Water
4/16/2011 at 8:23:17 PM
My family bought our first home last summer. We were privileged enough to be able to buy a home in a very lovely area. The house was extremely expensive (private sale) over-priced but we loved the street and thought the house suited our needs well. Soon after we moved in we realized the house had quite a few problems. The most significant was the east wal was leaking extensively. We brought in insurance people but they claimed the problem was lack of maintenance or poor workmanship. Not covered. I hired a company (late October) to come and repair the exterior so that we wouldn't have to worry about water coming in during the Spring. They opened up the wall and said they repaired the problem then covered the wall again. I had the rest of the interior work finished once the exterior was complete. Today I have found the water is once again leaking into the house in the same places it was last summer and fall. $10622.00 later and there is no difference. What can I do?
4/17/2011 at 8:29:32 AM
Hi Tricia. I recommend posting your project and have someone who specializes in this have a look at the source
Water in your basement is most likely to occur during periods of heavy rainfall, or when snow is melting rapidly during a spring thaw. In these cases, your basement can be wet because of:
a leak or crack in your home's basement walls
poor lot drainage
failure of the weeping tiles (foundation drains)
overflowing eavestroughs or leaking/plugged downspouts
Basement flooding problems are best diagnosed by working your way down from the eavestroughs and downspouts, to the lot and foundation drainage
If the downspouts are dumping the water right beside your foundation, it drains directly to the weeping tile and can easily overload your home's drainage. Make sure downspouts extend at least 1.8 metres (6 feet) from your basement wall.
If your downspouts are connected to your home's sewer system, or weeping tile, disconnect them.
Clean debris from eavestroughs regularly. If they overflow even when clean, replace them with larger size eavestroughs and downspouts.
If the land around your home slopes in toward the foundation, rainwater heads right for the weeping tile around the basement and can overload your foundation drainage system. The land around many homes settles over time, and then slopes in toward the foundation. If your lot slopes inward, you'll want to fill in and grade the lot so that, for at least 1.8 metres (6 feet) out from around the foundation, the land slopes away from your house.
Also, examine sidewalks, patios, decks and driveways. These can settle over time and cause water to drain back towards your basement walls
Foundation
I would open the wall up again to review what repair was done. If it is a crack, an epoxy injection system is an excellent solution.
Weeping tile failure.
If you can it is best to have your weeping tiles scoped to see if there is blockage or a failure in this location. Often the best of course of action is to water proof your foundation wall and replace your weepers (you can replace the section that is failing if the rest of the system is working fine). However, in some cases you can not undertake this repair from the exterior, so there is an interior solution that works on the same solution but drains to an interior sump pump.
Hope this helps.
Kingsway Construction Inc.
Glenn Rosborough
5/10/2011 at 1:19:32 PM
Hi Tricia,
You didn't say where the water was coming in or what repairs were made? Some more observations on where you're noticing water entry can help us shoot you better advice. I like and agree with all the things that Glenn said, but if you're not having water coming into your foundation, then it isn't really going to help you. Perhaps you can give us some more details? If you prefer, you can shoot me an email with pictures at dave@hendersonbrothers.ca
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