The addition is not on a concrete slab but there is one beside it as shown in the 2nd pic. It does have a crawlspace underneath it.
I want to thank you guys for all your help. I wish you guys were closer to come out to look at the house...thats why I'm showing all the pics Unless someones travel takes them to South Central PA
The pics were taken by my 8MP camera so they are quite huge.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Daveyd,
As I said, water can enter in one place and travel within walls to another which is where it appears. It remains a possibility that the load from the addition footing has caused a crack in the basement wall, but that's no more than a wild guess. With the concrete slab outside in that location, a hose test will be nearly impossible...at least I think so. LicensedWaterproofR may have a method.
Architect (NY) and Home Designer (PA)
Posts: 2492 | Location: Tobyhanna, PA | Registered: 24 October 2005
Here is a reply I got from a soil expert about the soil around my house. Not quite sure what it all means LOL
The type of Soil on your property is called Klinesville. Your property actually has two types of Klinesville. Your property slopes downward towards the back based on the contour I can see on the map. Both soils on the property have a water table when present of >6 feet. It's water holding capacity is very low. According to the description the soil consists of shallow, somewhat excessively drained soils on uplands. Typically these soils have dark reddish brown very shaley silt loam surface layer 5 inches thick. Bedrock is about 19 inches down. They are not hydric soils. The susceptibility of concrete to corrosion when in contact with this soil type is high.
Beats me, I just draw the pictures, and I never did understand those > and < symbols...one neans "more than" and one means "less than", but they are illogical and I don't use them enough to remember which is which.
Architect (NY) and Home Designer (PA)
Posts: 2492 | Location: Tobyhanna, PA | Registered: 24 October 2005
Well, here in South Central PA, we just had about 5 thunderstorms in a row and they dumped a total of around 5 inches of rain. Guess what, my stupid basement is leaking again.
It is mostly leaking at the cove joint of the interior wall that separates the 2 sides of the basement. It leaks the entire lenght of the cove joint.
First time I noticed this...I can hear the wall "gurgling" from the cove joint area on the far left side of the first picture. Uhhh...why do my walls gurgle????
Water is cascading through the cores of your block wall and landing at the bottom, where it's contained in the bottom couple of courses by the footing. That's my guess. The continuous flow of water through the cores in the wall causes the gurgling.
Architect (NY) and Home Designer (PA)
Posts: 2492 | Location: Tobyhanna, PA | Registered: 24 October 2005
Where the seepage starts is always the same...at the bottom of my concrete basement steps that lead up to the attached garage and the cove joint closest to the wall where my garage is.
If in fact water is coming in from under my attached garage, then what?
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Daveyd,
LicensedWaterproofR has described a method where they remove about 18 inches of the garage floor slab, repair and waterproof the foundation, and replace the concrete with new concrete. It's the same technique that he uses when he has to waterproof a wall that has a driveway right up against it.
Architect (NY) and Home Designer (PA)
Posts: 2492 | Location: Tobyhanna, PA | Registered: 24 October 2005
Originally posted by Richard Hetzel: LicensedWaterproofR has described a method where they remove about 18 inches of the garage floor slab, repair and waterproof the foundation, and replace the concrete with new concrete. It's the same technique that he uses when he has to waterproof a wall that has a driveway right up against it.
Hey LicensedWaterproofR....how much would you charge to come to South Central PA?? All we have around here are interior system guys
Any idea why I would have water seeping in from one side of the interior wall cove joint and no the opposite side of the same interior wall?
Also, I have a mono pour basement floor. I guess my waterproofing options are limited?
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Daveyd,
Originally posted by Daveyd: Well, here in South Central PA, we just had about 5 thunderstorms in a row and they dumped a total of around 5 inches of rain. Guess what, my stupid basement is leaking again.
It is mostly leaking at the cove joint of the interior wall that separates the 2 sides of the basement. It leaks the entire lenght of the cove joint.
First time I noticed this...I can hear the wall "gurgling" from the cove joint area on the far left side of the first picture. Uhhh...why do my walls gurgle????
Where water appears can have very little to do with where water enters. Is that wall a block wall, or a stud wall? Is one side of it the garage at the basement level? It's hard to comment without seeing the whole picture. If that's the garage and basement on the same level, the floor doesn't matter. The water isn't very likely coming through the floor, it's coming in a wall somewhere. It could be coming in where the wall in the picture meets an outside wall, and running through the pictured wall.
I'm sure there's a foundation contractor or even a general contractor in your area who could fix the problem, but first, someone has to find the problem, and often contractors aren't very good at that part unless they're a specialist like LicensedWaterproofR or his colleages.
Architect (NY) and Home Designer (PA)
Posts: 2492 | Location: Tobyhanna, PA | Registered: 24 October 2005
Originally posted by Richard Hetzel: Where water appears can have very little to do with where water enters. Is that wall a block wall, or a stud wall? Is one side of it the garage at the basement level? It's hard to comment without seeing the whole picture. If that's the garage and basement on the same level, the floor doesn't matter. The water isn't very likely coming through the floor, it's coming in a wall somewhere. It could be coming in where the wall in the picture meets an outside wall, and running through the pictured wall.
I'm sure there's a foundation contractor or even a general contractor in your area who could fix the problem, but first, someone has to find the problem, and often contractors aren't very good at that part unless they're a specialist like LicensedWaterproofR or his colleages.
The garage floor is level with the main level in my house. The basement is about 8 feet below the garage...Here are the steps that lead to the basement from the garage. http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/4306/1000697gq5.jpg Water comes in at the bottom of those steps too as well as the cove joint in the above linked pics.
It seems obvious that the water is entering in the wall below the garage, and it seems obvious that the cure is going to be in the garage, or more accurately, under it. One question is, how are the stairs constructed? They look like concrete stairs, which would have probably been poured on the ground, and if water is entering under the stairs, excavating under them probably won't be feasible. I wonder if the wall below the garage goes past the stairs to the outside wall. If it does, then waterproofing that wall might be the cure.
I also wonder how deep the garage footimgs are. If they are higher than the basement floor, then they might be the cause of the water entering, because they might have caused a failure of the basement wall by exerting lateral loads on the wall.
Architect (NY) and Home Designer (PA)
Posts: 2492 | Location: Tobyhanna, PA | Registered: 24 October 2005
You are correct, the stairs are poured concrete...little hard to excavate them.
At 50 seconds to 1:03 in the video, there is a shot of wall that is below the garage. It starts (or ends) at the basement steps and continues left from the unfinished side to the finished side (intersecting the interior wall) and ends at the far end of the finished side.
So in essence, the entire wall under the garage runs the length of the garage above, ending (or starting however you look at it) at the basement steps.
Hope that makes sense
When I had an exterior guy come out, he "probed" the garage with a long pole at reached the garage footer about 5 feet down. He went around to the back of the house and probed the basement footer and reached it about 9' down
We can only guess at the cause, but since the water appears at the base of the stairs and at that interior wall, I suspect the wall below the garage, in the area between the stairs and the interior wall. If I were LicensedWaterproofR, I would know how to attack the issue, but I only draw the pictures. Hopefully, LW will be back on this forum shortly, and I'm sure he's done waterproofing in similar situations.
He can be found under the name of "John Bubber" on this forum: http://www.nachi.org/forum/ You might go there and invite him back to discuss your issues here.
Architect (NY) and Home Designer (PA)
Posts: 2492 | Location: Tobyhanna, PA | Registered: 24 October 2005
Originally posted by Richard Hetzel: Beats me, I just draw the pictures, and I never did understand those > and < symbols...one neans "more than" and one means "less than", but they are illogical and I don't use them enough to remember which is which.
Ahh come on Richard, don't you remember grade school, the alligator always eats the bigger meal (number) 40 > 2...
General Contractor/Home Builder
Posts: 288 | Location: Minnesota | Registered: 15 January 2007
Yes, but if someone writes " >40 ", is that "greater than 40" or "less than 40"? The symbol in that case is completely illogical to me. I wish they would just write the words, and no, we didn't have that in grade school, or even high school.
Architect (NY) and Home Designer (PA)
Posts: 2492 | Location: Tobyhanna, PA | Registered: 24 October 2005
Well, just had a guy come over an look at my basement. Here is the explanation he gave me...
I have a monolithic floor that looks as it was poured 2 separate times due to the size of the 2 sides of the basement separated by the block interior wall. When they did 2 sides it created a seam in the floor and it looks as if the seam is leaking.
He was saying the heavy rains over a short period of time created a high water table under the monolithic floor and pushed water up through the cracks in the floor seam.
It does kind of make sense as I saw water coming in from the floor in the middle of the door where the 2 "sides" of the basement meet...and there is no block there.
Why are the walls around the sump concrete? Shouldn't there be holes or soemthing in the sump to allow water from under the basement floor to drain into it? The only hole in the sump is pictured at the top and is for the footer drain.
It seems like the sumps only purpose is to get rid of the water that the footer drain produces. Is that normal? Could that be the cause of my problem? Water building up under the basement floor not being able to get to the sump and casuing it to backup and eventually come through the floor iteslf?
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Daveyd,
I don't know what you mean by "monolithic" floor. Monolithic means "one piece", and if there's a joint in your floor, it isn't monolithic.
I very much doubt that there's a joint under the bearing wall, because that wall needs a footing, and footings don't have joints in the middle of them. I don't know how big your basement is, but from the pictures I've seen, it wouldn't seem to be big enough to require two separate pours.
So, there are some things that don't add up.
As far as the sump is concerned, the builders probably didn't anticipate any water problems under the floor, and therefore just built the sump to handle the footing drains. However, there is no reason why you couldn't put holes in the sides of the sump to allow under-floor water to drain into it. Place the holes so that their centers are 6 inches below the top of your floor slab, so that they align with the gravel layer that should be under the floor.
Architect (NY) and Home Designer (PA)
Posts: 2492 | Location: Tobyhanna, PA | Registered: 24 October 2005
One more thing I just observed. Looking at my sump pit, it is about 18 inches deep. I can put my hand in one corner of the pit and actually reach under the corner. I assume I am actually reaching under the basement floor? As soon as I drain all the water out of the pit, I notice water running into the pit from that corner. I assume that would be water that is coming into the pit under the basement floor??
That is the only corner of the pit I can put my hand in and reach under. My question is, if water is getting unnder my basement floor, should I dig the sump pit a lot lower so I can let any water come into the pit that is under the floor? Is that feasible?
