I inherited a family home that my father (Carpenter by trade) built in 1950. There has never been any water in the basement over these many years. The basement is completely finished and carpeted. The basement is divided into 3 areas. The main area of the basement is approx. 26' wide by 30' long. This is divided into 2 complete sections(one side is a large livingroom 14'x 30', the other side a large laundry room 12'x 30'.) These areas mentioned are separated by a full length red brick wall, (with fireplace) in the livingroom and a doorway to enter the laundry room. The third room is a small room (separated by an inside cement wall) that is approx. 11' wide and 14'6' long. All the basement area is completely under ground. There were Terra Cotta french drains installed all around the house, but I do not know where they drain too, as our house is in a housing development and our lot only has a slight slop down to the paved road.
I have 2 main problems. 14 years ago we had the small basement area remolded into a bar area. The contractor shot nails into the furring strips at the bottom of the cement block, to attach the paneling to the walls (walls are cement block.) When he did this we started to get a small stream of water flowing from the cement block. We patched the holes with Dry Loc and thought it was all sealed. Over the years I could see a wet spot on the carpet in the closet area where we had the problem with the nails holes.
3 weeks ago we had the worst rain storm ever in this Western Pennsylvania area. We were away at the time. With out going into a lot of detail, our back yard slops a little more than the front, and the 3 neighbors behind us drain their downspouts into a alley behind our house. We have back yard drains to catch the run off. This drains into a gravel pit about 45' in the front of our house. Only problem was this storm was unexpected and we had by mistake had blocked the backyard drains. Our back yard was flooded, but it did not get into our window wells. The bar area got damp carpet in the closet and the carpet in one corner of an outside wall was wet. We decided to finally fix the closet area. Upon tearing the carpet from this area we found wet moldy tack strips that held the carpet in the closet. We then removed the paneling, sheetrock, and foam insulation, about 2 feet up from the floor. We wanted to see what kind of problem we had. The furring strips along the floor was rotted but we had no mold growing to speak of. There was not any water to amount to any thing and we patched it again, with hydraulic cement. We didn't tackle the corner of the outside wall as this would have been a major problem trying to tear the paneling, baseboard and glued mirrors off this wall.
This is my problem in this area. We can not get to the bottom on the foundation in the bar area as all 3 walls are inside walls and are covered with the garage (built on the long side of this wall, and the garage is not underground) the front porch is on the front of this wall, and the back patio is attached to the back side of this area. We would have to remove the cement floor in the garage and dig 8'to the footer and the same with the cement floor in the enclosed patio, and remove the whole front porch area (which is not possible.) How can we properly fix this bar area? We only fixed the closet area and have not looked behind the wall in the corner where we are getting a damp carpet?
Next Problem area is the basement livingroom. The short wall area is getting light brown spots in the wall, some as high as 5'6". Two years ago we had a skim coat of swirled plaster put on the walls, and it is lifting in a small spots about 12" from the floor. We think this wall may be a poured cement wall, because trying to hang a picture with a star drill bit was very difficult to drill into the cement. Although this does not seem likely as the rest of the foundation was cement block. When the basement living room area was remodeled in the late 50's (and the brick fireplace wall put up) there was another 2 inches of concrete floor added to the original cement floor. I guess this room was raised in case the hot water tank or washer over-flowed in the laundry room, it would not run into the livingroom area. There are 2 floor drains in the laundry area, I don't think there are any in the livingroom area. Before we moved in, there was tile floor in the livingroom area and no drains were exposed before we carpeted over the tile floor.
In the laundry area in the corner (on the same wall that is giving me trouble in the living room) there is a 4'x 8'glazed tile shower. It also was installed after the original concrete floor was poured. This has an second poured concrete floor (2" higher) over the the original floor. The glazed tile sits on top the added concrete floor. Lately after a very hard rain we are getting water draining from some spots under the glazed tile. This is running down the floor drain in the shower.
I know this is a long post but I needed to explain the whole problem to you. We had two waterproofing companies come and they both want to install inside french drains. This is not a option to me. What do you suggest I do as I can not get to the leaking walls in the bar area, but I could dig down to the footer by the wall that I has the spots and a slight leakage in the living room. The front of our house has a roof covered, raised cement porch that enters into our living room, a roof covered, raised cement porch, attached the garage that enters into the kitchen, and the back of our house has a large roof covered, enclosed patio. We can only get to a small area of our foundation to seal the walls or put in new french drains. I have no way of knowing how the old french drains are.
Please help with any suggestions you may have. Also do you think our basement cement blocks walls are filled with water, and how do we drain them?
The outside of our house is a 2 story brick house with our window wells below the ground with cement block forms built around them. They are filled with small pebbles for drainage.
Waiting to hear from you, Singer
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Singer,
to determine if there is a crack(s) on the outside....of your your hollow-block wall, run a hose--a water test at ground level. have the hose near full blast `n aimed at area`s in question/where you leak. hold it or lay it at ground level a few inches away from wall.
let it soak the ground for up-to an hour. 'if' you begin to get water on basement floor then, there IS an opening(s)/crack etc on the outside of the wall & it needs to be Waterproofed `n backfilled correctly.
if you do not get any water in then there is no problem on outside of wall and that leaves either....water is entering through 'above' ground openings on the outside of where you get water inside or, you have a blockage UNDER the floor which might be corrected by having an honest/exp. plumber snake through storm trap, just ran several estimates where THIS was The problem.
other than condensation or a leaky plumbing fixture, 'most' basements leak due to Outside cracks/openings...running a hose will show you if there is a problem on the outside of the block wall. again, also look very closely for ANY openings above grade, around windows, doors, tuckpointing needs,chimney etc.
Posts: 710 | Location: Michigan | Registered: 24 August 2005
Licensed Waterprofer, How do I know if there is still water in the blocks? Can it remain in there indefinitely and does it need drained out? What do you mean by a storm trap and where would I find it? The only open drains are the basement floor drains and the back yard runoff drains. We have already tested the down spout drains and the back yard run off drains by putting a hose in them. They are running fine.
Also How would I determine where the water is coming from at the other end of the house where the basement bar area is located? That wall has the brick garage attached to it, built at the same time as the house. That area can not be a cracked wall since the garage is attached to it for surface water, or can it? Is it possible for water to run all the way around the house and come in the wall from the floor, or is it from the nail gun that was used to attach the furring strips. What are your thoughts? Thanks again, Singer
Originally posted by Singer: Licensed Waterprofer, How do I know if there is still water in the blocks? Can it remain in there indefinitely and does it need drained out? What do you mean by a storm trap and where would I find it? The only open drains are the basement floor drains and the back yard runoff drains. We have already tested the down spout drains and the back yard run off drains by putting a hose in them. They are running fine.
Also How would I determine where the water is coming from at the other end of the house where the basement bar area is located? That wall has the brick garage attached to it, built at the same time as the house. That area can not be a cracked wall since the garage is attached to it for surface water, or can it? Is it possible for water to run all the way around the house and come in the wall from the floor, or is it from the nail gun that was used to attach the furring strips. What are your thoughts? Thanks again, Singer
Singer,
when a homeowner has a finished basement,thats how one can determine if water is entering through a crack or other opening in bsmt wall. One could also take drywall down to view wall(s), many do not want to go through that
cracks `n other openings occur over the years so, when someone says they`ve never had a problem/leak in 20,40+ years it doesn`t mean they`ll NEVER have one, know what i mean?
Water can certainly accumulate,percolate & get under a garage floor, driveway/patio etc and enter, especially upon heavy-long rains.I`m not saying this is your problem, just it could be. Could be openings Above ground, around the flashing,open mortar joints etc.
if you have water trapped in some of the blocks you would most likely see water continually seeping in, and/or,continued wet/damp spots on wall, sweating `n mold. Not always, mostly. When basement wall are covered it obviously harder to tell and more difficult to deduce problem(s) areas and remedy.sure, it needs to be drained out but also finding out how its entering to begin with. you can call me to discuss if ya like
Posts: 710 | Location: Michigan | Registered: 24 August 2005
were fairly close to you month or so ago, know where Clearfield PA is?
because of the very hard labor it takes to hand dig week after week, year after year AND, since Inside Systems require much LESS in materials...most these days want to or only do these Inside systems. yep, much easier to do and one can make much more money BUT, it is NOT what most need to stop/prevent water from entering, to stop mold,efflorescence,outside soil pressure etc.
Posts: 710 | Location: Michigan | Registered: 24 August 2005
