Basement Leak - Recommended path forward

Moved into a gut-renovated 1920s construction townhouse in a part of Brooklyn that is not in an official flood zone, about a 18 months ago. two floors and a third english basement.

A few weeks back a heavy rain exposed an issue in our dug out english basement, which is currently finished as a 2bed apartment. Noticed signs of water on the floor entering from two or three likely spots as there was dirt residue on the floor after it has dissipated.

We’ve since had a waterproofing company dig out and expose three small sections of the foundation from the interior in the front, side (shared), and rear basement walls. Images can be seen here: https://imgur.com/a/OkhS97V

None of these three sections have a deep enough footing to install a french drain, which does not already exist. Bad news for us.

We were given two options as a next step:

1. Open up more wall and seal old brick/stone wall with cement/sealant. Then wait for heavy rain to observe if mitigated.

2. Install channel where the footing is deep enough. For the sections where it is not deep enough (back side of house) recommend underpinning to extend footing and then install a French drain. Three total sump pumps.

Clearly option 2 is the extreme route, and option 1 is really just a hail mary bandaid. I’m wondering if anyone here has prior experience with this sort of problem, and the steps y’all have taken to mitigate. Currently in the research/second opinion phase of solving this problem, as I’m not looking to rush into any decisions.

Thanks.

lukelevis

in General Discussion 1 day ago

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Brownstone Home Inspection | 7 hrs ago

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cate is correct that it is not a good idea to seal a wall from the inside as the sealant will eventually fail. this method is known as “negative side” water proofing. you can read about it and the products used to perform this sort of water proofing. They often say it can be done, but must be maintained.

as cate says, the outside is better. they used to use flashing cement but now a days, people have moved to water proof membranes.

there are other ways to address some of this, and without great expense, not all will be perfect.

and english basement might be easier to fix than a cellar though as the basement only has a little bit below ground. in so far as the cellars in these old houses, they are mostly underground and in many cases most of them have faced these challenges over the years.

cate | 10 hrs ago

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One other thing: It is never a good idea to install sealant from the inside. The pressure of the water will cause the sealant to fail and cause even more problems. You would have to go in from the exterior, dig down, repoint, and waterproof. It’s expensive and disruptive. I would look for other solutions first. If you plan to redo the concrete in front or back anyway, that’s a good time to waterproof the foundation from the outside.

cate | 10 hrs ago

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So sorry to hear of these troubles. Sounds like it’s a very small amount of water? It’s good you’ve opened up the walls to see what is happening. But you need more information. The water could be coming from a neighbor, concrete in front or back that is not sloping away from the house properly, a problem with your roof or gutter, a sill, brick that needs repointing, groundwater seeping up from the ground and no vapor barrier in the cellar, puddling in the front or rear yard, a blocked drain in the front or rear yard. There are many possibilities. I take it there is no cellar, only the slightly below ground garden level? (Please be aware the city’s 1920s date is probably wrong — this sounds like a mid-19th century Italianate.) Maybe talk to your neighbors with similar houses, see if they’ve had similar issues and what they did. Wait for another storm and see if it repeats. Observe the location and what is is close to. FWIW we had a persistent leak in the rear of our cellar for years that nothing could fix until we removed the PermaStone cladding the ground story and repointed the brick. Voila! More recently we had mysterious ground water seepage in the front of our house that started when we installed a front garden in 2019. The problem stopped a few weeks ago when my neighbor got a new roof and gutter. Our cellar is now dry despite some terrible storms lately.