Selling house Found a problem Need advice

stomachmonkey · 04-15-2007, 09:16 AM

We were suppossed to have an open house today but we are getting a Noreaster so we cancelled.

Was just down in my utitlity basement. Flooding, found 2 small, maybe 1/8 inch breaches in the mortar. Walls are cinderblock, breaches are 2 inches above floor level. I assume the ground is saturated and it's pushing in.

Anyone have suggestions on how to fix something like that? Hydrolic cement? But won't the water find/make another path in? Do I skin the whole wall? Some of the blocks are damp/sweating.

I know there is no such thing but I want out of this fix cheap and easy, fast would be nice also. I know pick 2.

gr8fl4porsche · gr8fl4porsche's Garage

Only true way to keep water from seeping through subsurface walls is to keep water away in the first place.

Check gutters, downspouts need to drain at least 10' away from foundation, all landscaping should slope away from house. Hydraulic pressure is tough to fix with interior coatings. Sell the house during a dry period and note on disclosure statement that walls get damp during extended periods of heavy rain. Problem solved.

Moneyguy1 · 04-15-2007, 09:47 AM

Check your gutters for leaks or being plugged, especially if you have underground piping to a storm sewer system. If you simply have downspouts that empty close to the house, put an extension to the that water further away from the foundation. Does your yard slope toward or away from the house? Please keep in mind that a defect such as this must be revealed to the broker and to prospective buyers. The only sure "cure" is from the outside, not the inside.

Seahawk · 04-15-2007, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by gr8fl4porsche
Only true way to keep water from seeping through subsurface walls is to keep water away in the first place.

Check gutters, downspouts need to drain at least 10' away from foundation, all landscaping should slope away from house. Hydraulic pressure is tough to fix with interior coatings. Sell the house during a dry period and note on disclosure statement that walls get damp during extended periods of heavy rain. Problem solved.

He is exactly right. When we bought our farm 11 years ago, the basement would get wet. We added a sump pump on the french drain and fixed the slope of the landscape near the house. We then moved all downspouts into channels that run at least 10 feet off the house.

Not a drop since.

VINMAN · 04-15-2007, 10:03 AM

You can try stuff called WaterPlug. Its a hydrulic cement It dries instantly

stomachmonkey · 04-15-2007, 10:11 AM

Gutters are fine.

The furthest away that I can get downspouts to drain is maybe 5 feet before hitting the property line. We are in an old community where the properties proportions are 4 - 1. Width is not there but they are really deep.

But you guys just got me thinking.

I never had a problem on the left side because the driveway is there.

Used to have an issue in the back but it just occured to me that since we put in the brick/concrete patio 5 years ago the problem has gone away.

The utility basement runs the width of the house l-r and is maybe 6 feet front to back.

So maybe the answer is to pour a concrete pad on the right side of the house. Extend it to the property line and a couple of feet past either side of the basement to drain the water away.

Thoughts?

Moneyguy1 · 04-15-2007, 10:47 AM

Any impermeable surface sloping away from the house would help. You mention 5 ft to the lot line. How about turning the outlet of the gutter 90 degrees and going out front toward the street?

I wonder...never tried this, maybe someone else can comment: What if a layer of heavy plastic were buried about a foot underground and extending away from the structure?

tabs · 04-15-2007, 11:24 AM

Plastic will work as a barrier...cement is better.

Because of Expansive Soil here in the LV Desert I had to dig a 5 foot deep trench 5 feet from the house, rebar it to the foundation and pour 65 yards of cement to creat a water barrier around the house.

tabs · 04-15-2007, 11:27 AM

tabs · 04-15-2007, 11:30 AM

stomachmonkey · 04-15-2007, 12:00 PM

Tabs,

I remember your issue.

That is by far the best solution but I'm not going there.

Scott

Shaun @ Tru6 · 04-15-2007, 01:13 PM

Scott, PM member JanusCole. He's your man.

tabs · 04-15-2007, 01:55 PM

Stomach U don't need to go there, a cement apron would be fine. The other solution is to put some drainage pipe along that side of the house to carry the water away.

Zeke · 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by stomachmonkey
Walls are cinderblock, breaches are 2 inches above floor level.

The question is, how far below grade? What does the slope look like outside the wall? Going up, down or level? You may need to excavate and use bituthene on the exterior plus a French drain to a lower grade. No interior applications will do anything but get you in trouble later on.

If I were selling, I'd just disclose the seepage and move on. If the buyers can't find something wrong, they'll come up with something of their own. Which is the less of two evils is where you want to end up.

stomachmonkey · 04-15-2007, 02:27 PM

Milt,

Good 6 feet below grade. Walls is wet from floor to about 3 feet up. Grade outside is flat.

The PO should never have put the basement in. None of the other homes in the area have them. We are close to the water and back in the day there was a lake in front of the house that was pumped to run a road thru. We sit on top of one of the largest aquifers on the Island and the ground under the houses has a high clay content.

Basically drainage in this entre area is the pits. Cesspool pumping companies do very well around here.

Zeke · 04-15-2007, 03:48 PM

Is this a recent problem, or do water marks show evidence of prior seepage? If the property is level all the way around, you may not be able to dry out the backfill w/o major surgery. Again, if there is a local source for the water, as others have suggested, that would be your best bet to correct to see what effect it has.

I once tore out and re-poured a basement floor near the ocean. The basement was dry before we did the work, but the disturbance brought more water toward the walls.

If you patch within, the walls themselves still stay wet. Soon after, the walls will show the signs of the water in them and the buyers will come back at you if you don't disclose. If you disclose this problem, why bother with it? Yes, it gives a potential buyer some leverage to bargain from, but meanwhile maybe they are overlooking something bigger like the roof than might need replacing in 3-4 years.

I like to think of this as diverting their attention. And, you could meet them half way on expenses to fix this, but make sure they select the contractor and method of remedy. This will turn out as a fixed, one time expense you can deduct from the sale price. Shoot, even sometimes a real estate agent will toss a couple hundred at a problem just to complete a sale.

strupgolf · 04-15-2007, 04:02 PM

Here in Indiana, most houses around us dont have basements because of high ground water. I have never seen anything work well stopping whats coming outside in. The water is going to find the path. We had water coming in through the basement walls dripping down and pooling. All the paint, plugs, glue,etc will not keep it out. We had a company dig a ditch around 1/2 of the basement walls where it met the floor, where the water came in, about 12-15 inches deep. They then put a drainage pipe in, filled with sand, and drapped the walls with a heavy plastic into the ditch, around the tube. They filled the ditch, concrete over it, and ran it to a sump pump in the corner. The pump ran the water out and worked fine. When I sold the house 3 years ago, it had been completely dry for over 18 years. I cant think of the process's name, but it is common here. Hope this helps.