Noted that our basement is having damp walls and there are some leakage hap pening through the foundation walls. Checked and found few cracks, in the f orm of step along the bricks, on the walls and I'm sure that they are the c ulprits. I'm thinking of fixing it myself and I would appreciate if someone helps me with it? In our neighborhood, we have Doctor Rooter www.doctorroo ter.ca to do the foundation crack repair but I would like to fix it myself, rather than approaching the professionals.
e happening through the foundation walls. Checked and found few cracks, in the form of step along the bricks, on the walls and I'm sure that they are the culprits. I'm thinking of fixing it myself and I would appreciate if so meone helps me with it? In our neighborhood, we have Doctor Rooter www.doct orrooter.ca to do the foundation crack repair but I would like to fix it my self, rather than approaching the professionals.
Been there done all this:( GOT THE DEGREE:(
first look for water infiltration areas around home, gutters overlowing, do wnspout drains clogged or broke, slope wrong where water runs towards home, go outside in a heavy rain and take a look...
Now I had my moms house all execavated around, pressure washed the foundati on, repaired cracks, sealed walls, installed exterior french drains with dr ain lines to curb. installed tons and tons of gravel, I was the laborer. re placed sidewalks steps etc, re sloped and landscaped the entire yard..
spent about 8 to 9 grand job took entire summer.......
gave the home real curb appeal.....
the basement was finally dry.........
Within a few months the basement was again wet:( the water coming up thru t he floor......
I was totally steamed:(
I got a interior french drain installed. that ended the water problem forev er and only cost $3500 bucks and all I did was watch them work.
As others have said, you can't really do much from inside, but you might be able to take a different approach:
Figure out where the drainage is letting the water get to the outside of the wall. If there are specific spots you can dig down a foot or so, then lay down some plastic or a black rubbish bag so that's it's sloping away from the house. Finally, replace the soil. That will shunt the seeping water away from the house and greatly reduce -- maybe stop -- the leaking.
But this technique will only work with specific problem areas. If you just have something like a high water table it won't help.
the interior french drain works by drilling holes in the bottom of each concrete block to let any water that gets in the wall to drain down to the underground drain line. most companies give a lifetime dry basement warranty with this/
Water inside a cinder block wall is bad juju any way you cut it, particularly where you get 3-7 feet of frost every winter. Keep the water out, don't waste effort trying to get it out after it has gotten in.
Personally, I wouldn't buy a house with a basement and block foundation. I won't buy a house that NEEDS a sump pump. I most definitely would NEVER buy a block foundation that needs a sump pump..
High and dry, in sand or gravel with an open bottom - poured concrete or ICF foundation, nowhere near a flood plain. Then it's just a matter of proper landscaping and gutters to keep the rain and snow-melt water away from the foundation, and you have a warm dry basement.
If you are going to have a wet basement and a "bilge pump"you may as well have a houseboat
How old are you and how far down,, if you plan to dig outside.
It sounds like your dampness and leaking are moderate.
I woudl consider waterproof paint, on the inside of the basement. IIRC Ugl makes a popular brand, but I may have that totally wrong.
Whatever the brand, I've used waterproof paint twice. Once in 1962. I was 15 and I painted the basement walls of the house my mother used to live in, without cleaning the dirty walls first and without even brushing off the cobwebs. My mother told me it worked and the basement was dry afterwards. The tenant had already movied out. The paint was recommended to my mother by the chief building inspector, after the tenant complained that the basement was wet. (The tenant had gotten reduced rent in exchange for his promise to fix things, but instead of fixing things, he complained to the buildng inspector. He was also behind on the reduced rent. He did however drop by unannounced shortly before moving out and pay 2 months's rent (or at least one month's). I was the only one home and he didn't use that as an excuse not to pay. It's a curious situation.
I only did one wall, where one could tell the water was coming in. Most of it was under the stairs. It only took me an hour.
The second time was a couple years ago. A friend is renting part of the basement from a nice woman, and the water just "poured in" though the walls in when it rained. The probem in that case was that the basement was stuffed with stuff, includign a freezer and other stuff we could barely move and had no empty place to move it too. So we painted about
80% of the walls. One wall and half of another (a third wall never got wet because the basement is only half as wide as the house, so that wall is shielded by half the house. This took 2 of us about 2 hours, maybe 3. Used 2 or 3 or maybe 4 gallons. My friend tells me that water no longer came in where it was painted, but it came in new places where it had not been painted, because we couldn't get to those places.. Still it was much better. But it will work much better if you paint from the floor to the earth line all around the basement.
If it doesn't work, you can always spend money later.
Don't economize on the paint.
Amazingly, it was water-based, easy cleanup. I don't remember if they make oil based, but I don't think so. .
Follow the directions. It's not quite the same as regular paint.
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Slightly different product name, I don't know why. 5 gallons instead of one.
| Which did you mean. | The former. It's an inside, perimeter drain. I've seen several of them that work perfectly. As Bob said, they're generally guaranteed. But the OP is talking about a brick foundation wall. I don't know how long that can be expected to hold up exposed to constant dampness. The use of french drains I've seen is where there's a high water table that floods in occasionally, and the foundation is made of field stones. Thus, the water won't hurt the foundation wall and it would be impossible to stop the rising water table from coming in. Sometimes it just comes right up through a concrete floor. The french drains work there because they drain and pump out the water from a level below the floor level, and they only need to function for a few days at a time, typically only once per year or so.
I have a customer who lives on a steep hill and got stuck with that problem. It turns out her house is in a bedrock bowl, so she has her own private water table. A french drain took care of the problem. But as noted above, that's solving a problem coming up from the bottom, not in from the side.
What kind of foundation? I had a few leaks in my concrete foundation fixed by US Waterproofing about 7 years ago. That solved it. There were 3 hairline cracks and a through-the-wall pipe leaking around it. Cost about $950. Lifetime guarantee. I went with them because a workmate had used them, and they stood by their guarantee fifteen years later and refixed a leak on his house. The hairline cracks were filled with some kind of gray plastic caulk that set like rock. They used what looked like a heavy duty caulk gun. Mechanical. Applicator tips are still stuck in the walls. Around the pipe the concrete was chiseled out for maybe 2" around and
3" deep. Filled with some hydraulic concrete, then the same caulk. You can probably find the same stuff they used. NOTE: I just looked on the web and it may be more involved, in that the gray "caulk" is only on the surface, put there to hold back injected sealer until it can cure.
I have personally seen the drylock paint bubble from the water trapped behind it. large 6 inch diameter bubbles. one broke when I touched it..at the time it just looked wierd, i didnt know what it was.
theres nothing wrong with owning a home that been retrofitted or even built new with french drains sump pumps etc
in some areas they are required for all new construction, and are easier to install at that time
I have a friend with a cinder block basement iirc. Certainly not brick or fieldstone and a 40+ year old house which I don't think would have a cement foundation. She finally put in an interior french drain and had no more problems after that. I guess the channel at the base of the wall was wet but it drained to a sump and then dried out.
It only leaked during heavy rain, iirc, from the walls, not the floor.
I might have suggested the paint, but she doesn't take my suggestions very often.
Why not? Concrete foundations have been common around here for well over 50 years. Concrete block foundations are relatively common too, because they were cheaper to build when labour was cheap.
Rubble and feild stone are virtually all over 70 years old.
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