All Forum Posts by: Abdul Azeez

@Abdul Azeez

Wow! I was actually about to come to BP to post almost an identical topic except it is happening at my primary residence.

Actually mine is a bit worse as every time is rains a few inches of water accumulate in the corner of my basement. It causes the house to be very humid plus encourages mold growth. Probably damaging the foundation slowly due to the pressure the water from the outside is putting on the walls.

Had two interior waterproofing companies out and got similar quotes 8k-12k. I think a better solution is the regrading option which should be considerably cheaper, but I have a damn wooden deck in the way sitting on the ground so I’m not really sure what to do. In addition I have a roof over my patio without gutters so I might have to demo that as well.

Good luck!

I've dealt with many water issues in basements on various projects. It's a common issue here in the northeast and elsewhere around the country. 

My current residence was built in 1970 and has the dryest basement I've ever been in. This is for 2 main reasons. #1 I have very sandy soil on my property which results in good drainage, and #2 water pitches away from my house via grading and proper gutters and downspouts. 

My advice is to halt the basement renovation until you resolve the water issues. Make sure your the grade around your house is properly pitched which could be a lot of work right off the bat depending on what your existing conditions are. Make sure downspouts extend away from the house at least 2'. The goal is to get water away from the house. 

You can use drylock paint at the interior of the foundation walls, however you want to solve the water issue before it gets to the outside of foundation wall, not inside. 

Depending on how much you have to spend, one of the best things you can do is to install a french drain and crushed stone at bottom of foundation/top of footing. But now you are getting into excavation which is not cheap. If you want to swing for the fences, install waterproofing around the foundation wall but 90% that is cost-prohibitive. It all depends on how much you are willing to put into it. But definitely start with making sure water pitches away from the house with downspouts and making sure your soil is properly graded away from the house. 

Abdul:

On the outside, your downspout extensions look good - they are nice and long.  

The deck is not really going to affect how much water comes down against your foundation, but the hill in the back is likely sending surface water and snowmelt towards your house, so if you pulled up the paver patio and added some fill, then poured a solid concrete patio sloped away from the house, that would help quite a bit.

Inside, you will NEVER get rid of the efflorescense no matter what you do in or outside of the foundation.  I would bet that block was tarred with a waterproof mastic coating before the ground was backfilled around it.  To confirm, take a trowel and dig down about 1-2 feet below the topsoil along the outside basement foundation walls (you might not have to go even this far). You will see a layer of black tarlike substance painted on the foundation.  I'll bet you a beer it is there.  That is sealing to SOME DEGREE your foundation from water intrusion. If this is in place, you will likely see no improvement from any other efforts outside.

I believe, knowing Monroe and most of the developments, your basement slab was installed with a french drain under the slab already.  Look around the basement and find out if you have a circular sump pump well already installed in the basement.  I think I can see in the photos you have the typical 1 inch gap between the floor and the foundation walls. If this gap is in place all around the basement, it was designed to capture any moisture that does penetrate the foundation walls.  The water rolls down into the 1 inch channel, and runs to the sump pump well, where a pump takes it out.  If you don't have that well installed, you can have a company come and cut one for a much smaller cost (like $1000 with pump) and in doing so they can confirm you have the french drain under the slab already installed.  it was common for your age house to have the pipe for the drain installed before the slab was poured.  It is only if your builder did not pre-install the drain pipe that the cost should climb up to the $8000-$12,000 figure you mentioned.  

Even with such a system, the efflorescense is going to be with you as long as you own the house, and you should just forget it is there once you install the finished walls in the basement. Block is porous and water will always be in it to some degree.

Good luck!

@Abdul Flex seal works excellent! You can also dig down around foundation put in a perforated 3” pipe on the bottom fill over with a “light layer” of crushed stone. Above that put another perorated 3” black pipe and then run the drain to front of home(each corner). Have extra pipe to run into a 55 gallon drum buried off each corner. Allow water to run around house into buried drums.

By doing this, it allows water the release into the front slowly rather then creating a dam effect of water run off...

It’s cheap, will get the job done and you can hire a few high school kids to do the job while you supervise the project!! At most $1000!!!

@Abdul Azeez Here's some well meant words of advice: be more informative in your post header. Almost everyone is asking for advice, be specific and actually attract advice from people who might know something about that specific topic. It I wasn't so bored I wouldn't have clicked here, but I'm not bored enough to keep clicking through. If you want help you need to at least not waste people's time.

Water in basements is always an issue.

In my experience #2 (grading) is often very important, so you may want to check that.  It doesn't need to be extreme but you definitely want the ground to slope away from the house.

Having finished my own basement, one of the things you can do is design it to withstand small amounts of water seepage.  You will be far better off if you assume water will get in and design the basement finish-out to handle it.

There are plastic panels you can buy that you can glue to the walls that will funnel water down the wall instead of having it seep into your insulation.  Personally, I just hung plastic sheeting up to do the same thing, putting it on the wall side of my framing.  (I also have it on the inside of the framing for a vapor barrier.)

On the flooring, some people use the plastic padding, but I've been in too many musty basements.  Home Depot sells interlocking 2x2 panels you can use to create a sub-floor with a small air gap underneath to let water flow.  We chose plastic interlocking panels that look like tile that do basically the same thing.

Good luck.

Basement water infiltration is an issue however, just because you have efflorescence stains on the wall (usually bottom of wall where it meets the foundation floor) it doesn't mean water infiltrates.  Water may run down the exterior of the house and penetrate some of the block or concrete wall but never make it to the inside. The efflorescence chalky stain is the moisture between the exterior wet wall and interior temperature difference. 

I never recommend drylok on the inside Foundation walls because interior concrete/block walls need to breathe. The whole idea is for the exterior waterproofing to do its job. If water doesn't penetrate to the inside you're golden.

Does the basement feel damp, has musty odor?

 If the soil is mushy, it means it is holding water.