Water in basement intermittently - where would you start?

[Anonymous]

We get water in our unfinished basement sporadically. Months will go by with no problem, then we will have a couple of big storms with intrusion, then no problems again. It's happened right after we had the gutters cleaned so that is not the culprit. There is a sump pump installed. We don't get a ton of water, just small puddles. Just enough that we can't do anything with the space! I've seen it come in through the walls, but it is a walkout basement so I'm not sure if where it comes in is above or below ground. Probably close to the line, if not right at ground level. On one side of the house there is a low to the ground deck that prevents us from seeing whether the grading is okay or not, and that side is where we have the biggest (but not only) problems.

We really want to solve this problem and turn the basement into usable/finished space but are unsure where to start, and have held off doing anything because I read stories of people getting taken for a ride by waterproofers. I've read that often the problem is improper grading so I had landscapers out once but they said that there wasn't much they could do without tearing out the deck because they couldn't see the grading under it or fix any problems there with the deck in place. I'm kind of at a loss on what to do. Do we tear out that part of the deck first? Call waterproofers? In what situations does waterproofing really work? I would really appreciate any experience with wet basements and/or waterproofing, good or bad! We're in NOVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We get water in our unfinished basement sporadically. Months will go by with no problem, then we will have a couple of big storms with intrusion, then no problems again. It's happened right after we had the gutters cleaned so that is not the culprit. There is a sump pump installed. We don't get a ton of water, just small puddles. Just enough that we can't do anything with the space! I've seen it come in through the walls, but it is a walkout basement so I'm not sure if where it comes in is above or below ground. Probably close to the line, if not right at ground level. On one side of the house there is a low to the ground deck that prevents us from seeing whether the grading is okay or not, and that side is where we have the biggest (but not only) problems.

We really want to solve this problem and turn the basement into usable/finished space but are unsure where to start, and have held off doing anything because I read stories of people getting taken for a ride by waterproofers. I've read that often the problem is improper grading so I had landscapers out once but they said that there wasn't much they could do without tearing out the deck because they couldn't see the grading under it or fix any problems there with the deck in place. I'm kind of at a loss on what to do. Do we tear out that part of the deck first? Call waterproofers? In what situations does waterproofing really work? I would really appreciate any experience with wet basements and/or waterproofing, good or bad! We're in NOVA.

there was a show on HGTV {Holmes on Homes} during early am hours today that went through this problem. It was coming in the walls -excavated on the outside-replaced material that covered bolts-put in drainage lines properly-coated and sealed concrete.

http://www.mikeholmesfanforum.com/phpbb3/
basement contractor on show
http://www.dampbasements.com/exterior-waterproofing.html

[Anonymous]

Clean gutters are only as good as where your downspouts point-- make sure they discharge WELL AWAY from the foundation. If necessary, get those plastic extenders.

Check your roof, too. If water is getting in, it could be draining right down a wall frame into the basement.

[Anonymous]

We had wet basement problems when we bought our house. We solved them by having a landscape design company come out. They were able to identify lots of little fixes that took care of the problem. We've been dry for several years now. The company we used was J&G out of Spencerville.

[Anonymous]

one way to find out if it is coming from the ground is to tape a piece of a garbage bag (seal all edges) on the floor and lift 48 hrs later. If it is dry, its probably not ground water.

For us, the problem was the downspouts leaking into a window/wall in the back of our basement. We developed a serious mold problem and spent 4k remediating it. my recommendation is to get a dehumidifer and shop vac and clean up any water the second you discover it, until you fix the problem itself. IN terms of the latter, get a mold inspector to come out and figure out where its coming from.

I would recommend this inspector, Joe Mulineri (?) from moldgone, in silver spring I think. He did our post remediation inspection, had a lot of great advice and as it turns out would have been cheaper than the company we went to (american restoration, which was fine, in the end).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clean gutters are only as good as where your downspouts point-- make sure they discharge WELL AWAY from the foundation. If necessary, get those plastic extenders.

Check your roof, too. If water is getting in, it could be draining right down a wall frame into the basement.

I second taking a close look at the gutters and downspouts.

Chances are this is the problem and it is easily fixed.

[Anonymous]

yes, start looking at outside drainage and grading, if you keep water away from the foundation you minimize the chance of intrusion into the basement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clean gutters are only as good as where your downspouts point-- make sure they discharge WELL AWAY from the foundation. If necessary, get those plastic extenders.

Check your roof, too. If water is getting in, it could be draining right down a wall frame into the basement.

This made a huge difference for my MIL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:yes, start looking at outside drainage and grading, if you keep water away from the foundation you minimize the chance of intrusion into the basement.

Our patio was sloping towards our house and we got water in the basement. We removed the patio and regraded the back yard. It has been 10 months and we haven't had water since despite many large storms. I finally believe that it worked and will finish the room in the basement we had to rip apart due to the water. We used Meadows Farms for the work to regrade the yard.