House we own was built in 1935, previous owners put in some french drains on the exterior of the house 10-15 years ago. We had about 3" of total rain over the past day here, thus flooding my basement.
This has normally been a small headache at best, happening 2-5 times a year, the issues now that this is a finished side that we use, ruining the carpet and drywall.
The water has been coming at a pretty steady speed, there is a floor drain, but the concrete floor is not laid to drain towards the drain, go figure. My father and I plan to snake the existing drains to see what we can get, but I am having the feeling that I will be having someone come in to install a interior drain with a sump setup. Does anyone have any experience with these at all?
Sump pump wont do much if the foundation/walls are leaking,my basement has been leaking like that for decades and general repair figures point in the direction of 8-10k.A sump pump only comes in handy if the basement is completly flooded,we get streams of water coming in from all directions and probably 25% makes it in the sump pump.My basement was pimp at one point,furnished with a bar and pool table,now its really moldy.
Your best bet is to hire a professional basement waterproofing company to at least come in and give you an estimate. More than likely they will recommend:
Add gutters if the house doesn’t already have them to get roof runoff away from the foundation.
Install or add more drain tile outside the house to get the water away from the foundation.
Inspect the foundation to determine if waterproofing can be done from the inside (minor leaks) or needs to be excavated on the outside and waterproofed from there (more serious leaks).
If you have a wet basement, you will spend $10k getting it fixed from the outside.
Where exactly is the water coming from? Seeping through cynder block walls?
When I bought my house the basement was a mess. 3 or 4 active cracks were leaking.
Each crack was patched from the inside to divert the water into the tile under the house.
~$150 per IIRC.
It’s not an absolute fix from the outside in like what would be required, but I don;t have $10k laying around.
i had dampness coming through… no running water or leaks. concrete would just constantly be damp unless i ran a humidifier 24/7.
i used two coats of home depot brand drylok… forgot the name, but it protects up to 10psi of external pressure. seems to work very well so far. my basement is only 6’ underground however.
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i had dampness coming through… no running water or leaks. concrete would just constantly be damp unless i ran a humidifier 24/7.
i used two coats of home depot brand drylok… forgot the name, but it protects up to 10psi of external pressure. seems to work very well so far. my basement is only 6’ underground however.
My 1939 house is the same way… no sump. Get the same seepage/leakage/etc.
Its a basement only for this place, no way to finish it safely/nicely without a boatload of $$ to re-do the drainage system; like everyone said to completely fix it you’re looking a solid 10k.
There are plenty of companys that can do this work, if you are looking for a good reputable one, look up PJK waterproofing. I know the owner and he does very good work. I did a few jobs with them and they work hard and do the job right.
Sean, if you want to bring a waterproofer in, let me know. I have two different local companies that could give you a little direction. Essentially you can use their direction to make your own game plan… to give you a gauge depending on the level of waterproofing, it can run anywhere from 2500 to 15,000. I’ve had a couple clients on either side of the scale. Exterior work is always best, but is also typically the most expensive. The most expensive interior that I’ve been involved was a 100+yr old home in Sewickley with a limestone foundatoin. It’s was pricey, over 10k and has been bone dry ever since. I don’t think that is what you’ll need to deal with though… either way, shoot me a txt or pm or e-mail and I’ll pass both companies info over to you.
Waterproofing won’t help, drainage is needed. Sump pumps don’t pump out basements, they collect water from UNDER the foundation that move to the sump pit via gravel back fill all aound the foundation.
If you have water coming in walls, sealing them will not work because the cracks are what allow the seepage, and seal the inside so the water soaks the entire wall thickness will just promote more cracking.
If you have a finished basement with poor foundation drainage your asking for major issues. Best bet is to collect the water as best you can and pump it out, but if it’s coming in the walls chances are there is little or no stone fill outside the walls. A situation that cannot fixed by inside repairs or patches.
Companies will promise you the world, but it’s like fixing a pipe with electrical tape.
While I agree the best way is to treat a problem from the outside, sometimes it is not practical. An interior system done right can be a long term solution. Sometimes it is the best solution.
The house I mentioned earlier that had an over 10K interior system installed would have easily cost three times as much to try to treat from the outside. On either side of the house there was roughly 8 feet between houses. Of that eight feet, only half of it was the house property. One side had cobblestone pavers from side to side, and I say cobblestone because they were that old… The other side had concrete from house to house minus a 2 foot mulch bed down the one side. Both front and rear had porches, rear had a patio and front had a sidewalk that connected the two sides and led to a few stairs and retaining wall going towards the sidewalk/street.
The cost to excavate around the house, disconnecting/reconnecting the a/c, as well as repouring all of the concrete and putting everything back to normal… it just didn’t make sense against the cost of the interior work done.
aaahh, I just re-read your post n20junkie… I look at waterpoofing, as far as purge coats and waterproofing paints as piece of mind gestures. Purges can help if it’s a sweating wall, but if water’s coming through… it’s only a matter of time before the water comes through the purge coat. Same with the waterproofing paint. When I finished the basement at my old house, I painted with the Behr Waterproofing paint. Supposedly good up to 10psi (?really?whatever?) for the peace of mined, and because it went on so easy with a roller unlike the old drylok paints.
But here is where waterproofing could be a matter or terminology. There are more than one versions of waterproofing, and you need to choose the one that isn’t just a band-aid. Slapping drylok paint on the wall can be called waterproofing, but so can a proper internal or external french drain. One puts lipstick on the problem, the other solves it.
Thanks for the replies guys. The walls are not leaking at all. It is actually coming up from under the foundation. The water just seems to be building up like a dam and finding its way in. There was probably 75-100 gallons that came through where the foundation and floor meet. My father and I snaked out the three drains on the house, and one was clogged up. The previous owners black corrugated french drain for the drains off the gutters, go figure. We are going to run new drains to the front of the street for now, and I have a person coming in to give my an estimate on a interior french drain system. I pulled down one of the walls, it was moist, but not damp or soaking. I have another wall to pull down and look, but I feel I will be having a project in the next weeks.