I am from Janesville and we had a record year for snow.. Anyways, we have had our house for 15 years, and this is the first time it has leaked into the basement...

1. The eaves and drain spouts are jammed with ice, there for the water drips next to the foundation..

2. We had a major thaw on Saturday and Sunday..

Is my solution as simple as getting Black dirt with a mix of clay and grade it away from the foundation?

Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

R

This is just ONE SUGGESTION!

Please explore all options before rushing into a decision.

We have a refinnished basement with paneling, suspended cieling... To use this, would we have to take downt the paneling, part of the dieling?

R MaN - I didn't read the link that FRZ sent you in it's entirety. However, that type of sealant is normally applied to the outside of the basement wall. You would have to get a backhoe and dig around the outside footing of your house and apply the sealant.

Water in the basement is a problem that rarely goes away unless you do something drastic like apply sealant on the exterior or install a beaver system, which is also very costly.

The good news for you is that you can probably chalk it up to a harsh winter and excessive water drainage this year. It is possible that the problem will only surface when extreme conditions are present. During most spring seasons, you will probably be fine.

I'm not sure how in love you are with your house, but you may want to consider putting it on the market during the summer months if the problem persists. Leaky basements are a pain in ass.

quote:

Originally posted by R MaN:
Is my solution as simple as getting Black dirt with a mix of clay and grade it away from the foundation?

Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

R

Could be....we hired a landscaping company to build up from the side of our house. It is now literally channeled away from the house down the sides. Just dis this in October and it has worked as advertised. No water in basement after the big thaw yesterday which would have been unheard of before.


I am lazy and hired someone to do it but you could probably do it yourself.

We droped about $5k total...but that included some retaining wall work and some other extras

Pakrz-Iowa,

We had terrible rains this past summer (almost record amounts) and we had no problems what so ever... The reason, The eave traff's (sp) and down spouts were clear and the water went down the spouts away from the house....

Well now, there is ice in the traffs, ice and snow on the foof, and down spouts that are completly plugged.. The water drip and drips off the roof and jsut pools up... Plus the ground is frozen, therefore the leaking... First time this happened since 92.... Yeah, the thaw yesterday did it... Like you said Iowa, we have to get the water away from the house so banking it and grading it so that the water runs away from the house appears to be the answer...

keep the tips coming..

Rrrrrrrrr

Do you have a sump pump? If so, make sure it is working properly. Sometimes (depending on soil type around your foundation) silt can clog the inlets into your sump crock. Excess water from your ice damned downspouts will then build up around the foundation wall and find its way into any cracks in your basement wall. We used a product similar to what FRZ has suggested. It's called, Drylock, IIRC. It comes in gallon containers and is applied with brush and/or roller and is applied on the inside walls. You'd obviously have to remove your paneling to paint the foundation walls. If the leak is only in one spot you could try using it in just that area. If you find any actual holes or large cracks in the foundation, fill them with hydrolic cement before painting. Undamming your cutters and downspouts will help as will extensions on your downspouts. Sloping the grade away from yor foundation will also help.

We had major water problems in our basement. We finally had to resort to having drain tile re-installed around the inside parimeter of the basement, install bleeders through the foundation to the drain tile, install a second sump pump and paint with the Drylock. A major job and mess, but it fixed our problem.
I certainly hope your problem will require a less costly solution. Good luck.

R

The problems we had were with stagnant water build up. Our house is on a hill and all the water would settle on the back side. Brilliant job by our builder in planning for this

Our water would all pool up and seep in by our egress basement window.

Our sump pump would run 24-7 even during a sprinkle.

Our sump ran alot yesterday but the water is all channeled away from settling where it used to.

We also considered these guys http://www.midwestreconstruction.com/index-3.html not sure if they are in your area but they give free estimates and came well recommended.

Their solution would have been around $3K for us. but they did not address the water settling they were just going to re-tile and give us a double sump pump.

We figured we could go back to them if the landscaping did not work and like I said not trying to jinx it but it is working beautifully.

would I need a sump pump given that I live in town?

LOL damn we've been hit with torrential rains and lighting followed by sleet ice and then covered in snow, all since last night at 6 o'clock. I was outside breaking ice yesterday with no coat on, now I'm mopping the basement floor as the water is seeping in the cracks and corners of the foundation and had to shovel the driveway.

All I can say is if it's not a normal occurance you may want to wait as this has been and unusal year but if it happens every other year you'll probably need to install a sump pump. Anything else will probably not do the job. I tried the water proofing paint and it made the basement look pretty but we still have water being forced through. Main areas are foundation post and along the walls where the pressure can be the strongest. Grading away from our foundation wouldn't correct any of this.

quote:

Originally posted by R MaN:
would I need a sump pump given that I live in town?

yes

Is your basement a poured concrete foundation? Cinder block? Other?

Is it a walk-out? What type of windows?

Is it leaking at multiple spots?

Is the leaking at a low elevation point around your house?

quote:

Originally posted by kabeerme:
Is your basement a poured concrete foundation? Cinder block? Other?

Is it a walk-out? What type of windows?

Is it leaking at multiple spots?

Is the leaking at a low elevation point around your house?

Kabeer,

It is a poured foundation....When I look outside, I can see the grooves where the water is dripping off of the roof because the water has no other way to go... Normally, the traffs and down spouts would handle it, but not now... The water pools in certain spots outside and since the ground is frozen and the foundatio wall warmer due to the interior walls, the water runs towards the fountadation and seeps down below ground level... Right where the bas board meets the floor is where the water is coming in... Not down the paneling.....

Iowa: We are not in a low lieing area so I don't think a sump pump would help...I'm trying to concepually figure out how it work here.

Get yourself some roles of visqueen-(plastic) 6 mil, 6-12 ft wide to lay around the foundation of your house,make sure the plastic runs up the foundation a couple inches to keep the water from getting in back of the visqueen,make sure the area you are using the visqueen on all drains away from the house I would use river rock to cover the visqueen, that will solve your problem for a reasonable price,there are other remides that are more spendy.

R

If you have snow banks around your house it would be best to try and move them away. We had water dropping down on the snow which was coated with ice, and then running back to the foundation. The other concern with those banks is when they start to melt, most of the water will run toward your foundation.

For next year, I am going to bring in dirt and increase the slope away from the foundation. But that does me no good now, so I shovel and I shovel and I......

Good luck with it.

Try this:

www.move someplace warmer.com

Yeah, hardly anyone even has a basement here in New Mexico, but my roof almost got blown off last night...

I almost got blown last night too.

quote:

Originally posted by Pakrz:
I almost got blown last night too.

...the story of your life.

I think allot of people are going to have the same problem over the next month.
Like Favrelous said above your best bet is to move the snow away from the foundation.
for the snow on your roof get yourself a roof rake.



good luck

quote:

Originally posted by Favrealous:
R

If you have snow banks around your house it would be best to try and move them away. We had water dropping down on the snow which was coated with ice, and then running back to the foundation. The other concern with those banks is when they start to melt, most of the water will run toward your foundation.

For next year, I am going to bring in dirt and increase the slope away from the foundation. But that does me no good now, so I shovel and I shovel and I......

Good luck with it.

I did that.. Matter of fact, I took the snow blower around the affected area.. I would say the snow is about 5 feet away from the foundation.. There is some ice around but I cannot chip it with a chipper... My main problem, was the thick ice at the edge of the roof and the jammed truffs and gutters.. Water drips off the roof lands with 3 feet of foundation, ground is solid, water goes near foundation and into basement...

quote:

Originally posted by BudW:
Get yourself some roles of visqueen-(plastic) 6 mil, 6-12 ft wide to lay around the foundation of your house,make sure the plastic runs up the foundation a couple inches to keep the water from getting in back of the visqueen,make sure the area you are using the visqueen on all drains away from the house I would use river rock to cover the visqueen, that will solve your problem for a reasonable price,there are other remides that are more spendy.

How to I tack the visqueen to the cement foundation? So your saying, just lay the visqueen down without bringing dirt and grading it away from the foundation?

If your dealing with ground saturation like I am a sump pump is the only answer. You might want to find someone that does basements and see if they can come in a give you a free estimate and then go from there. It might give you a better idea as to what your dealing with.

quote:

Originally posted by TimthePackerFan:
If your dealing with ground saturation like I am a sump pump is the only answer. You might want to find someone that does basements and see if they can come in a give you a free estimate and then go from there. It might give you a better idea as to what your dealing with.

I had an estimate done last year for tiling the inside (140') and putting a sump pump in. I didn't have it done but the estimate was just under $6500. I've talked to many people that've been very happy with the result of doing this. If I were more inclined to finish my basement, I'd definately do it.