Waterproofing Basement
I know this seems to be a regular topic but I read all the posts and still don’t know who to call. We have water coming in from heavy rains in the back of our basement. We have a “sump pit,” if that’s what you call a triangle pit in the corner that is filled…
I know this seems to be a regular topic but I read all the posts and still don’t know who to call.
We have water coming in from heavy rains in the back of our basement. We have a “sump pit,” if that’s what you call a triangle pit in the corner that is filled with dirt. The rest of the floor is cement. I can actually see water flowing (dripping when its just a mild rain) into this pit from the foundation. With all these heavy rains, it over flowed last night. Even when my husband shopvac’d the water out, it filled back up right away.
I’d especially like to hear from people with similar problems who have already had this fixed. Recommendations for specialists would be appreciated!
Thanks!
First you try to findout where is the water coming. If it though the foundation wall you had better waterproofing foundation wall then check pointing rest of the wall. you may call 917 254 7112 and say him jimy recommended him. This person did same job in my house.
No, not “putting a coat of waterproofing” – the guys who did it actually took the stones out one by one, supported the foundation and put new mortar (or whatever) in between the stone foundation– apparently, after 100++ years, the sand and water compound (whatever the builders originally used for brownstones) was basically gone and water was coming through the cracks. You could see daylight in certain places from the basement…
First thing to figure out where is the water coming from.If it is thru the foundation wall than waterproofing foundation wall is the first job.You may call M.HAmid Construction CO.718-633-1500.
I don’t know a lot about this, but having done my own research for my own basement issues, maybe you need to just put a sump “pump” into the sump pit, and then have that go to your main sewage line.
Putnamsleaze: When you say “re-mortaring”, do you mean applying some coat of waterproofing material on the INSIDE of the foundation wall?
The first thing to try is a French drain.
We had the same issue with our brownstone (except we had no cement floor or sump pit installed). When it rained a lot, water pooled in the basement, sometimes 1-2″ deep. i posted on the forum and had about 7-8 people come tell me how they would approach fixing it and how much it would cost. The crazy thing was that every single visitor proposed a different solution in the range of 3k- 80k total… I did get a bunch of good ideas and at the end, used someone that I trust to implement the plan of the person that seemed to suggest the most likely scenario. We ended up re-mortaring the foundation rocks and rebuilding the hatch/coal chute and also replacing the hatch door. we also figured out that the roof’s drain pipe was totally cracked and not hooked up to a sewer line or drain.
as a final precaution, we poured a layer of cement about 3 feet wide (across the width of the house) and put slate inside the cement…
It ended up looking amazing and working — no more water in the basement (at least coming from the back!).
Now we are going to start on the same work on the front of the house next week.
Until you can rectify the leakage problem why don’t you install a sump pump in the pit. You need to keep the suction area clean but otherwise they are cheap and easy to install.