Basement flooding thread

[INP8riot]

I didn't see one and after the rain last night I'm sure some of us are dealing with it!!

Ugh, I need to get that dang french drain in sooner than later! A little water in each room in my basement and my fireplace in the basement was a water feature! What a horrible idea a basement fireplace was from the builder of this house. Ruined a perfectly good poured wall basement with water intrusion points.

 

[mcapo]

I have a circa 1941 home. Basement has developed a couple of areas of water infiltration which can be alleviate but I also am observing a new issue. It appears that my chimney cap has failed or is cracked....

More money to not spend on new guns....

 

[gregkl]

I had some water infiltration into my basement. I ended up excavating down to just below the footer, installed a French drain, 3 layers of exterior waterproofing(brush on, membrane over that and "dimple" board). Then for kicks and grins I painted the interior walls with drylock after I sealed any cracks or holes.

I then finished my basement. That was 6-ish years ago and the relative humidity in my basement is in the 40% range, never getting over 50%. I really don't even need to run the dehumidifier in summer anymore.

I did have an issue at the front of my home when my drain got clogged and water backed up to my house and came in where my crawlspace meets my basement. So I regraded the front area and created a swale to direct excess water to the drain and away from the house. I'm also putting stone around the drain so hopefully it won't get covered with leaves, etc any more.

Eventually I will add a trench drain when I redo my driveway to catch the water running down my driveway during rainstorms and direct it back out to the street. That way my drain doesn't have to catch it all.

I never knew what living downhill meant when it comes to controlling water! Next home will be sitting high!

 

[Ingomike]

I never knew what living downhill meant when it comes to controlling water! Next home will be sitting high!

Sunday the wife and I were driving through the country and were observing homes that were built in what was a field 40 years ago and virtually no excavation work was done. Just plopped a house on the lot. As I was looking about half the houses I saw were clearly built in low ground…

 

[gregkl]

Sunday the wife and I were driving through the country and were observing homes that were built in what was a field 40 years ago and virtually no excavation work was done. Just plopped a house on the lot. As I was looking about half the houses I saw were clearly built in low ground…

I'm no engineer but I think they should have went a block or two higher with my house.

 

[Ingomike]

I'm no engineer but I think they should have went a block or two higher with my house.

And likely also brought in truckloads of dirt to raise the grade…

 

[INP8riot]

I probably should dig down along my chimney and seal it, but utilities will highly inhibit getting access easily. Power and internet are a few feet from the area. I'm hoping a frech drain, prepped, sloped and installed correctly in my clay soil, will prevent any further issues. Ofcourse I'll be lead contractor, laborer and grunt of the install!

 

[AndreusMaximus]

We live in an old house near a creek, and for the first couple years that we lived here we had a couple inches of water in the basement consistently every time there would be heavy rain. It looked like it was coming in from multiple different points, as when it would first start to seep in there would be water coming out form under different walls, sometimes on opposite ends of the house at the same time.

My wife, who worked with her Dad in construction before we were married, said that we needed to seal the crack between the driveway and the house. TBH, I didn't really believe that it could possibly make a difference, since the water appeared to be entering in multiple places, and the driveway only touches one end of the house. But she said she could do it, and just told me what type of caulk to pick up from Lowes, so I thought "what the heck." Lo and behold, to my astonishment, about a dozen tubes of sealant and a couple hours was all it took her, and we've not had a drop of water show up in our basement for the last 3 years. I never would've believed it.

 

[WebSnyper]

We live in an old house near a creek, and for the first couple years that we lived here we had a couple inches of water in the basement consistently every time there would be heavy rain. It looked like it was coming in from multiple different points, as when it would first start to seep in there would be water coming out form under different walls, sometimes on opposite ends of the house at the same time.

My wife, who worked with her Dad in construction before we were married, said that we needed to seal the crack between the driveway and the house. TBH, I didn't really believe that it could possibly make a difference, since the water appeared to be entering in multiple places, and the driveway only touches one end of the house. But she said she could do it, and just told me what type of caulk to pick up from Lowes, so I thought "what the heck." Lo and behold, to my astonishment, about a dozen tubes of sealant and a couple hours was all it took her, and we've not had a drop of water show up in our basement for the last 3 years. I never would've believed it.

Go ahead and rub it in that you have the perfect wife...

 

[ZurokSlayer7X9]

Another potential source for flooding is the window wells. Cover your window wells. My dad's basement flooded several times, a few times with me and my stuff in it, and every time it was caused by the window wells flooding. During one rain, the water came in through the egress windows. We opened the blinds only to find a freaking aquarium four feet high. Since we covered the wells with those plastic hoods, no flooding issues since.

 

[WebSnyper]

Another potential source for flooding is the window wells. Cover your window wells. My dad's basement flooded several times, a few times with me and my stuff in it, and every time it was caused by the window wells flooding. During one rain, the water came in through the egress windows. We opened the blinds only to find a freaking aquarium four feet high. Since we covered the wells with those plastic hoods, no flooding issues since.

I did that at my old house (plastic window well covers along with metal grates under them to support if someone happened to walk onto on as we had kids in the house, but haven't done it at the house we are in now.

I was wondering if it's better to cover them (seemed fine at my old house and I did it from day 1 (only had 2 window wells, both had drains in them that ran to the sump). My sump hardly ever rain in that house. House was a bout a mile from current house and about the same elevation, etc.

That said, I was a little concerned that was diverting water away from the drains in the window wells that ran to the sump pit, and maybe forcing it into places I would not want. House was new built in 2006 when we moved in it and never had an issue I was aware of.

The current house was almost 20 years old when we moved in and there are some screen covers on some of the window wells to keep out debris where there are trees, etc close by (but not on all). The screen covers allow water through of course, and others are not even covered with screen but seem to stay clear. Window wells have drains in the bottom as well. Basement is finished in this house, and sump seems to run a good bit, after rains for a few days.

So is it better to have the water go into the window wells and get directed to the sump or is it better to cover them and have that water go elsewhere, possibly down by the perimeter of the house?

 

[HoughMade]

Another potential source for flooding is the window wells. Cover your window wells. My dad's basement flooded several times, a few times with me and my stuff in it, and every time it was caused by the window wells flooding. During one rain, the water came in through the egress windows. We opened the blinds only to find a freaking aquarium four feet high. Since we covered the wells with those plastic hoods, no flooding issues since.

This is also what I found to be causing water ingress. I only got water in the basement when it rained hard with wind from the north. The north wall was also where the only window well is. I sealed the window well...and I mean sealed it (not egress windows, so sealed is sealed), brought in dirt to re-grade the area, and put up some additional gutters and directed runoff well away from the window well and no water since.

 

[ws6guy]

I've only had a small amount of water in the basement and I believe it was from the recently install front door. The bottom of the door doesn't seal very good to the threshold. The threshold is defective and the door company couldn't care less about warrantying the issue. It only poses a problem in the event of a horizontal rain pounding the door so I'll likely end up adding a storm door to fix the issue.

Now on the other hand my sump works overtime during heavy rains. This morning it was cycling every 40 seconds but we did have around 3" of rain last night. Also it's very rare that I don't have some kind of water coming into the sump, usually takes one of those several week dry spells before the water stops trickling into the sump.

So I have my main pump and a battery backup pump. Also have a spare main pump sitting in the wings because the pumps always seem to fail in the middle of the night. Also have a water alarm that alerts when the water gets higher than the main pumps float but before the level reaches the battery backup float.

I've been fortunate for not having any basement leaks but I know my time is coming

 

[snapping turtle]

Crawl space here. The company that came out to take a look said the water level in the neighborhood has risen in the last ten years and some of the issue was water was coming up out of the dirt. Sure I said sure.

lived here 25 years or so and never had big issues till 7 years ago. Then again the county does not seem very good at moving the water out of the area like they have in the past and like others here they sure did not bring in any dirt before they built the house in the 1970’s. Plus we’re are on the downstream side of the small neighborhood (5 houses)

so the French drain with gutter holes went in at foundation level with the 4 inch pipe and the second set with the French drain holes on bottom and a pipe all the way towards the ditch thru the yard. Hard work even with the machines lots of gravel and expense.
well the water level in the area must be above crawl space depth .

so I then had to install a French drain in the crawl space. In hind sight I could have just done this and the pipe to the ditch area. I will admit the dirt by the house has never been dryer than it is now. I still have to make everything pretty this summer.

 

[printcraft]

I used to have a nearly constant wet basement with water infiltration from the walls.
About 2007 or so I had a company (just checked - indianafoundation, did a great job)

https://www.indianafoundation.com/services/basement-waterproofing/

come in and dig a perimeter drain system (in the basement) and install a sump pump.
Have not had a single issue since and the floor has never been wet.

EDIT

 

[COOPADUP]

Decided to do the belly crawl this morning in the crawl space to test the pump and check the pump basin for any debris. Everything checked out great and the basin pit was dry. Piece of mind.

 

[Ark]

Another potential source for flooding is the window wells. Cover your window wells. My dad's basement flooded several times, a few times with me and my stuff in it, and every time it was caused by the window wells flooding. During one rain, the water came in through the egress windows. We opened the blinds only to find a freaking aquarium four feet high. Since we covered the wells with those plastic hoods, no flooding issues since.

Had this problem at my old family home. Window well detached from the foundation wall and eroded a little chute that just poured rainwater into the well.

Laid a big bead of silicone, screwed it back into the wall, and then dug a trench and laid a French drain. Under a deck. With an E-tool.

 

[Aggar]

I used to have a nearly constant wet basement with water infiltration from the walls.
About 2007 or so I had a company (just checked - indianafoundation, did a great job)

https://www.indianafoundation.com/services/basement-waterproofing/

come in and dig a perimeter drain system (in the basement) and install a sump pump.
Have not had a single issue since and the floor has never been wet.

EDIT

I just had this done in February by a different company, Acculevel. It’s great now. No water. Now I’m in the process of finishing the basement.