Basement wet

[Pinusbanksiana]

This is the second time our basement has shown any sign of getting wet. The first was in 1998 or 1999 when we first bought the house and we had 11 inches of rain fall around the 4th of july. I had put a ditch around the uphill side of the foundation after that, but this snow melt is just too much this year. Glad I am not too far into a basement finish job. I have to think that others are having problems too. I still have a foot of snow to melt yet too.

[Biggerfish]

where do you live?

[CANOPY SAM]

Us too Pi. Been wrestling with this for too long. When it dries up this year I'm going to put a final fix to this. Clay cap surrounding house, graded away from foundation, and channel out foundation inside and put in sump drains. This is getting old.

I've been told numerous times, once it's found it's way in you'll never be able to keep it out, so just let it in and pump it back out away from the house. Lots of hard work, but we gotta stop this once and for all!

[Tom7227]

Many years ago a friend and I put in drain tile the basement, Sawed the floor and then jackhammers it with an electric jack hammer. Then load after load of wet concrete, sloppy wet clay. I have a walk out basement. Worst job I ever did. I can't imagine doing it without the walk out. You need a size 18 neck and a size 3 head to do this for any length of time.

[Eckie]

My parents drain tiled the basement two years ago as well -- paid to have it done -- well worth it. Water problems solved!

[MJBaldwin]

Drain tile is the best way to fix the problem. I had very minimal water in my basement a few years ago. I live near the Fargo/Moorhead area where this time of the year we always see a ton of flooding. The other way to do it is the grading that will help water from coming down your exterior wall and up through your floor.If you trying to get by cheap do the grading wait and see if it happens again if it does then you might want to think about the drain tile.

[delcecchi]

Many years ago a friend and I put in drain tile the basement, Sawed the floor and then jackhammers it with an electric jack hammer. Then load after load of wet concrete, sloppy wet clay. I have a walk out basement. Worst job I ever did. I can't imagine doing it without the walk out. You need a size 18 neck and a size 3 head to do this for any length of time.

I did it by myself, no walkout, no jackhammer. A sledge, a prybar, etc.

Kids helped when they came home from college. I put the debris in Garbage Cans, then when they came home, handed buckets full out the window. Took quite a while but I got it done. Worked great. Oh and I drilled holes in the block and ran short tubes from the hole to the tile in order to drain the water in the block. Surprising how much water came out of some of those blocks.

Laid plastic over the top and ran it up the wall with a small space next to the wall so anything that came through the wall could run down and into the pea gravel around the tile.

Humped about 10,000 (felt like anyway) bags of sack-crete down and mixed with a hoe to cover the trench.

Still makes me feel good to see what I accomplished.

[Surface Tension]

The ditch you put in, how close to the foundation is it? If its close that isn't any good.

The ground around the foundation doesn't freeze so you don't want to channel water anywhere near it, otherwise it'll run into the ground. At the foundation the grade should be high and slope away for a distance that takes into consideration the lack of frost. From there to a swhale if need be to carry the water out. One thing to remember is the water has to get to that swhale now. It should be an undisturbed free to drain without snowbanks or packed snow from traffic.

[Pinusbanksiana]

Thanks for the tips. I can't find an exact place where the water is coming in and that is a problem. It could be seeping in around the foundation? We had an abnormal amount of snow and cold this year, and once it turned warm it all is melting at once with no freeze thaw cycle to interrupt the melt. But regardless of this, I need to prepare for this to happen in the future again. A swale is the easiest and cheapest method. I do have a walk out and could do the tile and sump pump method if I need to I guess. I need to read up more on it and see how it works.

The initial ditch I put in was not done the proper way, but a shortcut method with a trench and bigger rocks to deflect flow. Did I mention I live on a pretty steep incline? Lake homes are sometimes built for the view instead of practicality.

[BoxMN]

"Oh and I drilled holes in the block and ran short tubes from the hole to the tile in order to drain the water in the block. Surprising how much water came out of some of those blocks. "

When we put addition in to folks house when I was in high school, we did this too, though we just popped a hole with round chisel and hammer, then inserted cut garden hose pieces that went direct from block to drain tile sitting in the pea gravel. But yeah, there was plenty of water inside the block in some places. Luckily for me, we found that water came in BEFORE we poured the floor, so didn't have that hassle to deal with. The basement is now dry except if the sump pump is dead...

[Pinusbanksiana]

I just looked up french drain, this and some landscaping is my first step. I hope it works, because sump and tiling the basement looks expensive.

[delcecchi]

I just looked up french drain, this and some landscaping is my first step. I hope it works, because sump and tiling the basement looks expensive.

It doesn't have to be expensive. Total cash for me was some yards of pea gravel for about $100, some drain tile from fleet farm, a roll of plastic, a tub to mix concrete, some sackcrete, and a trowel. I did rent a jackhammer for one section where the floor was tougher for some reason, and bought a cheap hammer drill. Also two sump baskets and 2 sump pumps, and some miscellaneous plastic pipe, a bucket and 3 rubbermaid garbage cans. I bet I don't have much more than 500 bucks in the whole thing. That and a good amount of time.

I hope your french drain thing works. It wouldn't have for me.

[chad austin]

If you don't have them already, I would look at putting gutters on your house. Your roof has a lot of surface area that dumps quite a bit of water when it rains or when snow is melting. Landscaping and french drains will be a huge improvement as well.