I've got .... water

[riptides]

And it is a problem.

For the last six months I have been looking at my crawl space entrance that has turned into a small frog pond.

Well, it really has not rained until ....yesterday. We recently renovated and added a new wing on the house. During excavation, we did NOT notice any water. So that was good, right?

So yesterday, I decide to go run some more insulation under the house.

I remove the crawl space cover and, well, (no pun intended) one hour later, it is all pumped out.

That is a lot of water for a drought. Yeah, I am slow.

Today, it is BACK. It is about 5 inches deep. My well feed comes into the house in that general area.

I have NOT noticed the well pump coming on, other that what we consider - normal.

Questions:
Could a spring have sprung? There is a hand pump well less than 50 feet away.

Could my well feed line be ruptured?

How do I test if the line is leaking?

What should we do for finding the problem source?

Thanks for your ideas and directions.
-Mike Z.

 

[BTDT]

Hmmm. I would make sure all faucets, etc. in the house are off. I am guessing that you have a pressure gauge on the pump (?), watch the guage and see if it bleeds down, and pump comes on. That to me would indicate a leak. I would pump water back out of crawl space and see if you can tell where it is coming back in, maybe listen and see if you can hear the water running (if guage at pump indicated a leak). Maybe put a long screwdriver handle to your ear and the other end on the pipe, and see if you can hear water running through pipe. Good luck.

 

[RobertN]

Do you have slope away from the entire foundation? If not, water may be held near the foundation instead of flowing away from the house.

Do down spouts all drain away from the house? Are they clean and clear?

Is it possible during the addition a downspout drain or something was damaged?

I have seen where down spouts were tied to a main drain. The main drain line got choaked up with roots and mud... In fact, I saw one that was new three years ago, a year ago a bunch of the drain(not french drained, but still perforated pipe) got roots in the pipe, even though it had the nylon sock over it.

How is the pressure on the well? If the well pressure switch is not working correctly, you could be geeting too high of pressure, causing a leak somewhere.

 

[riptides]

Thanks so far... keep it coming...
BTBD I am going to have to pump again, when the rains stop. I don't hear the well pump kicking in, but I'll try that, maybe a two person job.

RobertN Pressure looked OK, I'll open up the well house again and make sure.
Good points on the drains, they are all clogged with leaves right now, but this started just before the rains started. Well, it started a while ago. The level has been constant throught the drought. We had thought maybe the A/C line had clogged, but it looks like too much water. All downspouts go away from the house.

Now, I need DRY weather. Man I should have done this BEFORE the rains. Not smart on my part.

Thanks again for the quick advise. Hope to look at it in the AM.

-Mike Z.

 

[RobertN]

Pressure looked OK, I'll open up the well house again and make sure.

My water is really terrible; I have to replace filters frequently, and occasionally my pressure switch and pressure gauge. the orifice on the pressure guage gets gummed up. We have very high iron content. I have an extra gauge I can put on a hose bib as a backup/sanity check.

 

[frank_f15]

seems to me that if your well feed line was leaking that bad your pump would suck air and not pump, you have had no rain so i would be inclined to think it is ground water from the old well, 5" in 1 day is a lot of water.

 

[RonMar]

seems to me that if your well feed line was leaking that bad your pump would suck air and not pump, you have had no rain so i would be inclined to think it is ground water from the old well, 5" in 1 day is a lot of water.

Frank
I think they are refering to a pressurized system where the pump is in the well and all the pipeing is under pressure.

Well one way to know for certain is to excavate and expose all the well water line that is under the house But as suggested, look at it for a while after you pump it down and see if perhaps you can get an idea where the water is first appearing from. That might narrow down your digging. Watching it for a while might also give you an idea how quickly it is comming in.

 

[RobertN]

Pressure looked OK, I'll open up the well house again and make sure.

Just thought about this... Turn the well off for the day. Get some bottled water for drink, take the family out to dinner, fill some 5 gallon buckets with water so you can fill toilets for use if necessary.

That would help rule out an isue in the main well line.

 

[riptides]

Just thought about this... Turn the well off for the day. Get some bottled water for drink, take the family out to dinner, fill some 5 gallon buckets with water so you can fill toilets for use if necessary.

That would help rule out an isue in the main well line.

Excellent idea! I'll give that a shot during the week.

Right now, it has just started clearing up. My bone dry creek is back up to "normal" pre-drought levels. That's a lot of water that came down these past few days. Mother nature is a force!

-Thanks!

-Mike Z.

 

[riptides]

Not the well, nor leaky pipes.

Looks to be ground water saturation. I have the drain pipes running by this area for the house perimeter. I also have two downspouts real close.

Looks like I will be digging and try to put solid drain tile in around this entrance, just to move the water away from it as much as possible. The downspouts will also have to be moved.

Bad design, layout on our part. Should have never placed a drain tile by a low spot.

-Mike Z.

 

[RobertN]

Not the well, nor leaky pipes.

Looks to be ground water saturation. I have the drain pipes running by this area for the house perimeter. I also have two downspouts real close.

Looks like I will be digging and try to put solid drain tile in around this entrance, just to move the water away from it as much as possible. The downspouts will also have to be moved.

Bad design, layout on our part. Should have never placed a drain tile by a low spot.

-Mike Z.

I have seen folks that lived in a low spot with poor drainage. They had thier drains go to a small sump, then pumped the water away from there. The sump had, a sump pump, and a float with a switch on it to control the pump. from there, they had a buried pipe that took the water to a better location. Worked very well.

 

[riptides]

I have seen folks that lived in a low spot with poor drainage. They had thier drains go to a small sump, then pumped the water away from there. The sump had, a sump pump, and a float with a switch on it to control the pump. from there, they had a buried pipe that took the water to a better location. Worked very well.

Yes, Thanks. One of my builders is recommending the sump option. Digging may be more expensive than the sump option.

I should have listened to myself when we were looking for a crawl space entrance. I did not like the location, and should have moved it accordingly.

Thanks for all the input on this, especially you Robert.

-Mike Z.

 

[Mike058]

We added a family room to the back of the house one year. I already had a sump under the house and figured it would be a lot easier to add before the subfloor of the family room got put in. Builder said I didn't have to worry, there was drain pipe all around the foundation. Guess what, I ended up with like 10 inches of water under there. Ended up putting in two sumps after I pumped all the water out. Digging and removing lots of dirt in about 24 inches of crawl space. It can really cost you if you don't trust your own judgment.

 

[riptides]

Update:

I gave up digging and called in a pest control service who in turn gave me a deal on a sump pump. I have had great service from them before.

Why pest control for water issues? Well............

I have a really old house, and many outbuildings. I need critter control, and under the house, the pest control people like to work in dry places. So it is a win-win for everyone, and one less contract or person for my SO to manage.

Oh well......

-Mike Z.

 

[Champy]

Riptides - I had the exact same problem a couple of years back, only the water was coming into my basement through the block wall. I did not want to excavate, etc... and "luckily" for me I then got another leak on the other side of the basement.....what to do????

First thing I did was to compare the water "samples" from each leak. On one side was clean clear and cold water coming in...the other side was dirty and only showed up after a heavy rainfall. Hmmmmmmm.

I turned off the well pump for a couple of days, and the cold water problem went away....clearly a leak in the supply line coming from the well head. The other side of the house was addressed by a couple loads of topsoil and regrading the slope to drain surface water away. I also installed buried leach pipes for the downspout discharge flow.

Installing a sump pump will keep your crawlspace empty, but consider finding the real source...which may be your supply line leaking as well.

 

[riptides]

Thanks for the advise on the source.

We are pretty sure it is the natural drainage from around the house.


Unfortunately we put the crawl space right by the perimeter drain tile as the tile moves away from the house. So we are thinking the water is finding the lowest spot to "drain" and coming into the crawl space. I may end up digging the tile up, and running it away from the corner altogether. But I have some massive trees in my way, and electric and water.....

-Mike Z.

 

[riptides]

Well,

The water situation never got better. The sump pumps runs all the time.

We ended up calling in the professionals. All are recommending either re-excavating around the foundation or installing "systems" inside the crawl space to keep it dry.

We must have disturbed some spring near the house. I have an old hand well right within 12 feet of the house. The entire perimeter of my new additions is saturated to the point that the cinder blocks are leaking water over the footers.

So now I am looking at MAJOR dollars redoing this. Too bad my county inspectors did not recommend more water controls or abatements when they inspected my foundation. Too bad my builder never had the vision to see this either. Wow. What a depressing situation this has turned out to be.

 

[EddieWalker]

So now I am looking at MAJOR dollars redoing this. Too bad my county inspectors did not recommend more water controls or abatements when they inspected my foundation. Too bad my builder never had the vision to see this either. Wow. What a depressing situation this has turned out to be.

I read through the thread and kept expecting you to discover a leak in your water lines somplace. I take it that you've done all the tests and it's not the source of your water? Nobody mentioned using a gauge. I have one that screws onto a water spicket to test how much water preasure is on the lines that only cost around ten dollars at Lowes. I would buy one and see what your reading is, then turn off the pump and see what happens. If it holds steady for a period of time, like all night, then you know that your water lines are good.

The thought that all that water is coming to the surface after you finished building, but now while building, and never before doing any construction is odd to me. Before I paid a contractor to fix the problem, I would hire a soils engineer to do some tests. Contractors are notorious for fixing anything you tell them to fix, regardless of it being the problem or not. Foundation contractors are probably the worse and the most likely to take your money, offer a warantee and be out of business in two years.

Have you dug any test holes around the perimiter of the wet area? If it's a spring, then it's likely that the test holes will fill in with water fairly quckly.

How hard would it be to dig a trench away from the house and install a 4 inch drain pipe? Not a french drain, but a solid drain pipe that has multiple drains under the foundation? I've dug sewer lines under homes with very tight crawl spaces using an electric jack hammer. It's miserable work and probably something I'd turn down today, but it's doable.

Before hiring it out and doing anything else, I'd be 100% sure of the source of the water. The only thing worse then spending all that money to have it fixed would be to spend it and not have it fixed.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[riptides]

The well pump is a definite non-source. Trenching around the house would be difficult, and yes, I agree that a moat system may help. Unfortunate I just cannot get out of major dollars either way.

I trench, most likely water will still be coming up from within the crawlspace itself.

I just don't see this as a one pronged approach? I'd have to tackle it on the outside first, then inside.

Or would a recommended path be, trench outside, wait, do inside? Heck the inside alone treaments for water management are approaching 20K.

I guess I could go get a ditch witch..... that darn stone patio of mine would have to come up again.

The problem about contractors is yes, those I have called on, will fix my problem with their solution. You hit on that correctly.

I guess a soil person is a good idea, I'll try that too.


Thanks.

 

[riptides]

Unreal.

Soil testing, plumber, and building inspectors have all concluded "on their own" that I have sprung a spring. Really close to my foundation.

Pressure checks on my well and lines were all OK. Too darn bad.

So how does one mitigate a spring? Remember I have that hand well real close to the house. I have no idea, how deep it could be. It must be good though, because last year, this hand pump was bringing up water in a really, really bad drought.

Should I spend a few bucks trying to plug it? Can that be done?

Should I spend a few bucks trying to reroute it from THAT part of the foundation?

Or should I just make the attempt at water management, INSIDE my house.


I appreciate all thoughts and replies thus far. I am a little on edge, I always wanted a swimming pool, just not under my house.

All these people, liked the frog! A frog... not a toad.... a frog. Unreal.

Thanks.