suggestions? Also will be digging the sump pump basin down further, and adding a second pump
Posts: 1 | Location: Bethlehem, PA | Registered: 15 March 2009
If you are going to have the floor removed you should probably run drain tile around the perimeter. It is inexpensive and could help move water in the event of the once in a hundred year storm, that we seem to have every year now. Use 4" schedule 35 p.v.c. perforated. Holes face down. High point equal distances to your sumps and try and achieve an inch drop every 15' or so. The drop is not actually necessary, but it doesn't hurt. The tile will feed into the sides of your crock. If you have a cement block foundation, I would also drill weep holes into the bottom course, the blocks that sit beneath the floor, in the event that in the future if water enters the walls it has a way out.
Originally posted by Ralph7945: I have very much the same problem that "palges40" (Paul) has had! With some variations... My water problems are ground water problems.. water comes up thru all the cracks (& the space between wall and floor) in the floor leaving every wall in the basement totally dry. I have done my research in as much as I know there is a path of ground water flow coming from several blocks away uphill and can be pretty much traced by who has water problems during the rainy season. My neighbors on either side are dry as a bone! I have a cinder block house and again no leaks on any walls. here is what I think the problem is... Hydraulic water movement under the uphill side of the footing into the area under the floor causing back pressure and then of course water in my basement. I will do the french drains if I have to but first would like to try rebuidling my sump. The house is over 50 years old and the builder put in a tiny little sump about the size of a one gallon bucket. This causes the pump to cycle on and off repeatadly during wet times... it never catches up. What I would like to do is increase the size and depth of the sump to fit the sump pits normally sold... about 36 inches deep. Here is the most puzzeling thing... I am on a ledge... and I am darned sure the sump is so small because of the ledge... Should I dig 36 inches deep into the limestone to get that depth? it would be quite a job with a jack hammer to do this. I am sure if I just opened the sump enough to expose the area between the concrete floor and the ledge... it might just relieve all the hydraullic pressure and stop most of the cracks from leaking. Am I on the right track? Thank you in advance Ralph
Hi my name is Anthony or Tony and I have been doing wet basement repairs for 15 years now. When you mentioned a small sump pump, were your refering to the size of the bucket? I am assuming you were. The problem with that is they don't go deep enough to keep the water table below the floor. A lot of my customers have used a five gallon pail. The problem is the water table has to literately come to the floor level to bring the float switch high enough to kick the pump on. Go buy a standard sump-pump-pit so that you know you are deep enough. I also noticed you said your house is cinder block. Cinder block foundation are extremely pourous. I have drilled holes into them to screw the Delta Membrane to it and when I pulled my hammer drill out, water was literately pissing out of the holes. Water was pissing out 3-5 feet from the wall. My point is if just the sump pit doesn't fix your problem you will have to, later down the road, install weeping tile and Delta Membrane on the interior of your foundation. You would break the concrete floor along the wall, but only break about one foot away from the wall. You want to expose the footing and be 5" further from the footing so you can fit your perforated PVC or perforated Big-O weeping tile beside the footing. It is done exactly the same as done on the outside. The Delta Membrane has to be installed first. It gets screwed to the wall, only come 3' up the wall, fold it so it can come out from the wall(so it can lay flat on the footing) fold it down again so it can lay along the side of the footing. The membrane that is folded will be held in position from the weeping tile. The weeping tile will go against the footing and push it tight to the footing so it can hold the membrane down. I repeat the membrane comes down the wall, over the footing and down the footing. Pour small washed rock on top of the weeping tile until you have only 2" of space left to pour cement back in. The cement will be level with the floor and will be right against the membrane on the wall. After a day or two you can frame your stud walls right on top of you new cement. It won't hurt it and studding the wall will hide all the work you did. I promise you this solution will catch water from any direction. I don't care if it was rain water coming in the wall or ground water. The purpose for the Delta membrane is that it has bumps on it which leave a gap for the water to flow down to the footing and then into the weeping tile. If you only had weeping tile it would only catch the ground water. If water leaks through the cinder blocks or any cracks on the wall it will still run right on to your floor. If you want pictures of this done you can call me at 403-347-7076, which is Red Deer Alberta, and I can either e-mail you photos or send them by mail.
another inside system wizard in the great white north eh? Ummm,duh,now why ya think WATER is coming out of the holes ya drilled in the blocks? Where o glory-be where is the water getting INTO the blocks? Some will never get it and some simply don`t want to because all that matters to them is selling homeowners the one thing they do which does not repair/waterproof exterior cracks/blocks.Some of these bozos will tell homeowners 'they dig outside'...lol.Yeah,they dig outside alright,about 1' deep or so,big deal,just trying to channel a lil surface water away.....for a lil awhile,that doesn`t repair/waterproof anything either.Same ***ttt different day.
