Need to plug crack in concrete basement wall - TODAY

[Steve Henderson]

I have a crack in my basement concrete wall where the water pipe enters the house. It's a hairline crack about a piece of paper wide that radiates down from the copper pipe about 1 inch then takes a 90 degree turn to the right for a couple of inches. It weeps during heavy rains, and eventually forms a little stream on the floor just big enough to be annoying as it tries to find the lowest point in my basement. It's not much - probably 1 gallon overnight during very heavy rains (I caught it in a 5-gallon bucket last time), but it could become bigger, so off to Home Depot I went.

I got some stuff called Drylok Fast Plug, that looks like it'll do the job. However, it says to "back chisel out the area to be patched to the shape of an inverted "V". Now, that seems like one of those things that looks all neat-o on paper, but in reality, I can see me blowing out a bigger chunk of concrete than I want to (and not in the shape desired). So, instead of using the chisel I bought, I'm thinking I should try to use my drill with a concrete saw wheel to try to "cut" it out. I want it bigger inside the wall than at the surface, so the plug is locked in. Any suggestions about the best way of going about this? Another wet winter storm headed my way, and I'd like to get this done today.

Regards, and thanks. Steve Henderson

[Eric in North TX]

Why not just pump it full of silicone chalk? I've fixed cracked aquariums with the water still inside, & toilet tanks as well. I'm pretty convinced it will seal anything involving water except where it is under considerable pressure, with minimal prep.

[Tom The Great]

When ever I hear about people having basement water problems, it seems that the first place they tackle is outside. They try and elminate water sources making it to the foundation. Downspouts pointed away from the house, for several feet, sloping land away from the foundation, etc.

Have you tried workign outside first?

tom @

[Frank]

Plumbers putty will do a quick and dirty job, but as others say, you have to attack from outside. May be as simple as adding dirt to change water flow away from house. Frank

[Art]

The first thing to check is the old patch for the pipe. The morons who built my house (a nationwide luxury home builder) used a 4 inch corrugated pipe as a sleeve for my poured concrete wall even though the water pipe is less than 2 inches thick. On top of that they left the plastice sleeve in when they patched it and did not use hydraulic cement like Dam-it or the stuff you bought. We had to take the hole mess out and put a board against the inside while patching from the outside. Board was actually a split board with half holes to surround the pipe and someone held it against the wall while someone on the outside patched. We used slow setting stuff which gives you 15 minutes work time because everything was dry. Working from the inside only will not last in my opinion.

[mm]

You mean 'caulk', right?

The difference might be that there is no dust associated with an acquarium, and maybe not with a toilet tank, and maybe not with the OP's wall. He didnt' say.

But if there is dust, it would keep things from adhering. I've used Shoe Goo, and Goop to repair shoes -- they seem to be a form of silicone caulk -- and they work fine except in one pair where part of the rubber in the vertical middle of the sole, under the arch, keeps crumbling. I scraped it out with a screwdriver to get rid of anything that was going to fall out, and that didn't work. So this last time, I scraped even harder. I think in places I got to the next layer, top and bottom, it will stick, and those places might be enough. I could buy more shoes -- I have more shoes -- but I'm driven like Ahab to fix these.

However if there is no dust or crumbling, I would also recommend PC-70, which will dry while water is leaking around it. You have to keep pushing it back into the hole becuse the water will push it out, but after 10 or 15 minutes of tending it, it set sufficiently not to move anymore, and was waterproof as a sink drain afterwards, at least for the 3 months I lived there.

Try to find the two 4-oz. cans rather than the 1- or 2-oz double-ended tube that HD sells. The stuff will keep for 5 or 10 years or more if one part doesn't touch the other part, and tighly sealed.

[mm]

It sounds like the whole crack is only 3 inches long, so any technique can be accomplished in a reasonable time.

But the OP should definitely look outside at downspouts and splashblocks and anything else that might be fixable.

[DanG]

The cure is on the outside!!!!

Anything you accomplish on the inside is temporary at best. Any concrete product directly in contact with copper is not good.

On new work:

1. Sleeve the wall with PVC
2. Install pipe as required. Control the annular space to something manageable, 1" or less. Keep the pipe centered if possible.
3. Install appropriate backer rod.
4. Caulk properly with the appropriate dimension permanent caulk. I prefer NP1 polyurethane.
5. Cap the surrounding area with appropriate damp proofing set in the proper sealant/adhesive. EPDM works well, Mulehide emulsified with Yellow Jacket nylon reinforcement works well, fiberglass reinforced tar paper set in plastic roof cement works well.
6. A drainage plane that allows water to get to the perimeter drain helps.
7. Keep surface water away from the structure.

[Steve Henderson]

Thanks for everybody's suggestions. And, yes, I agree that I will ultimately have to get to the outside problem to fix it right. But, this is in the face of a snow storm coming tonight, and I just didn't want the trickle of water to deal with when it warms up, or if it turns to rain tonight. I used the Drylok Fast Plug, after using a masonry wheel on my drill to cut out along the crack to make a bigger place for the drylock to adhere to. And, I used a wire wheel to clean out all the loose stuff before following the directions on the drylock can to apply a patch. It sure looks good after a couple of hours of drying. Like I said earlier, there's not a lot of pressure... just a trickle, so I suspect that this will hold until warm weather when I can...

1) redirect the roof runoff to a more appropriate downspout 2) dig down where the current downspout is dumping water right at the leak location, and do it right from the outside. I already put a 4" plastic drain (10-ft) to direct the flow to a place further away... but to get it really away from this area, I would need to go across my walk to the front door... more that I wanted to get into today in the cold weather.

I appreciate all your help today folks.

Regards, Steve Henderson

[Steve Henderson]

One more update - it is leaking today after last night's (wet) snowstorm... but it's not leaking below the copper pipe where I patched the crack... it's leaking right AROUND the pipe where I didn't apply any Drylock Fast Plug (hey, it may have been leaking there as well before yesterday - hard to tell when it's wet). It's not much, so I may try it again. I'll chip off the old patch adhering to the pipe that has been on there for 25 years, and clean the pipe to a shiny clean. Then, I'll fill in the depression all around the pipe with more fast plug. Who knows... maybe - maybe not, but worth a try until the weather breaks and I can tackle it from the outside.