About water getting into basement on rainy days

[pcdoctor]

Is there a way I can stop water from getting into my basement on really bad rainy days?

[Rich]

This could be a very costly issue. It's either something with your foundation or perimeter drain. The exterior grade could be too high and it's running under the sill plate or there are cracks in the foundation walls. Or the perimeter was not installed correctly and you've been getting rain - it will leak between the slab and foundation walls.
In any case you will need to contact a contractor to come in and repair the cracks, install a perimeter drain system, or by some other method seal the foundation.

[pcdoctor]

About how much would you think that would all cost?

[Rich]

First you need to find where it's entering - top of the wall, bottom of the wall, cracks, etc.
The cheapest thing would be an interior repair of cracks and sealing it - probably looking at around $3-4000 depending on how extensive it is.
The most expensive would be having to dig to the bottom of the foundation and installing / replacing the perimeter drain system and drain tile. You're probably looking at a maximum of $10000 for that.
If it's coming over the sill because the grade is too high you'll probably be in for around $5-6000 to re-landscape the grade. This would be the second least expensive.

[ka3vvv radio]

I waterproof my basement myself it cost me only $795 lot of work. The basement is 89 L feet. The 4in tub is a 12in always from the wall because of the footers. I dug 15 in down alway around. Put crush stone down. Every 8 feet of tub there is a 1/8-drop so the water can go into the sump base. The base is about 19in round 30in deep. Dont forget you need to put crushstone back on top of the tub. I dug down 40in deep put crush stone under the base. Around the base dug out 30in of dirt replace with crush stone. I rent a jackhammer cost $30 a day. Had a 10-yard dump container for the dirt in stone cost me $290 for 4 weeks. It took me 4 week because I have to work in pay bills.
It can take about 3 day to do. Had 4 tone of crush stone deliver that was about $100.00.
2 skied of concrete mix was $100.00 they was 40lb bag ez to handle. Rent a concrete mixer $40.00 a day. Some tools around $40.00 PVC etc. Pump cost $95.00 tube in base $39.00.
I had waterproof company give price like $38,000 to do the inside in the outside then the price drop down to $17,000 what up with that. I will give some more quote I revive $5,000 $7,000 $3,000 $2,000 just for one side of the basement.
A year sofar no water in basement. Now I can put radio toys the basmement. I put some drylot on the walls. Get lot of quote. Good luck.
location is in south east Pa.
:lol:

[Anonymous]

You may have already looked into this but make sure ALL of your raingutter downspouts are properly drained away from the foundation. Add extensions and/or underground drain pipes to move water away from the house. This helped a significant amount when I had a similar problem.

[grumpydasmurf]

Nobody mentioned this and I am suprised. This is a roofers outlook at water int he basement:

Water always chooses the path of least resistance and sometimes a roof leak will appear in a basement. How can this be true, you may be asking yourself about now. Water will roll along a wall, or chimney until it can;t roll any more and that is sometimes a ceiling, and sometimes a basement floor.

I think before you address the issue of stopping the water from coming in the basement it is important to identify EXACTLY how the water is getting there.

[Rich]

Good point Grumpy.. been in a similar situation before.. although the water didn't make it all the way to the basement - only to the sill plate. Was pretty sure the damage was from a drainage problem - unded up running along a header over a bay window and down a king stud to the rim joist.

[cheap_guy]

I had water flooding the basement. Thought it was because water was spilling over the threshold from ground level...after having it re-cement, still had flooding. Turns out under the ply-wood floor there was a "drain" pipe that was basically a 3' pipe stuck into the dirt that allowed the water to flow in.

Mike

[roger g]

Don't forget that the water table also rises in wet weather. Lots of possibilities and lots of work and money especialli if you have to dig around the house and uprooting trees, shrubs, sidewalk, driveways etc etc.

Roger

[mreynolds]

-You mentioned the gutters, we had a builder in our area that made it common practice to connect the down spout into the french drain systems. If you do the math on a simple house, during an average rainfall you pump 1000's of gallons of water into the basement. Not a good idea :evil:

Other things to consider

-What type of backfill and soil do you have around your house? I was reading some engineering reports that were talking about hydrostatic pressure water can put on a wall. If I back fill a large portion of my basement with gravel, I cut that pressure to minimal amount(from 60 pcf to less than 30 pcf). This is compared to backfilling with our native clays.

-Have you ever seen "basment flashing?" I have seen where the builder would place sheathing below the soil around the house at a slope. This layer would be impermeable to water and direct it away from the house.

-What type of slope is around your house? I believe it should have slope of around 1 inch per foot away from the house. Sometimes soil will settle in flowerbed areas and create a negative slope funneling water back to your basement. Also if your house is on a slope or hill side, surface water can run downhill hitting your foundation creating problems. In this case you may want to look at surface drainage patterns and considers ways to divert the water, such as french drains, trenched in near the surface.

-Do you have any idea of what type of perimeter drains you have? Gravity drains can be made of a lot of materials, from tile, schedule 35/40 plastic pipe and that cheap flexible black pipe. They could of collapsed plugging your drain and under heavy rains over-ride the soils natural ability to absorbe water. Also you could have rodent or some sort of blockage in the drain outlets(They should have screen covering them).

-Finally, this is pretty gutty, not recommended for the faint of heart, you could always rent a mini excavator/backhoe. I could get one for a week around here for 400.00-$500.00. Dig out the basement check the drains. Replace if necessary. Then apply a full blown basement waterproofing coating or membrane. Some sort of modified polymer, this would cover any cracks. Then backfill. Just to give you an idea of the cost for the waterproofing membrane, I just had a quote done, it would be $1500 for a 50x34 basment(Includes a primier, all applied with a brush).

[colonial carpentry]

I recently waterproofed my newly constructed basement with ''Delta MS" $870.00 all the fasteners,caulk,termination strips included.No nasty tar or brush on material that will leak in the future anyway.i highly recommend this product for new construction.62x36.