I am glad I found this site. I have put off installing an interior "french drain" because it really won't solve the problem of the wet basement, other than to hopefully keep the water off the floor. I live in NY having purchased the house approx two years ago. The house was built in 1978. The foundation is block construction. The house does not have oversize gutters. The property grade appears to be okay. Their is an outside basement entrance with a drain. Probably/hopefully a drywell, but I do not know. There is not a concrete step up in the doorway well to block any water, however the doorway well is pitched down to the drain. The basement floor is cracked along three walls of the perimeter, plus a crack from one wall leading into the center of the floor. The floor by the wall where the attached garage is, is not cracked. The problem is that during rains lasting several days or heavy downpours where we get a couple of inches of rain in several hours, the basement floods. There is no sump in the basement. There is a field drain which is connected to a curtain drain approximately 50+ feet from the house. The field drain routinely overflows. The reason is most likely that some genius decided to plant a line of trees directly on top of/next to the curtain drain, the entire legnth of the drain. I suspect that this drain is clogged. I do not believe that water from the field drain is entering the house as the drain appears to be far enough away, plus it is lower in elevation to the house. The basement floods via water rising up through the cracks in the basement floor and when the basement door stairwell drain overflows. The walls appear to have some water stain marks but I have never seen water leak down through the walls. Here is the good news. I have taken the following remedial steps. Maintained the gutters free of debris. Previously they would be clogged and overflow. I have disconnected the downspout which was located by the basement door and temporarily hooked up 50+ feet of drainage line and diverted that gutter away from the house. When it rains heavy and the basement door drain starts to get overwhelmed, I place a "little giant" pump on top of the grate and remove the water away from the house. Between the pump and the temporary downspout hose, I have been able to maintain the basement relatively dry. Before I would get several inches of water in the basement. The last major storm only saw slight dampness in the cracks in the basement floor, and again, the gutters were clogged at the time. I intend to put oversize gutters on the house and permanetly install legnthy downspout lines to discharge the water away from the house. I don't want to waste money on an indoor system if I do not have too. Any and all suggestions will be appreciated. I have an idea of just installing a sump without the interior collection lines. The sump would have holes in the bottom and sides. My thinking is if the water is rising because of the water table, it should be uniformily under the floor. When the water rises, it should spill into the sump through the holes in the bottom and sides of the sump and the pump can discharge the water outside. Is there any rationale to my thinking. The contractors looking to install the interior french drain recommend drilling a hole in the bottom course of the block so any trapped water would drain into the system and be removed out the sump. Any merit to drilling the block? Thanks. Gregg

Well, think about it. If there is water in the block that needs to be drained, your porblem may be partly in the walls, and if so, what needs to be done is to excavate down to the footing outside the walls, repair any cracks, and waterproof the walls, then backfill with gravel. A simple hose test performed during dry weather will reveal where the wall needs repair. Read the posts by LicensedWaterproofR for instructions on how to do the test.

Water doesn't always appear in your basement exactly where it's leaking; it finds the path of least resistance.

Richard, thanks for the reply. I have been thinking about the problem and agree that the best solution would be to dig outside around the house. However all the contractors by me think I have a money tree and can afford to send their kids to college. Unfortunately not the case. I also have a deck and screened in room to contend with. I have no direct evidence of water in the block and can post some pictures of the basement walls if that would help. As far as I know, water has never entered the basement through the walls. All the water has percolated up through the cracks in the floor. At the same time, the drain by the basement door has reached capacity and starts to overflow. My thinking is that the ground water table gets elevated by the intense rain. If that is the case, and water takes the path of least resistance, won't a sump, placed in the corner of the basement, dug down to the footing relieve the water problem? I would drill holes in the side and bottom of the sump to allow water to pour in as the water table rises. Any thoughts? One other thing which has been on my mind. At some point prior to my ownership, the front steps have sunk. I'm starting to believe that whatever outside problem I have is under the steps. The water main to the house is by the steps. My only hesitation is that the water leaks in from the floor in the center of the basement and then in cracks in the floor opposite the wall where the entrance steps are. Thoughts? Thanks.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Gregg,

All the patching with band-aids on either the outside or inside of the basement walls will not help in your situation.

You have a water control problem and not wall leakage problem because of the leakage points.

Because you have an attached garage, exterior perimeter drains would be very difficult and more costly and they would have to be well below the footings if you have water coing up from under the slab. The fact that you generally have water problems surrounding the house increases the possibility of a high(or perched) water table, especially after/during major storms

A single sump is certainaly a cheap possivility to determine if the water table is high, but it can only collect from a relativelt small area unless you have granular soil under the slab. If you put in a perforated collection sump, fill around it with pea rock to increase the collection area. You must have a place to pump the water to and a check valve to prevent the water in the discharge from flowing back, causing short-circuiting and frequent pump cucling.

If you put in interior drain tile, knocking holes in the bottom of the block (where it sits on the footing) will definitely eliminate any pressure to force water through the interior face shell. Place plastic tubes from the hole into the rock around the drain tile. This practice is very common on new home construction and many block producers even make a special block with holes for that purpose.

A single sump is not the best solution, but it will tell you something and provide a single location to collect and pump water from.

There is one source of water that few people recognize and is attributed to excavation and backfill during construction. There are always several trenches for utilities and very frequently an access ramp, depending on the equipment used. If a backhoe was used, there may not be a ramp. The soil that is placed back in these areas is never compacted as well as the native soil, so water will collect in them. They also can act as collectors an funnel water around you foundation. Collection of this water is one of the reasons for drain tile. Can you image how much water can be collected in a 10' wide x 40' long ramp leading into a basement. Your basement may not have been built that way, but it is a good possibility.

You can wish all you want, but the odds are that water is entering your walls, flowing through the cores in the block, and becoming apparent on the floor. It is virtually impossible that you have a high water table that stops, as if by sorcery, exactly at the floor level and no higher. That defies logic.

I wish I could show you the foundation walls of a client who has had years of water entering his basement. He, too, thinks it's from a high water table that stops magically at his floor. However, he can reach down to the bottom course of block and remove the concrete with his bare hands, so deteriorated are they from years of water flowing through them.

The jury is still out on that one, but soon we will know, and in his case also, I believe the walls are guilty until proven innocent, and I know how I'm betting.

If all you're interested in is rudimentary water diversion, yes, a sump might do the trick. If you're interested in a dry, mold-free, insect-free, radon-free healthful basement, then it's a 95% chance that the problem is in the outside walls, and the fix will be, of course, outside.

Concretemasonary, thanks for the info, especially the fact that new construction is using bricks with a hole/notch in them.

Richard, I've been giving a lot of thought to what you say, but during rain storms I watch the drain at the bottom of the basement stairwell and watch the water rise until it gets overwhelmed. Once overwhelmed the water enters the basement through the cracks in the floor. The water that eventually floods the basement is at the same level of the water which is outside the basement door and when high enough, the water in the stairwell pours in under the door to flood the basement. Another thing which I neglected to mention is that my property is sloped. The house which is in front of me is higher and his basement has flooded as well. Along with several other neighbors which are also a little higher in elevation to me. One of the neighbors claim their is a high water table with the nearby reservoirs. Ever since I maintained the gutters and removed the downspout which went straight into the ground by the basement door entrance and replaced it with the 50+ feet of drainage hose, the basement has not flooded. Based upon that I do not believe any of the water is coming through the walls. If the water was coming through the walls, wouldn't the basement still flood despite the 50 foot drainage line I installed?

It's possible that someone originally connected the downspouts to the footing drains. Occasionally some misguided people do this, and what happens is that the downspouts pressurize the footing drains so that they pump water OUT instead of taking water in, and the result is similar to what you have observed.