Help with basement workshop flooding!

[wolfsburged]

I have a split-level house that has two "crawlspaces" that have been dug out and concreted to be basements by a previous owner.

I have made one of them into a small wood working shop, however now that I have outfitted the area I have come to find that during periods of heavy rain over a few days, or a decent snow melting, that water tends to flood this basement.

I have worked to make all of my gutter downspouts be directed elsewhere via the black 4" PVC drainage pipe, and the ground does slope away from the foundation. However the house is situated against a slope in the property so that this basement is on the low side of a hill. I feel as though the water is seeping up through the concrete.

There is a small course of blocks around the perimeter of the floor as if they were for some sort of drain. There is a roughly 2' square section inside this as if it were for a sump pump or something, but it is not dug down at all. This is the epicenter of the water flooding.

Most of the walls and concrete are painted with something white which I assume is a drylok type waterproofing paint. The inside of this block course is not painted.

Basically I am about at wits end on this, and not sure how to proceed.

Here is a video I made of the water today after a recent few days of continuous rain, showing the problem. Any insight or help is appreciated.

 

[tncatadjuster]

I would be doing work around the outside to stop what I could. I took out all plants and tilled up the soil, then pitched the dirt and put down roll roofing. Covered the roofing with a little dirt and sod and it stopped 90% of my problems. I did approximately 80' this way and never had problems again. My back fill had settled and rain came in just like yours.

Good Luck.

 

[bczygan]

Install a sump pump with battery back up.

Bill

 

[Moss]

Unless that slope has a big dam on the bottom somehow all the surface water should be running away from your basement full speed no problems. I'm thinking there must be a spot somewhere that some of all that water running down the slope is finding an easier path dropping down into your basement rather than right past your house. I agree a sump pump would seem to help but with that slope there has to be something in the overall grade that's causing it.

If we saw a bit more of the outside it might help. It looks like the car in the driveway is pointed on a slope right at your home. You must have a lot of changes in grade on your property?

 

[404]

I had the exact same problem. The word "RAGE" does not really describe the feeling when I went downstairs and stepped in to the water puddle that was soaking the ends of my hardwood lumber.

The first thing I did was install 5 sump pumps. One in each corner and one in the middle. These would run constantly all spring. Next step was to have the yard regraded so that the house was uphill from any angle. I went from a grade that sloped toward the back of my house to a grade that sloped away for a good 30 feet. As a result the end of my back yard is 4 feet lower than that of the house behind me. That got me down to only needing 3 sump pumps. The final part was to dig away the cement and dirt from the inside of my back cellar wall, make a trench along the length, and then another trench leading to the central sump pump pit. I now only have one sump pump, and it does not run very often. Total cost about 3000 dollars US.

You have my sympathy. This really does ****.

 

[jwhcars]

Run under ground drain pipe along outside foundation wall with exits down hill and pointing away from house. I lived on the side of a steep hill and it worked for me. My dirt sloped away from the house but it doesn't mean that it was back filled properly.

 

[404]

Just watched your entire video. Just for starters, the pipe should be extended all the way around the back of the house to the lowest point.

 

[theoldwizard1]

If you are getting water percolating up, no paint/sealant will stop it. Bill and 404 are correct. You need a sump pit and pump.

The "gutter" around the perimeter seems to lead to that larger space in the one corner look like where the original owner had planned on putting it. Break out the concrete, dig down about 3 or 4 feet, install a sump pit and pump. Make the hole oversized and back fill around the pit with gravel.

If this does NOT solve you problem, you will have to break the floor all the way around the perimeter and install a "weeping tile" system that leads to the pit. If you are lucky, and the soil is reasonably porous, the pit and and pump will be all you need.


Check YouTube for videos on "weeping tile". They have shown doing this on This Old House and Mike Holmes TV show. Wait until the "dry" season.

 

[Pen & Wrench]

If you are able to install a berm uphill from the house, and redirect runoff around the house instead of through it, that should help. The berm doesn't have to be overpowering, just enough to direct the stream of runoff around and not directly towards your foundation. Then I would grade around the house, on 1 side or both, to make a waterway so the water will want to run on past and away from the house, so it cannot stop and pool around the foundation. If you have a fairly significant rain event, go out and study what is going on and where water moves, and pools, and you will get a better idea of what needs to be done to solve your problem. It is possible that water runs against the side of the house and finds its way around to the area where it can enter your basement. You could get a back hoe in and trench around the outside of the foundation, install drain tile and 1 or 2 sump pumps, and that would keep the water level below the floor and solve your problem. But it is easier to redirect the water, instead of pumping it out, if in fact, it is possible to redirect the water. There is probably quite a bit of water that runs down the hill, and the quicker it can go around and away from your home, the less chance it will have to build up enough near your home to enter the basement.

 

[gasgas17]

The first thing I would try is to not have that pipe coming down the hill to the back wall. It's right at floor level. Run that pipe in the ground perpendicular to the side of the house with the hill. Run it to a french drain. And do the same with the other side of the house. The sump pit would be next on the list if not at the same time.

 

[CADPoint]

You need to build a french drain on the three sides what #6 and also what
# 7 said.

Our subsoil regionally is clay based, this tends to let if flow till it can pool
and it will pool anywhere that's not clay or held up.

It also looks like there's something draining from above, right where you don't
need additional water! This also need to be corrected or spouted additional footage away from the house.

From the footage I'll bet they poured all this at one time, that means that there is no underlying gravel
on the floor itself. IMO your assumption is correct the water is coming up from beneath the
concrete that's under pressure from all sides of the house, your workroom of course is the lowest point.

You could test this and just use a concrete bit and drill down and once past
the concrete you will hit dirt.

diagrams of a french drain

You will need to install the drains against the foundation walls and work it like most of the diagrams.
Deluxe french drain with multiple levels of different materials.

Good Luck.

 

[RAYJAY]

sounds like you have no drain tile around the outside of your foundation, it was a crawl space made into a basement if i read right,

you will need to dig (on the outside of the house ) all the way around to the footer of the foundation clean and tar the block and add drain tile around the outside of it