I have a bit of an urgent situation forming. I recently purchased a house that's 55 years old, with "no history of basement leaks." Long story short – my basement flooded yesterday during a small rain storm. There was damage to stored boxes and it was quite a mess to clean up. Today is Tuesday, and we are expected to get major rain for four days starting Saturday. That gives me four days to find and fix the issue. I didn't see the water coming in, so I'm not 100% certain where it's leaking, but I have a few likely suspects.
I have time to do this job only once, and need to get it right. Correct product, procedure, and application the first time – or more flooding will occur. I've taken and marked several photos and I'm hoping for some advice.
I think the majority of the water is coming in though this old buried wire that's below grade. The outside end got snagged on a trencher last fall, and I think it may have pulled and broke previously applied sealant.
There are also several long cracks that have been previously sealed by the former owner. They are much deeper below grade, so I'm not sure if they'll leak once the higher holes are plugged. Some of the sealant seems to have come away from the foundation, as there are openings behind it. I've highlighted the location.
Finally, when we look outside there are issues too. The previous homeowner installed some edging bricks, and I just noticed that sit about 1/2" proud of the grade. There is an inch of stone in the middle with some landscape cloth underneath. I suspect this only serves to keep water from running away from the foundation. My land slopes away from the house slightly, so it's graded well. I think this is becoming basically a swimming-pool when it rains.
This is my current plan, but I'm open to any and all suggestions.
- Tonight, I'm going to flood that area with my hose and mark where water in infiltrating.
- I need to find and buy product to seal both the foundation and/or bulkhead.
- Friday, I plan to remove the edging bricks and remove the stone and fabric. Dig down to expose the wire and remove it. Plug the hole and seal.
- Scrape away loose sealant from the foundation and reseal. I'm hoping I can do this from the inside only, since digging down that far on the outside will be a huge chore.
- Build up the area around the bulkhead with topsoil to run water away from the area, and extend the gutter discharge about 18" away.
Does this sound like a plan that will work? I basically have one shot here before I'm in sump-pump territory.
Best Answer
In the end - the issues was as I expected. I saturated the area with my garden hose and observed where the water was coming in - which was mostly through the wire penetration.
I dug down to below the wire and removed the wire. I scrapped away the old sealing that had failed, and then used an angle grinder with a flap wheel to bring the hole to bare metal on both sides.
I created a rivet of JB Weld SteelStik and pushed it through the hole, smoothing it with my thumb on both sides. Once that had set - I coated both sides in a thin JB Weld Steel Epoxy. When both had dried rock hard, I painted them with metal primer.
For the long cracks - I scraped out the old sealant that was failing - and used the angle grinder again to clean the area out, removed rust and even the faces where the metal touched the steel. I filled the whole area with Dynaflex 230 waterproof sealant. I used a chip brush to really force the sealant into the crack and paint it on to the area. I then used a rubber detail tool to press it in, and smooth the bead.
I got a big rain storm 2 days later, and everything I fixed held bone dry, but I did find 1-2 other small leaks that will need to be fixed used the same techniques.