Flooded basement. :( Need a small block wall!!

[Sub]

Soooo, I got a foot of water in my basement during a really big storm a few days ago.

I noticed that during the flood water was pouring in quickly through the wall where my garage meets the basement (well, not through, but around all of the seams, and under the wall which doesnt seal well with the floor). The garage had more like 2-3' of water in it. It occurred to me that if I could seal that better, I would have had a lot less water in the basement, maybe just an inch or two. The basement door sealed quite well. I am considering putting up a retaining wall on the outside of the stud wall with 4'x8'x16" cinder blocks and tying it into the rest of the cinderblock in my garage to create a more water tight seal. The water gets pumped out with a sump in my garage so I only need to hold water back for 30min - hour. Here are pics of the affected area:

Inside garage (I ripped off the sheetrock so the wall could dry).:


Inside basement:

Right side of door:

This area is a mess, looks like the previous homeowner tried to fix some cracking or skim coat the blocks - the pic doesn't show it but the wall is a bit out of line. I would **** cinder block against this area and potentially strengthen it, straighten it, or at least make it prettier - I'd run the block wall to above that bad area there, but under the light switches on the left (~4').

Left side of door:
Note supporting beam there I'd have to block around, I would run the new wall right up and onto that stoop where the red gas can is on the left. I guess I'd have to partially notch a cinder block to do that?!

I want to make a 4' high wall either side of the door and tie it into the existing walls. I have a few questions:

1. around the structural beam there on the left, it may be tricky to brick around, can I **** the concrete right against that support? I dont have a lot of room in my garage (thus the use of half width cinder blocks)
2. If I scrape the existing cinderblocks and slabs clean, will that make a decent enough contact area for the mortar to adhere to? I really dont want to get into renting a hammer drill, buying the bit and drilling the floor or walls for rebar. I know there will be a lot of pressure against this wall, but I figure if a wooden wall with sheetrock held up, a cement one will too. These are actually really short runs too. Again, this problem only comes along once in a great while and its over quick. My last flood like this was 10 years ago!
3. How close to the inner wall should I build the new wall? I was thinking of leaving a 1" gap and then afterwards using spray foam insulation to fill in potential leak areas (around door sill sides and where new wall meets old).
4. I have nice wool insulation on hand, can I use that to re-insulate the wall? Should I just spray foam the hell out of it and fill the areas behind the wall - then it wouldnt matter if it got wet?!
5. How should I handle the area around the door where the blocks meet the wood? Just leave a bit of space for some molding?

Looks like I'll have to notch or cut cinder block in a few places - I'll have to find a tool on the cheap to do that (Harbor Freight?!). I'm a pretty handy guy but I dont have a lot of domain knowledge in this area. Any other words to the wise? Thanks for any replies.

Thanks!

 

[JakeKohl]

That is not terrific construction - you've got wood with concrete poured around it and wood below slab grade. That wood doesn't look like it's pressure treated either. That's a problem before you get into the water issues....

...but with regards to the water, there are two "correct" ways to fix this. 1) excavate the exterior of the house and waterproof the outside of the wall and install proper drainage system. 2) jackhammer a trench around the interior perimeter of the basement, install a stone trench and a drain system that feeds to a sump pump that you install below grade somewhere in the floor.

You may also be able to minimize the amount of water by fixing some issues with the drainage of the property - make sure gutters are working and downspouts are clear. Make sure the downspouts from the gutters are plumbed several feet away from the house and that this water continues to flow away from the house. Fix any grading issues that have water running toward the house.

Any patch you make to the interior of the basement is just simply not going to hold with that much water pressure against it. You either need to prevent the water from getting through the wall (from the outside) or have a plan to deal with the water once it does get through. A stub wall is only going to ~maybe~ slow down the flow of water or (worse) pool it until it overflows...and against some wood (NOT good). 1 to 3' of water is a LOT of water.

 

[NUTTSGT]

The first thing you need to do is figure out where the water is coming from and why. If you don't fix the source of water, it's a losing battle.

 

[mirrorimg]

"The garage had more like 2-3' of water in it."

From the stains on the wall, that doesnt look like 2-3 feet. I imagine that being knee-waist high. Should the ' actually be a " to reflect inches?

 

[red92s]

Trying to do fix these problems from the inside is a fool's errand. First step needs to be correct grading to get water moving away from the foundation to begin with. Do you have any exterior pictures? A shovel and a couple inches of dirt can go a loooooong way towards fixing water issues.

 

[Sub]

Ahhh ok so I left out some information. You're all jumped on me, now I feel bad!

Red92s, here is a pic of the exterior during the flood after the water started going down. You can see the water level was pretty high - almost to the door knob on the left side door). You can also see how my garage is situated well below grade.:

So, over the years I have done a lot of exterior drainage work. I have added gutters, raised areas and retaining walls, french drains in the backyard, 5 drain tiles at the driveway entrances with their own sump pump. This has solved 99% of the rain issues I've had, but during torrential downpours, the water simply goes under the garage door so there is no way to seal it water tight. The rain water we had was a historic high for the area. I actually think it was jumping under the garage door through the drain tiles and into the sump area and then backs up into the garage - a siphon was created. I cant raise my driveway or the road, so this is just a problem I have to prepare for and live with. I've met with the town water and highway departments and they will not help me. What I'm saying is.. there is no stopping it, no amount of drainage will help. The good part is that this only happens once in a very great while - my last flood was over ten years ago. My garage is normally very dry.

What I'm trying to do here is mitigate water as much as possible from getting into the basement, which is actually 4" below the grade of my garage slab. Its a really bad setup, I know, but its what I've got and I have to live with it. The good part is that the garage did drain all of that water in my garage and outside in about 45 minutes - I have a strong sump pump! So the wall only has to hold for that period of time.

Mirrorimg, The garage did have 2-3 feet of water. The water lines you are seeing are from the INSIDE of the wall, so thats is how high the basement got - about 8" give or take (I've already removed the outer sheet rock). So the garage had a lot more. If you look at this pic, top right, on the second cinder block down, you can see the darker line there - thats where the water was!

So clearly that little stud wall was able to hold the water back for the period of time that was needed. The sheet rock covering it also help up, which was impressive. What that told me was that a cinder block wall should be able to hold it back too, and at the same time reduce the amount of water that passes through because my stud was had lots of spaces for water to flow through (cement wall is not straight).

Jake, I do already have a drain surrounding my basement that goes to a sump pump.

I see that lumber should be pressure treated. I will see about replacing it.

This project is about reducing the water that gets into my basement, not eliminating it. Its not a perfect setup, but I do need some help making good choices about building the wall. Makes sense?!

 

[Sub]

So, is it ok to repaste these questions?!

1. around the structural beam there on the left, it may be tricky to brick around, can I **** the concrete right against that support? I dont have a lot of room in my garage (thus the use of half width cinder blocks) Should I use plastic or something in between the cinder blocks and wood?
2. If I scrape the existing cinderblocks and slabs clean, will that make a decent enough contact area for the mortar to adhere to? I really dont want to get into renting a hammer drill, buying the bit and drilling the floor or walls for rebar. I know there will be a lot of pressure against this wall, but I figure if a wooden wall with sheetrock held up, a cement one will too. These are actually really short runs too. Again, this problem only comes along once in a great while and its over quick. My last flood like this was 10 years ago!
3. How close to the inner wall should I build the new wall? I was thinking of leaving a 1" gap and then afterwards using spray foam insulation to fill in potential leak areas (around door sill sides and where new wall meets old).
4. I have nice wool insulation on hand, can I use that to re-insulate the wall? Should I just spray foam the hell out of it and fill the areas behind the wall - then it wouldnt matter if it got wet?!
5. How should I handle the area around the door where the blocks meet the wood? Just leave a bit of space for some molding?

 

[pmiranda]

I don't suppose you're allowed to put in a drain at the garage door than can route flood water to the storm sewer?
Do you have backup power to run the sump?

If you put a couple feet of water on one side of just about any wall, it will find a way through eventually. All you can do is try to use materials that will not be damaged by this temporary situation.
If you want to go nuclear on it... remove all wood framing below grade, at least along the garage walls. Put in temporary support and build CMU stem walls that will then carry the load permanently. Absolutely no untreated wood below grade.
Even then I'd probably want a drain on the basement side of that wall to route leaks into the sump.

 

[Nowater]

I don't have all the info, but can you consider waterproofing (like a membrane) the garage side of the common wall to keep the water in the garage and out of the basement? If it drains in 45 minutes, it may give you that much time.

I think effort on the basement side is a losing battle. The water pressure from three feet of water at the base of the common wall is almost one pound per square inch (0.43 pounds per foot time three feet height) for every square inch and then tapers off up to the water level. There is a lot of pressure pushing that water thru your wall.

 

[Sub]

The town will not let me pipe drain water into the storm sewer directly. I actually think there wouldnt be enough draft to do so anyway because my garage is so low.

I do have a battery backup system with 12v deep cycle car batteries and inverters and also a generator for longer outages.

 

[jimindm]

I would think about a levee system. I know it is that deep in your garage, but how much was at the top of the driveway, draining into the garage. No sump pump is going to take care of that.

Our property backs up to a river. With pump failures we have gotten our finished basement walls wet. We now have a 12 in pine base molding with pink 2 inch foam board up behind it. We have not had to do it yet, but figured we could remove the base and the foam board to let it dry.

You say what you have works most of the time. Creating a berm would slow the water from even getting to the house. It appears from the pictures that the water just topped where the driveway stated down to your below grade garage. You may find that you do not need much of a berm at all. You will still have to repair inside.

 

[NUTTSGT]

If you put a couple feet of water on one side of just about any wall, it will find a way through eventually. All you can do is try to use materials that will not be damaged by this temporary situation.
If you want to go nuclear on it... remove all wood framing below grade, at least along the garage walls. Put in temporary support and build CMU stem walls that will then carry the load permanently. Absolutely no untreated wood below grade.
Even then I'd probably want a drain on the basement side of that wall to route leaks into the sump.

I'd agree on the replacing the wood framed wall (or atleast the lower half of it) and replace it with concrete block. As far as the man door is concerned, maybe keep a supply of sandbags on hand for when you get the heavy rains. Fill them and stack them across the front of the door, along with a piece of heavy plastic.

Maybe a trench drain on the inside of the garage O/H door that is directed to the sump pump ?