Water coming up through cracks in basement

[Hookmaster]

This happened last week with all the rain and melting. It also happened very mildly a few years ago but this was much worse and had to pull the carpet which revealed the cracks. The water also appears to be coming up through some of the cement nails holding the sill plate to the floor of the non-load bearing walls and possibly where on of the waste pipes goes through the slab. What type of caulking material do I seal this with polyurethane, butyl, other and why? How do I go about sealing the cement nails.

[pushbutton]

you could try Dry-Lock, but trying to keep water out this way will probably be futile in the long term. if you have not already, look to see if you have good positive flow away from the house and if the downspouts are pooling up water. correcting those two issues should solve a lot of problems. if not, the water is coming from underground reservoirs. correcting this can be a simple as digging a hole and putting in a sump pump. if that does not work you might need a drain tile system. just throwing stuff out there as i can not see exactly what is going on.

[pureinsanity]

A water-proof barrier will help, also a dehumidifier, appropriate slope away from the house as well as other things.

You could conklin the walls and floor. it will help but not eliminate

[RebelSS]

You have water being forced up by hydrostatic pressure. With the water table as high as it is, water is being forced through the slab by the pressure, as it has to go somewhere. Hate to be a wet blanket,(no pun intended) but there is no way to stop this other than put in a sump pump, inside or out. Once you lower the water table, your pressure drops in respect. I've put up with this for 15 years doing the same thing in my rec room, and am now doing what I should have done in the first place...putting in that sump pump...after many consultations with pros. Pressure can build up to the point of lifting your slab,cracking your slab or foundation if the problem becomes severe enough. I punched a couple pencil sized "weep" holes at the base of a wall last week, and watched the water rocket out like crazy. Lots of pressure there.

[FishLocker]

RebelSS hit the nail on the head.

Best fix is to have the outer ten inches of concrete cut out all around the outer edge of the basement, and have tile inserted with a sump basket and pump. If you have a very large footprint or very high hydrostatic pressures you may have to run one across the middle as well. I would suggest and Ace in the Hole sump pump since you have so much water to deal with. They have a battery backup in case your power goes out during a storm or what ever. Also a water overflow alarm (some use the kind you get for your laundry sink if the washer dumps into it) so if the pump cannot keep up you will be alerted to the high water in the basket before it get to your carpeting.

Good luck.

[PurpleFloyd]

I second what RebelSS and fishlocker said.

[IamZombie]

I second what RebelSS and fishlocker said.

Thirded?

either that, or the drain tile outside around the foundation of the house if a sump isn't needed year round?

[delcecchi]

You have water being forced up by hydrostatic pressure. With the water table as high as it is, water is being forced through the slab by the pressure, as it has to go somewhere. Hate to be a wet blanket,(no pun intended) but there is no way to stop this other than put in a sump pump, inside or out. Once you lower the water table, your pressure drops in respect. I've put up with this for 15 years doing the same thing in my rec room, and am now doing what I should have done in the first place...putting in that sump pump...after many consultations with pros. Pressure can build up to the point of lifting your slab,cracking your slab or foundation if the problem becomes severe enough. I punched a couple pencil sized "weep" holes at the base of a wall last week, and watched the water rocket out like crazy. Lots of pressure there.

Yep. the drain tile and sump pump or even two sumps will do the trick. Also, drill into the block and stick tubes in to route the water from the block into the drain tile. I also left 1/4 inch between the slab and the wall when repouring the concrete. And laid plastic over the pea gravel and up the wall, so if any water were to come in it would run down into the drain tile.

So far so good.

It took me like 20+ years of putting up with it before I got mad enough to get out the sledge hammer and shovel.

[Tom7227]

Sorry bucko but I am going to be #4 on the drain tile/sump pump solution. A friend and I did it about 20 years ago and it was about the worst job I ever did and I have a walk out basement. No offense to anyone but you need a size 18 neck and a size 3 head to do this work and you better not be older than about 40 either.

I have calculated that I pump about 300-500 gallons of water out each day this time of the year. When I drilled the holes into the cavities in the blocks water shot out about 18 inches for a couple minutes. Every time I drilled.

You're going to tempted to just pull the carpet and be done with it. If you're lucky you'll get by with that. Of course when you go to sell there's this disclosure form you have to fill out and ......

[MNice]

You never said weather or not you even had a sump pump. If you do, you are really screwed... If you don't, you need to get one in.

count me in on the fifth on the tile/sump recommendation

[311Hemi]

Yep. the drain tile and sump pump or even two sumps will do the trick. Also, drill into the block and stick tubes in to route the water from the block into the drain tile. I also left 1/4 inch between the slab and the wall when repouring the concrete. And laid plastic over the pea gravel and up the wall, so if any water were to come in it would run down into the drain tile.

So far so good.

This is how our basement was done when they put in the drain tile system.

[soldoncass]

+6....the water level outside your foundation is higher than your basement floor. Since water seeks it's own level, the only way to "fix" it is to lower the water level.....most likely outside. A really wet area sometimes required drain tile, set in rock,below floor level, both inside AND outside the foundation. Connect them together, to a sump pump and pump it out away from your house. I would suggest having a pro/s look at it and give you some ideas, since we don't know anything about your lot, elevations etc.

If you do end up cutting out the inside concrete, use a concrete saw and electric jack-hammer. Then you ONLY need a size 16 neck,several buddies, and a chiropracter on stand-by. Oh ya.....send the wife on a trip, the dust is overwelming, especially the sawing. Look at all outside options first, cause that is where the pressure is coming from.

[Surface Tension]

The fact that is coming in through the slab from under interior walls is sort of a good sign.

I say that because if the water is able to travel to those points it can be drained from them as well and you might get by with just the a perforated basin and pump.

It comes down to where you'll put the basin or where is the water coming. Its not the most glorious job but it isn't that hard to do either. Since your not tying into drain tile purchase a perforated basin. Say the dia of the basin is 18" you'll cut out the slab at 24" giving yourself enough room to back fill the basin with crushed rock or clean gravel. Here is where you"ll probably hit a snag.

You open up the slab and start digging and your into water. For that reason I'd have a temp solution by using a hose attached to your pump and a makeshift basin made from a five gallon bucket to set into the hole. The basin is to filter out the dirt and rocks and to set the pump above any sediment that runs into the basin. Have all the materials on hand before you start this because it could get out of hand. Depending on how much water is flowing you might want to keep the temp setup till that flow slows down before you dig down any deeper. Reason for that is you don't want it washing the dirt from under the footing or slab into your hole.

Eventually you'll be looking at getting a proper slope to drain ground water away from the house.

[pushbutton]

by. Oh ya.....send the wife on a trip, the dust is overwelming, especially the sawing.

Best words of advice so far...started using the saw and she went ballistic from the dust. the dust infected her ability to reason and i ended up using a 4lb maul to do the job. DO NOT use the saw unless she is out of the house

[deerhunter]

I had this same problem I put a sump pump in on Saturday the water found its way to it and it is dry as a bone right now if water shows up again then I will put a tile system in. It took my brother and I about 3 hours to do but I do have a walkout so it made it easier. I highly recommend a jackhammer NO SAW dust will be everywhere.

[FishLocker]

For the weep holes at the bottom of your block wall...there is a professional product called The Beaver System. It is designed to weep the block wall and channel all the water to your sump basket. My sister had this installed when she had her floor cut and the tile inserted. Fixed all problems, and was nice to look at...sort of like a slightly taller mop board all around the perimeter. It might be a dealer insalled product, I don't know for sure as she had it done for her.

Dust.

Any time you are doing dirty/dusty/smelly work, use your shop vac. I have one with a 2 inch exhaust port, not the tangental exhaust. Then hook up a 50 foot 2 inch hose to it and run all the blow by (you will get blow by with concrete or sheet rock dust) out the window or door. I works for puppy puddle smells you are sucking up, or what ever you do not want redistributed inside the house. You can sometimes pick the 2 inch hoses up used at carpet cleaning supply places like Barker Hammer or First Quality Supply pretty cheaply...yellow pages I am sure have one close to you. Works great for exhausting outside. And in the garage I hook it up on the vac port, and I don't move my 25 gallon shop vac, I just unroll more hose.

[Tom7227]

Ok, further info from my prior post. My house had a sump pit and a pump when I moved in but it wasn't doing the job. My back yard is nearly flat and my front yard is about 7 feet lower so I have the water seeping into the back and wanting to come out at the bottom of the hill but my house is in the way. Also The soil is thick clay. To top it off the water table is only about 25-30 inches below the level of the basement floor. I had put a well sloped slab out 6 feet from the back of the house to try and keep the water further away but it didn't do any good. The point I'm trying to make is that the topography and soil conditions make a ton of difference and should be taken into account when planning a solution.

I was not a fan of the outside tile system on my home for two reasons - tough to do with equipment and tough to do without making one heck of a mess in the yard. The inside thing was tough work but back then I could do it with the help of a friend so the money was a lot lower.

The dust is an issue but I see a saw as an essential part of the process unless you want to chop up the basement floor really badly. Poly and tape keeps it out of some of the house. A box fan blowing out and a window on an opposite wall helps a lot to exhaust the dust outside. Tough on the fan though.

[pureinsanity]

Wet saw....

[Hookmaster]

More information on my situation. We have lived in the house since March of 1989. This is only the second time this has happened. Both times were late winter/early spring rains before all the snow was gone, maybe the frost wasn't out of the ground yet. We have a walkout basement and the back yard is basically flat all the way to a small spring fed creek~130 feet away. The water table can be high at times. The first time it happened the water came in for less than 2 days. All we did was soak up the water in the utility room (concrete floor) with towels and change them. Only one small part of the carpeted room got wet so we disenfected that and called it a day. This time it flowed for 4 days at a higher rate and 3 other areas appeared in the carpeted room. I don't think it's coming in through the blocks but up through the cracks or where the slab meets the block . I kind of like what deerhunter did with just installing the sump. That may take care of it for us.

[Tom7227]

Hook - how old is the house? What's your soil like? What happens if you dig a hole in your back yard - does it fill up with water and at what depth relative to the floor in your basement? Tom

[jentz]

Wet saw....

a thinkers reply!! Smart

[delcecchi]

Sorry bucko but I am going to be #4 on the drain tile/sump pump solution. A friend and I did it about 20 years ago and it was about the worst job I ever did and I have a walk out basement. No offense to anyone but you need a size 18 neck and a size 3 head to do this work and you better not be older than about 40 either.

I have calculated that I pump about 300-500 gallons of water out each day this time of the year. When I drilled the holes into the cavities in the blocks water shot out about 18 inches for a couple minutes. Every time I drilled.

You're going to tempted to just pull the carpet and be done with it. If you're lucky you'll get by with that. Of course when you go to sell there's this disclosure form you have to fill out and ......

Hey, I sat in an office all day, have a rambler with regular basement windows not a walk out, was like 50 and wear a size 7 3/4 hat. If I can do it anyone can. Of course it took a while. I would dig and hammer and put the dirt/clay in plastic garbage cans. When the kids were home from the U, I would hand the dirt out the window in buckets.

Pea gravel came in in buckets. I carried the sakcrete in on my shoulder.

Hiring it done is better if you are in a hurry. But you can work off your frustrations with a sledge. I had to rent a jackhammer in one area because the sledge just wouldn't do it. They must have remembered to put the cement in the concrete on that batch.

[soldoncass]

Sounds like the water table is higher than your floor. You had a LOT of snow this year down there, and the frost isn't out yet, so the creek is probably higher than you remember it. If you don't have a sump pit/pail, that would be the least expensive thing to try, and that is possible to do with a 8#(or bigger) sledge hammer. It may be enough, or it may not, depending on the composition of dirt under your floor. If it has only happened twice in 22 years, you probably won't know if it will work or not, until you get the same conditions again. One thing to remember is, sump pumps have to be piped outside, illegal to put it into the floor drain.

[Redlantern]

Yep, definetly a wet saw or spray with a hudson sprayer while cutting. Seal off the ducts, get the fan blowing out the window, get the wife and kids out for awhile. I'd suggest waiting on this project until the water table has lowered. Pain in the rear trying to do this when water keeps coming into the trench you've just dug.

But, before you go and do all this, you might just want to give Surface Tension's suggestion a try. If it doesn't work, big deal, you still have to put a sump pit in anyway. But if it does work, you've saved yourself a ton of labor and aggrevation.

[soldoncass]

Is the basement finished, or just carpet down there? A wet saw will keep the dust down, but it can make a major mess with finished walls, etc.

I wouldn't try to do anything to it until the water level goes down, much less hassle.One thing you should do ,though, is check out the outside drainage. Very easy to see which direction water flows, when it is there.