Talk to Me About Waterproofing Basement

[AeroMoto]

First post here, from Indianapolis. Garage related because the basement will be my workshop with the garage for Jeep/motorcycle/car storage.

My basement in the house gets water seepage, but only when it's raining or the snow is melting. There's a corner of the house that had clogged up gutters (due to ice/snow) and water was going over the gutters and sitting at the base of the house. The corner is on a concrete driveway and is a low spot of sorts. I've unclogged the gutters now that the snow and ice are gone for the moment.

So to me there are 3 components to making sure the basement is waterproofed.

#1: Eliminating the source of water from outside. This will involve making sure the gutters drain properly all the time (adding roof/gutter deicing cables) and sealing up the area between the driveway and the house footing. There's some type of old sealant, but it's obviously not doing its job. Question: What type of sealant is good for this? Is it DIY?

#2: Eliminating any water that gets in the basement. The basement construction is block, with the house being brick, built in the 20s. So to me there's 2 parts to the basement. Sealing the walls and drainage. Question: What sealant/sealing system should I look at for the basement? And is it DIY?

#3: I've looked at french drains a little. The basement is divided into 2 sections with a block wall. I have a floor drain in both sides, but only one side is the problem. I'm going to ensure drainage on both sides though. The problem side drain doesn't really drain, so that will have to be fixed. I would also like to look at a sump pump for peace of mind with a battery backup. This part of step 2 would most likely NOT be DIY because it would probably involve a lot of excavation or concrete cutting. Question: So what drainage system works best for this type of situation? What else should I get smart on before I start to look for contractors?

 

[Hpozzuoli]

I had similar problems when I bought my house 10yrs ago. I used hydro cement along all the wall to floor joints, put in a sump pump, and trenched the whole perimeter of the house. I dug down about 7ft along the rear and one side. I did it by hand for some crazy reason. I put in a weeping drain along the rear and side. Covered it in fabric and dumped approx 2ft of crushed stone on top all the way around. I redirected all my gutters and put in drains at ground level that fed into the weeping pipe. The sump pump never turns on, and my basement never gets a drop of water now. We have had a few hurricanes and some terribly rainy springs since then. It was a lot of work, but worth it. I did it all myself and spent about $500 all told. I think the main solution was redirecting the gutters and the weeping drain. The drain is 6" round and exits in the pic attached. When it pours water comes out that drain like a fire hose.

 

[Hpozzuoli]

Here's one of the drains at ground level that feeds into the pipe. It's kinda hard to see because of the snow. The key is to maintain the pitch and put these drains in the natural yard run off areas. I have 3 ground drains in the system.

 

[Hpozzuoli]

Here's a look at the back of the house to get an idea of location etc. come spring I can take better pics. I know how bad water ***** so if this helps I am happy. Keep in mind the pipe ends on the bottom right of the pic near the stairs. I am sure there are going to be a bunch of other suggestions saying how it should be. This is what I did and it worked great. I am 10yrs into my solution and haven't had a speck of moisture. Once I was satisfied I then finished my basement. That was my whole motivation to do the work. I came home one night after a moderate rain storm to find my foot under water when I stepped on the floor. Thankfully I didn't finish the basement yet. I run my dehumidifier all summer long to help with normal summer moisture.

 

[RivennHewn]

Google negative side / positive side waterproofing - damp proofing.

Most products that are negative side (applied from the inside) will fail sooner or later.
They can't stand up to the Efflorescence, and end up flaking off.

Short of excavating your foundation, positive side products can't be installed.

The best bet is to take the path of least resistance, or let the water take that path.

Give the water an easier route somewhere else.

 

[Hpozzuoli]

I have actual pics of when I did the work. Not electronic pics but the actual paper ones. I am not totally up to date with electronics yet. Hope you can see them ok. That is the back obviously.

 

[Hpozzuoli]

Here is the side. I was down 7ft so you can see how much stone I used to get the pipe where I needed it. Some sections were only down 4ft away from the house where where I came out on one end. The side was all the way to the bottom. I made a huge drainage pit about 15ft out from the house where my gutters dump into. It's was about 8x8. It was huge.

 

[jd_1138]

Our basement used to leak. We had new gutters and extensions installed which helped a little, but it still leaked. So we had an interior french drain installed, and it no longer leaks. Didn't need a sump pump though I may install one just for peace of mind. But it's been like 4 years, and no leaks yet.

I do think, however, that an outside solution is best -- putting down dirt to slope away from the footers and also maybe digging down to the outside foundation and waterproofing the foundation walls along with better rain gutters.

You don't want a lot of water running down to the foundation and pushing in (hydrostatic pressure).

 

[Dale Leeds]

The area that is lower than the rest of the yard where the water settles, next to the house- you need to build it up with dirt so that it slopes away from the house. Then cover it with heavy solid plastic and cover the plastic with mulch. That way, the rain will go down through the mulch, onto the plastic and run away from the house. Run the plastic (covered with mulch) out about six feet from the house. You might need to put some type of landscaping timbers down to keep the mulch in place. But that is the first thing I would do. It could be an easy fix to keep the water from getting down to the bottom of the foundation. If you have to, you can do this all the way around the house. Or as much as you need. I did this years ago and it keeps the water away from my house.

 

[UIUC-Mech-E]

If you concrete blocks are exposed on the inside consider starting by treating the old concrete with sodium silicate (waterglass). It acts as a sealant within the concrete rather than on the surface. You can always ad sealants and barriers afterwards. I'll leave it to someone else to go over laying tile around your basement. I can't tell you enough to be useful.


(Insert catchy saying here)

 

[ludakris04]

Our old house had some of the same issues. I made sure we had long pipes attached to the drain spouts and painted the walls with dryloc. I had thought about some sort landscaping around the house. Most important is to get the water far from the foundation. I liked 6 feet.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[AeroMoto]

Thanks for the replies and the pics, they have helped me start wrapping my head around this.

I've read about digging outside the foundation, but I'm not sure if I want to go that route yet. I saw a house that had the french drain installed in the basement and you couldn't hardly tell it was installed. I plan on finishing it, which is the driver behind the questions.

The block on the inside is painted with something, I think it might have been a poor attempt at waterproofing. I'd imagine it would take scraping or sanding the old stuff off the wall to be the most effective.

My path forward for the short term is to get a longer gutter run out and also seal the seam between the house and driveway. Any suggestions on the sealant for the outside?

 

[theoldwizard1]

First, where is the water coming in ? Crack in the wall or floor ? joint between the floor and wall ?

#1: Eliminating the source of water from outside. This will involve making sure the gutters drain properly all the time (adding roof/gutter deicing cables) and sealing up the area between the driveway and the house footing. There's some type of old sealant, but it's obviously not doing its job. Question: What type of sealant is good for this? Is it DIY?

No sealant is prefect. I like Silkaflex, but I'm not going to guarantee it works. Have the driveway "jacked" so that water runs away from the house.

#2: Eliminating any water that gets in the basement. The basement construction is block, with the house being brick, built in the 20s. So to me there's 2 parts to the basement. Sealing the walls and drainage. Question: What sealant/sealing system should I look at for the basement? And is it DIY?

You don't mean "eliminate" you mean prevent. I don't remember the name of the product, but you flood the area outside of the basement where is is leaking until water is flowing into the basement. Then you pour the sealant in. It follows the water into any cracks and then seals them.

You should do this before jacking the driveway or trying to seal between the wall and the driveway.

#3: I've looked at french drains a little. The basement is divided into 2 sections with a block wall. I have a floor drain in both sides, but only one side is the problem. I'm going to ensure drainage on both sides though. The problem side drain doesn't really drain, so that will have to be fixed. I would also like to look at a sump pump for peace of mind with a battery backup. This part of step 2 would most likely NOT be DIY because it would probably involve a lot of excavation or concrete cutting. Question: So what drainage system works best for this type of situation? What else should I get smart on before I start to look for contractors?

What you want is interior weeping system. Likely there never was any drainage system installed outside so now you have to do it inside. Yes, this is a huge amount of work, cutting and removing concrete, and installing drain tile running to a sump pit and covered with gravel. Finally a dimpled water proof membrane is attached to the inside wall that runs down into trench. Any water that does come in stays behind this membrane and flows into the gravel. Concrete is poured to bring the floor back to normal.

Jacking the driveway, applying sealant, and proper gutter and downspout will help a lot. If that doesn't work, start calling basement waterproofing companies.

 

[Fueler]

My home was built in 58 by my folks. They made mistakes on the drainage and it leaked badly. They redid it in the early 70s but apparently did not get the right people for the work. As I recall they also tried all the miracle sealers, etc to no avail on the inside walls.
It was only half as bad after their redo. More annoying than anything else and prevented fixing up an otherwise nice basement.

I took it over 10 yrs ago. With so many other irons in the fire the budget hasn't been there for another do over.
I have a friend who is a home inspector and sees a lot of thing like this. After looking it over he suggested "why fight it, let it through and direct it". Hmmm

Considered various ways of pulling this off. Experimented with drilling holes at the floor level. Yup, a veritable flood in certain spots. Funny thing was that where it would come into the basement was not where it began entry. Apparently once inside the blocks it would find it's way to the weak spot between the footers and the floor which could be 10 ft away.

Fooled around with with some YouTube ideas using PVC to direct it but it was an ugly affair. Time for Plan B or C.

I finally wound up buying some plastic baseboards from a company (link below) and installed it during that polar vortex freeze we had going on. The frozen ground kept any leaks to a easy to clean up minimum.

So far.....so good. The recent warmup and snow melt saw some water moving through the system to the sump pump. The interesting thing is that it can best be described as a constant trickle to the sump pump versus the sudden wet floor we were used to. I suppose opening up holes every couple of feet keeps it from building up and then cutting loose. Fine with me.
Holding my breath to see what the spring thaw and rains bring.

I didn't do the all of the basement walls. For some reason we only have issues on the south wall. I did about 8 ft on the west wall just to cover myself, 51 ft on the south wall and 29 ft leading to the sump pump on the east wall.
I can always add on later if we just managed to move the problem.
Wife and I did it on a weekend. The longest work was prepping the floor. prep work on Saturday. Knee pad work btw. Installation on Sunday.
I think I would up with around $700.00 in the project.

These guys. http://waterproof.com/
Google will find a couple of variations available on the same concept.

 

[AeroMoto]

I neglected to say exactly where the water was coming in, good catch Old Wizard. It's coming in through the walls, specifically the east and south wall. I'm 99% sure it's coming in through the mortar, 3-5 feet from the floor, which is 2-4 feet below ground level.

I know I'm probably looking at the weeping system. Anyone have a general idea on the cost? The half of the basement in question is less than 400 sq ft.

Thanks for all the help so far!