Location: Northern New Brunswick, Canada
Lakeside property.
Last fall we dug and poured our concrete foundation, which has a full height basement and a walk-in, which needed a step foundation in that area. While digging the step foundation, we hit rock bed at approximately 5ft bellow the normal footing elevation.
During the dig, we didn’t hit any water source. The dig and concrete pour went as planned. However since winter came early, we didn’t pour the concrete floor right away. So we went through the winter with a compacted gravel floor in the basement, just waiting for warm weather.
When spring came along, I had water come in the basement, and I was happy to have installed a drain tile along side the inside of the footing with a sump and pump.
But now that all the snow and spring melt is over, I still have water coming in the basement at one specific place in the gravel floor. It’s at a slower rate, but it seems to be a spring source, since it even created a small hole in the gravel floor where the water comes in.
Now I was thinking of running a drain line from that ‘hole’ direct to the sump, but i’m wondering if I should go even further to permanently fix this problem before pouring the concrete floor… Does anyone have any good ideas?
Best Answer
I have had several daylight basements, the thing to do now is to install drains from beyond the spring to outside the building envelope, if you do this no pump will be needed. If it was my place I would install a drain on the 3 sides with drains at each end of the home, as far as other problems this will eliminate any problems the weeping of the spring in natural and the water will run no matter what you do so provide an easy path for it to get outside the building and you won’t have to plug the pump in.