Sealing a basement

[akaFrankCastle]

As some of you know, my house is old. Which wouldn't normally be a problem except the previous owner was a mouth breathing window licker who'd rather cover up problems than fix them. Which leads me to this.

7" of rain this month has finally saturated the ground so much that I have water in the basement. I've tried to track down exactly where it is coming from and have only been able to narrow it down to the north, west, and easy sides of the house.

Most of my down time this week has been spent either digging soil out from the foundation. This is an attempt to get the water soaked dirt away from the bottom plate where it meets the foundation. And now I'm busy removing wood paneling and water soaked carpet from the basement.

Once this thing is gutted, and it will be by the end of the week unless my back gives out, I'd like to have the basement/foundation sealed to prevent future issues. I know I can go buy concrete sealer in the can and apply that. I'll pass. I'm tired enough as is without spending a week rolling that stuff on.

Is there a better, professionally applied product or service I can use for this? Preferably something that allows liability in the event my basement floods again.

Thanks for being my google.

[DanHall]

I'm no expert but I think you probably need to look for a way to get the water away from the foundation rather than sealing it. French drain is the usual solution but even longer downspouts and making sure the grade slopes away can help. It isn't cheap to retrofit though.

Good luck, it sucks when things like that happen.

[akaFrankCastle]

I'm already tackling the outside.

[casadejohnson]

I'm fighting this same battle. The problem I have is that the ground around the house is flat. I have only had water seep in once and that was after we had an hour of driving rain that blew against the west side of the house and pooled on saturated ground. Unlike your situation I know where mine is coming in. I have extended my downspouts 15-20 feet into the yard for now but I plan to go the french drain route. I'm going to have my dad survey the property this summer and then I'll be borrowing my cousin's skid loader. I too am interested in sealing the basement for piece of mind so I'll be very interested in what you find..

[akaFrankCastle]

I've got decent grade on most sides of the house. It's just been completely saturated.

I did manage to locate three seeping leaks. All along the intersection of the floor and basement walls. All under at least 9' of soil on the other side of the wall.

You know you've had significant rainfall when you've got 9' of saturated soil.

I've surrendered for the night. Half the carpet is ripped out and one wall is missing paneling. Also, moved about 40 boxes out of the basement.

I picked a really bad day to do deadlifts during my workout.

[71 Broncman]

Zach, that sucks. We used commercial roofing/waterproofing companies to seal the foundations on the buildings I worked on. Some would roll on the product, some had a sprayable coating. To really do it right you would need to expose the foundation walls and the top of the footings all the way around the basement. After waterproofing french drain to daylight or a sump with an automatic pump below the top of the footing level. I used a sump with a pump on a switch that I turn on about once a week in the wet season. This could lead to a serious depletion of Bronco funds. If I can answer any questions you can give me a call (719)687-7688.
Mark.

[Jar jar]

Zach,
What we use on building foundations is Damproofing. The company that I use up here in fort collins is Residental Damproofing (970) 635-0265. They have been doing it for years and have see the issues you are having. I would give them a call and just talk to them about your issue. They might even have jobs in your area that they can come take a look at your issue.

Matt

[Rox Crusher]

I too am enjoying the challenges of water infiltration.

In my case, the ground has settled so much that I have to remove and the sidewalk and the driveway. We also have to dig out around the foundation under neath the he front porch to reveal it.

Anybody know a good concrete guy ?

[akaFrankCastle]

I too am enjoying the challenges of water infiltration.

In my case, the ground has settled so much that I have to remove and the sidewalk and the driveway. We also have to dig out around the foundation under neath the he front porch to reveal it.

Anybody know a good concrete guy ?

Rox,
can the drive and sidewalk not be mud jacked to bring them back up to level? I've also seen a process where they drill several holes in the concrete and pump cement into the cavity underneath to bring slabs back up to level.

Mine has now gotten to the point where water is infiltrating through every nook and crack in the concrete. So far I've taken about 120 gallons off the floor with the shop vac and mop.

[hockeydad4-22]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but here goes.

The concrete must be sealed from the wet side. Concrete is porous and will absorb water and will eventuAlly leak if not. The only way to do this properly is to excavate and expose the whole wall, seal with one of a number of different sealers (think tar vs thompsons) and install French drains

A possible option would be to re-grade the surface soil and landscape in a manner that will not allow the soil to get this wet again. This however, is not the best or most proper fix.

All this learned through experience gained via a number of years as a home improvements general contractor specializing in basements and repairing issues exactly like this

[Rox Crusher]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but here goes.

The concrete must be sealed from the wet side. Concrete is porous and will absorb water and will eventuAlly leak if not. The only way to do this properly is to excavate and expose the whole wall, seal with one of a number of different sealers (think tar vs thompsons) and install French drains

A possible option would be to re-grade the surface soil and landscape in a manner that will not allow the soil to get this wet again. This however, is not the best or most proper fix.

All this learned through experience gained via a number of years as a home improvements general contractor specializing in basements and repairing issues exactly like this

This is pretty much my plan. Rent a mini-excavator and dig out the area around the foundation and let it dry out. Then seal the heck out of it.

Then regrade the ground so that it slopes away from the house.

Somehow the builder got away with the grade running towards the house even before it began settling.

The sidewalk has to get dug down about 12 inches and the driveway will have to be re-graded so it can catch the runoff from the sidewalk and pitch it away from the garage.

[Rox Crusher]

I too am enjoying the challenges of water infiltration.

In my case, the ground has settled so much that I have to remove and the sidewalk and the driveway. We also have to dig out around the foundation under neath the he front porch to reveal it.

Anybody know a good concrete guy ?

Rox,
can the drive and sidewalk not be mud jacked to bring them back up to level? I've also seen a process where they drill several holes in the concrete and pump cement into the cavity underneath to bring slabs back up to level.

Mine has now gotten to the point where water is infiltrating through every nook and crack in the concrete. So far I've taken about 120 gallons off the floor with the shop vac and mop.

Sounds like you have gotten even more rain than we have.

We had two different companies come out and both said they could jack it back up to original location but the grade was bad from the start and no room to go higher.

The knew technology where they drill holes and pump expanding foam (plastic ?) really intrigued me.

[sbolt19]

Not to throw another bucket of mud on things, but I'd bet you a box of doughnuts that your water isn't just seeping in through the basement walls, it is coming up from the ground too, under the slab. There are several things you can do: Damp-proofing (i.e. what Rox is talking about), exterior french drain, interior french drain with sump pit(s).

The biggest problem you have is that the ground isn't going to dry out anytime soon and that any rain we do continue to get is going to end up in your basement. Thems is just the facts. But when we do dry out, the only way you are going to stop any of this from happening in the future is to do one, if not more, of the suggestions thrown out. The good thing is you have a strong back and a weak mind, so hard rock labor isn't going to effect ya much...

let me know if you need someone to supervise and tell you what to do, I am more than qualified to stand around, direct traffic and drink your beer.

[Jar jar]

I ended up having the same issue in my basement. My problem is the water was comming up through my slab. We have been continuously pumping water out of a sump pit hole I cut in my slab. It has stopped the water from coming in but the pit keeps filling with water. I am hoping with adding a sump pump under the slab will fix my problem.

[sbolt19]

Jar Jar, while you have the demo saw, I would recommend that you go and cut a perimeter channel along the outside of the entire slab and run a french drain to a couple of sump pits. We did this on my father-in-law's house years ago and it has kept him from having to remodel his basement 2x in the last 3 years. It may be a royal pain in the a$$ and pocket book now, but it will save you in the long run if you finish the basement. Run the drain in pea gravel and after you pour concrete over it, let it dry and brush non-shrink grout into the shrink joints to completely seal the thing up. I strongly recommend that you put 2 sump pits in.