Thread: Any home-improvement experts here?

So here's the layout of our unfinished basement. First off, the pitch of the floor is effed up. Everything is supposed to slope towards the sump pump in the upper-right. If you look at the blue lines, that's where water is actually flowing. From what I'm told, this is not something that can be fixed without ripping up the whole bloody concrete floor.



Nearly all the water that comes into our basement is coming from one side; the left side, on the diagram. This has been the case for ten years or more. Didn't care too much until recently. But the gas company had to dig up my meter to repair a gas leak, and ever since they re-buried it, the water coming is has been accompanied by vast amounts of very fine silt-like mud. I had my kids cleaning it up recently, while it was dry-ish, and they bagged at least fifty pounds of the stuff, and there's still more.

Outside, right near the pump, there are small holes in the ground - maybe 2-3 inches across. They might be related to animals. They might just be collapsed earth. No idea. But I'm guessing that's the express lane for water getting into my basement.

I want to stop the mud (and ideally the water too) from coming in. I was going to dump sand or soil down the holes, but I suspect I'll just wind up with it all in my basement. Gravel won't make it through the cinder blocks, but I'm not sure it'll fix the problem either.

Does anyone here have any knowledge with this sort of thing? Note - I'm NOT planning on finishing this basement. No furniture. Nothing. I just want to stop the mud flow, and if I can manage the water to any extent, great.

Originally Posted by Davocrat

I thought the standard practice was to dig a trench around the walls, fill them with gravel (or is it drainage tiles?) and have the trench conduct the water to the sump pump to get it out. So, yeah, it's a lot of digging, but it's not the whole floor.

It's called a "french drain," and we have one. However, it doesn't seem to do a damned thing. Besides, as long as we have mud coming in, the drain will clog and overflow quickly.

Originally Posted by michaelr

Use grout in the holes and seal it with tar.

On the inside of the house, holes and cracks are not visible on the cinderblock. It's extremely difficult to tell precisely where it's seeping in.

Originally Posted by michaelr

I can't see it from here, but this works. Dig along the side that is leaking and tar it. If you see holes pack grout in them then seal it.

I reread your OP, it sounds like the blocks are seeping. That happens where they are grouted sometimes. This should have been sealed long ago. If I am right, you want to get this done soon. Some of that silt may be sand from the grout, and you do not want that.

Please clarify... "Dig along the side that is leaking." Where the cinderblocks meet the concrete floor, there is a very narrow (one inch?) french drain. On the left side (diagram) of the basement, the french drain is not visible, since it's covered in mud. Is this what you are suggestion I dig in? And are you suggesting coating the inside of the french drain with tar? Or the cinderblocks themselves?

If it will help, I can provide digital pics.

When I used to waterproof basements, we wouldn't try to keep the water from coming in, that can be next to impossible. What we did was jackhammer a trench around the interior wall up along the wall. Dig it out about 8 inches to a foot sloping to a central point where we would dig about a 3 foot area to stick a barrel and a sump pump and plumb it out the wall. We would drill holes in the hollows of the cinder blocks, caulk the walls and hang plastic down into the trench. We would then hang that plastic, like the plastic walls in a McDonalds bathroom over the top of that and hang that down into the trench as well. We would then put like PVC, the company I worked for had it own material, into the trench, cover it with gravel, and then re-cement the floor. It actually allowed, almost invited the water in, then sent it out to a more desirable spot. It kept basements dry and was 100% effective. Although it was time consuming and can be costly depending on how much area you are doing.