jollyroger

My Feedback: (6)

Time is being wasted trying to keep my basement from being waterlogged. Up here in Northern Michigan it rained and it rained and it rained from September to November, so now the ground around my house is saturated and at one time nearly flooded the basement. I have a 12 gallon wet/dry vac and one Sunday had to dump it 3 or 4 times that day and 3 times the next day before going to work. I'm not the only one that's having this problem as my neighbor next to me has had a sump pump going since October.
I really can't or don't feel like doing anything in the shop until I get the H2O problem under control. The water seepage is down to less than a half gallon per day so now I bought a 20# container of hydraulic cement to attack the problem with. Hoping that will do the trick.
If anybody has any suggestions, please feel free to add.
P/S I don't have the bucks to do a proper drainage system around the house....way too expensive. So I'm stuck trying to stop the invasion from inside.
PP/S also have the walls coated with DryLok.
Groan.....a total pain in the posterior.

JPMacG

My Feedback: (2)

I have two sump pumps in my basement and during the wet seasons they run a lot. And I have a battery backup pump in case we lose power. I tried drylock - it did not help much and has shelled off in many places over the years. I have learned to live with the sumps and deal with a flooded basement when it occasionally happens . The best answer is to fix the grade of the property and put in better drainage, but like you, I don't want to pay the cost.

scottrc

Where I live if I didn't have two sump pumps, back up generator, battery, and a big dehumidifier, I would have one big swimming pool under the house practically year around. And of coarse my basement is also my shop.

I use the stand up pumps, they work well and dont need any special set up and can be set up directly on the floor.

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

google, interior footer drain, or interior french drain.

Getting the water that does enter to one place where it can be pumped out is the only real solution. It is a lot of work cutting the parimiter of the basement floor, but it does work well when you have minor seepage issues and don't want to dig up the whole property or have decks and slabs to deal with..

here a site that shows what I'm talking about,, a somewhat handy homeowner could do it themselves,

http://www.dwyercompanies.com/Reside...Wet-Basements/
http://www.dwyercompanies.com/Dwyer/...sementweb4.jpg

good luck

chuckk2

It looks like a sump pump is in your future! Actually, sealing things can cause a more serious problem than you have. Hydraulic pressures can build up and cause serious damage (collapse) of basement walls, particularly on old stone walls, or thin concrete ones. I have a periodic water problem that takes out the pilot in our gas water heater.
I's installed in a bit of a pit, and the pit fills with about one to two feet of water. Periodically, once or twice a year, I end up using a small portable pump to empty the water, wait overnight, for things to dry out, and restart the water heater. The whole thing is in a crawl space, making access just that more difficult. Digging out enough rock hard Georgia clay to install a sump pump is something that I don't even want to contemplate. The clay is hard enough that a pneumatic hammer would be needed, and the room to use it effectively just isn't there.
Even then, hauling out the stuff a pail at a time would be a major effort.

hookedonrc

We used to live in Chicago and Minneapolis and both basements had sump pumps. I know exactly what you are going through. The builder of our house in Minnesota didn't install the drain under the floor correctly and it was clogged up from the first day. He refused to fix it so we filed a claim on our warranty and eventually fixed it. They dug up the floor around the entire perimeter, pulled out the old system and installed a new one. The basement remained bone dry after that.
On another note, they have fixed the issue with leaky basements here in Oklahoma.......we don't have them.

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

Yeap, hooked,, your worries come from the sky,,

jollyroger

My Feedback: (6)

I understand what you guys are saying. If this was a continuous problem I would have to go with a sump pump. This amount of flooding occurs about once every 25 years or so. Actually I don't remember the river in front of my house ( I live across the street from it) has ever been so high and I grew up here. The amount of rain we had may have been a once in 20-30 years occurrence but one never knows.
I wish I had the money to dig up around the foundation and install a proper drainage system. I guess that will not happen. It takes a great deal of labor and materials to do a proper job for the soil conditions around the house. So thanks for the replies. Just checked the basement this morning and there was maybe a cup of water on the floor ...definitely slowing down.

flyinwalenda

My Feedback: (5)

You don't have much of a choice. You will have to do either:
A) Install a drain field and piping around the outside of the foundation,
B) Install a trough and piping around the inside of the foundation with an exit to the outside.

I had a similar issue with an older home and it was a combination of water coming in through the foundation but also coming up from the floor as it was built on ledges. Inside I cut a trough around the base of the foundation about 3" wide x 12" deep pitching down to the lowest point based on the outside grade and poured in gravel to make the trench,I covered the trough with expanded metal so any water coming in from above would seep down into the trough and be carried away .In the lowest corner I dug down 16" and ran a pipe through the foundation to carry the water out. You could also drop a sump pump at this point and pump the water out.
In another house with a block foundation I used 3/4 and 1" pipe and drilled into the foundation (hollow blocks) about 5" above the floor and installed pipes every 3' and tied them into a main pipe pitching down as it went along to carry the water away around the inside walls to a sump pump again located in the lowest corner.
Of course the best way is to dig a trench outside next to the foundation , install gravel and then perforated drain pipe(holes down) and cover with dirt to carry the water away. Do this outside work when you can afford it.

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

Just run some box fans and a dehumidifier if it's down to that minimal amount of water,,

2walla

My Feedback: (10)

How are your gutters? Getting the water from the roof a couple feet farther out can make a big difference.

tim5713

2walla has a good point. I has a house that the basement would flood everytime we got a heavy rain, until i rerouted one of the gutters to drain on the side of the house instead of the back. Then only when the water table would rise with constant rain. Look at the terain around your home, make sure the water is running away from the house easily.

757jonp

My Feedback: (48)

About 6 months ago I completed a major drainage system to cure water flooding my basement during major storms. I have a 1/2 basement and it involved excavating through the middle of the house and installing both draintile and french drains below the basement slab and recontouring the front lawn. I went so far as to buy my own backhoe to do the job. Every homeowner should own one! It took me about a year and over 30 tons of gravel to complete, but that dang basement (my shop) is bone dry now dangit.....

chuckk2

"NEED TO CONTACT M18 FADAC REPAIRMEN, OPERATORS & ELECTRONICS SHOP OFFICERS"
A discrete component solid state 1960ish targeting computer? (Shudder!)
In Vietnam, we were still using Navy electromechanical fire control computers from WWII,
complete with the old varnished wires and chassis smell.