Water in Basement.....Help

[scott_vt]

OK lets start here,
I built the house in 1983, three bedroom saltbox. The foundation size is 34x34. I installed foundation drains around the perimeter of my home. All was well for the first few years. Then for some reason, I believe because the bilco door precast unit on the backside of the house was not backfilled properly, the foundation drains became plugged up with dirt. Then I started to have trouble. I then installed a 2ft diameter 2ft long drain tile and installed a sump pump. When it rains real hard and the ground is saturated I still get puddles of water on the other side of tyhe basement and on the backside of the basement.

My thought at this point, would be to chisel up the basement floor around the perimeter of the basement and install drainage pipe and feed it over to the sump pump.

I would welcome any suggestions or helpful input.

Thanks
scotty

 

[bmac]

Personally, I would rather address the problem than the consequeces of the ptoblem. Wouldn't it be cheaper (and better) to stop the water infiltration by digging up and replacing your perimeter drain lines and correcting the problem with the bilco door? Just a thought.

 

[scott_vt]

Hi Bmac,
Thanks for the reply. Yes I would agree with your statement, but the problem at this point is that I could not dig up the entire perimeter because I have a two car garage attached to the house. I imagine I could still dig up under the precast bilco door unit, but if the original drain is packed with mud, I dont see what help that would be. Obviously I would rather let gravity work on the drainage issue rather than paying for electricity to pump the water out.

scotty

 

[jim_wilson]

There are a number of ways for water to get into your basement and a number of ways to fix the problem. The best way to fix the problem would be to dig up the footer drains ( I assume that these are on the outside of the foundation wall) and re-do them so that they will not fill up again.

The proper way to lay an exterior footer drain is to have the perforated drain pipe itself covered with a geotextile or filter fabric "sock" that will allow the water to pass thru the holes in the drain pipe but keep out particles. The drain pipe is then surrounded by a layer - on all sides - of drain rock or crushed stone. That surrounding drain rock is then also wrapped by a layer of geotextile filter fabric to keep the surrounding earth from washing in and filling up the crushed stone.

There are other ways to keep the water away from the foundation. Putting gutters on the house and running the drain pipes a decent ways away (like 20ft) can help to get rid of most of the water that tends to drain down beside the foundation. The other method I have seen used is to bury a layer of rubber roofing type material just below the surface of the ground and going out away from the house 6 -10 feet with a slight grade on it. The problem with foundations is that the earth directly surrounding the foundation wall got disturbed when the hole was dug - therefore water will usually drain thru this earth much easier than the undisturbed soil lying farther away from the foundation hole. By putting a water impermeable layer from the foundation going out the 6 - 10 feet you can direct the water away from the disturbed earth.

The easiest way however is probably to do the drainage pipe like you mentioned around the inside perimeter of the foundation and feed it into the sump pump. My house has this and it works good enough to at least keep the water from rising above the level of the basement floor. If you do this however make sure to wrap the crushed rock in the trench where the pipe is buried in some of the geotextile filter fabric - that will prevent the surrounding earth from washing into the rock and filling up your drain pipe.

For more info on this type of stuff check out the Journal of Light Construction - they have a website at www.jlconline.com and there are lots of good articles about foundation waterproofing and drainage.

 

[scott_vt]

Thankyou Jim,
That was very informative! I believe that when I had the original pipe installed on the outside I used 4" pipe, I think or is 5" standard? Anyway, if I put the new pipe in the foundation floor, should I use the same size or can I go smaller. Im only talking puddles, not inches. And thankyou for the link!

scotty

ps I ordered the book from that site on wet basements ! Thanks

 

[Dutch445]

Scotty,
What is the situation with your gutters, downspouts,
and grade of the backfill next to the foundation where you are having this problem?
Like mentioned above, it may be as simple as addressing those issues, so the water doesn't make it down along that wall in such quantity.
Does this only happen in very heavy rain like today?

 

[scott_vt]

Hi Dutch,
OK, this is my Ct house not my Vt house. With that said, yes the Ct house has gutters front and back, and front and back of the garage also. The gutters on the house both drain off to the left of the house and the lower side of the property. The problem is on the right side of the house and basement. I have the sump pump installed in the back left hand corner of the basement and it seems to do a pretty good job. Unfortunately, on the right side of the yard I have a low swale were the water likes to collect and eventually ends up in my basement /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
Dutch, thanks for the comeback! Gosh, I was on my front porch saturday in Vt and the temp was 56, the next morning -6 /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif It must be he!! regulating your stove /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Thanks again.

scotty

 

[jim_wilson]

I just installed drain pipes on the outside of foundation wall - they were 4" diameter with 1/2" holes for the water to drain into. The pipes I used outside were solid PVC. The french drain that was in my house when I bought it ( inside the foundation wall around the perimeter) is the black corrugated stuff you get at Home Depot and Lowes. If it was me I would use the 4" PVC for the inside drain - it makes it easier to get a pitch on the pipe to make sure you are draining back to the sump. When you install the pipe the holes in the pipe should face towards the bottom.

Can you tell where the puddles are coming from? Do they come thru the foundation wall itself or are they coming up thru the floor? If they are coming thru the wall itself that is a different problem that may not be solved by installing the drain pipes under the floor. Since I installed the drain pipes along the back of my foundation I am waiting to see what happens when we start to get some decent rainfall. Previously I would get a decent amount of water under the floor of the basement that the french drain would take care of. I also had a few leaks thru the foundation wall itself that would leave puddles on the floor.

I ended up digging down the entire rear foundation wall - laying 4" PVC drainpipe along the entire wall down at the footer, surrounded by crushed rock and wrapped with the geotextile. Then I waterproofed the entire rear foundation wall with a product called Bituthene made by Grace Construction. It is like the Ice & Water shield that is installed on roofs but thicker and formulated for applying to concrete. There was a drainage mat product applied over the Bituthene and then the excavation was partially filled with sand and finished off with a gravel that drains and compacts well. I am waiting for all the water to come - I want to see if all the leaks are fixed /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Dutch445]

yea,, we were about the same,, although maybe
not below 0, we were close to it,
and the wind saturday nite howled.!

felt stronger then than it did today,, although i am
seeing more reports of wind damage today,
especially east of here.. nyc,, boston.. lost
of power outages..

 

[scott_vt]

Thanks Jim,
The water is coming though the small gap at the base of the wall and floor. When the floor shrinks slightly you end up with just a small gap but enough for water /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif I tarred the outsde wall before we backfilled, so no water from the wall!

scotty