basement leakage

6/26/2011 at 5:42:52 PM

Josephine,

You could start with looking at your eves trough system next time it's raining. Many basement leaks begin with bad rain collection systems.

Is is flowing over?

Do the down pipes get the water away from the home?

Have a close look to see where the water goes after it comes off the roof. If it doesen't have a chance to get away' chancves are the ground around your basement walls is probably saturated and never gets a chance to dry out.

Best,

Andrew

7/10/2011 at 10:14:47 AM

A common problem, after dealing with the grade sloping away from the house, and good rain gutters and downspouts that shed water away form the house, is the perimeter French drains also known as weeping tiles. These can become clogged over the years, especially if they were not properly installed in the first place. Additionally, older homes had these made of clay pipe, and they can be broken, or clogged (or worse, not even there!).

These are around the exterior of the concrete footing, and can be costly to excavate, replace, and backfill, so today you can get it resolved using an interior system, and having a sump pump pit with a pump to discharge the water that collects in the system (I used this method in my house along the back wall as it was more economical, and works really well, and I was able to connect it to my existing sump pump pit).

There are products specifically made for this internal solution, but they are pricy--I did it using the standard 4" weeping pipe readily available, and it can be easily installed into a trench below the concrete slab, alongside the exterior wall(s), and connected into either an existing sump pump pit, or a newly made one. If you must discharge the water onto the grade outside of the house, there are some special considerations for that too, and you can research these on line if need be.