I just bought a house that was built in the early fifties, with an unfinished basement. Recently, after a heavy rainfall, some water leaked into certain parts of the basement (see photos).
This is a new issue for me, so I have questions:
- This post, which describes a situation similar to mine, mentions the possibility of a French drain. How do I determine whether I have one?
- How, if at all, can I prevent this from happening again?
- If occasional seepage is unavoidable, how can I mitigate or minimize it?
Best Answer
Always start with correcting the grade around the house - i.e. the shape of the soil. It should slope AWAY from the house at at least 1/8" per foot (or 1 cm per meter) for 10 feet or 3 meters. If there is settling, pooling, or unfortunate past choices causing that not to be the case, correcting them (if at all possible) is a huge help to basement water issues.
If there are gutters, verify that the water from them is carried well away from the house.
If the problem persists, then you get into the difficult stuff (underground work.)
One step towards mitigation is to raise items in the basement on bricks or the like so that a small amount of water in the basement is not getting things that will be bothered wet. My basement freezer is sitting on 4 bricks, which are mortared to the floor to make them stable and level (as the floor is not level there.) Likewise for wooden workbench.