Hurricane Recovery Help Please - I'm stumped

This is probably not the 100% best place to post this, but y'all have been a help in the past and I just know that, if the information is not readily available, someone will tell me where to go (in a nice way) I live in Virginia Beach. Think of an L-shaped house. The foot of the L is the family room. Right in that inside corner of the L there used to be a 36' diameter 75' tall oak tree. It rolled about 25 degrees onto the family room. The tree has since been removed and the room sealed up. The "upside" of the stump has lifted my deck. I have a neighbor who just by chance runs a business specializing in the difficult stump grinding. So, we can solve that problem. The problem is that there is a basement under the main part of the house (the family room is on a slab) at that corner. I'm trying to reduce/eliminate any water problem from the disturbed soil as the basement was pretty much dry before this, Seems to be that there is some kind of product/soil that one can mix with soil which expands as when it gets wet amd plugs leaks. Saw it used to stop seapage thru an earthen dam once. I know the option exists to completely remove the stump, excavate besides the basement wall, treat it and backfill. That is a last resort, because the insurance company doesn't do stumps. Any advice would be appreciated. Roy

The

This query would be better posted over in alt.home.repair.

Simply disturbing soil will not bring about a leak in a basement -- damage to the wall, changes in water flows, hydrostatic pressure, and so forth are all likely culprits.

Your first step here is to determine just what the cause of the water infiltration might be -- your post did not have much in the way of details about the problem area, so it's tough to really tell. Once you have determined how the water's getting in, then you can select the right solution.

Cement block foundations can use things like DryLok to seal seapage off, while others (as well as block based setups) can use products like SaniTred to totally water proof the walls (supposedly -- never tried it). There is a type of cement that will expand as it dries, typically sealing cracked areas that are leaking. Both DryLok as well as expanding cement are available at most large home improvement stores (such as Home Depot and Lowes).

Once a basement starts to leak, the problem will only get worse if the right solution is not put in place early on -- I speak from experience on that one, as we're battling a major problem in our basement (stone foundation) that weren't so bad when it first started.

Take it by the numbers -- figure out exactly where the problem is and THEN devise your solution.

James