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basement still leaking AFTER doing tile/gravel drain

3K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  annie68164 
#1 ·
Last July (2009) we spent alot of money having the foundation dug down to below the footings, drainage tile laid (below the footings as it should) then filled back in with pea gravel. The tile daylights downhill far from the home. We do have several cracks in our basement floor but figured this huge foundation project we did would take care of the flooding. We came home today and sure enough basement is wet again! Every crack is either damp or has water seeping out of it and all walls have some or alot of water puddled at their base. We have a living room that was added on after the basement was built. It is on a couple layers of blocks rather than a slab. We did not dig around this living room at all so could it be that water is coming in from under it's foundation? That side of the basement A(under the living room) does have significant water that came in. But like I said every wall/crack has at least some water. We live on top of a hill so I wouldn't think hydrostatic pressure would ensue but it certainly appears that it is. We don't have a sump pump, could that be the issue? We live in Iowa where TONS of snow is melting and we had some rain today so the ground is probably very saturated. We doubled checked that the drainage tile exit is OK and it was fine but strangely only trickling water out of it. Thanks for any help!
 
#2 ·
Unfortunately, I think that even though you dug around a lot of the foundation and put in drainage you did not do the whole foundation. Also you probably do not have real good drainage under the concrete slab itself which is key I think to getting the water to the positive drain that you have set up. As the water table rises at this time of year the water under the slab cannot get to the drainage pipes quick enough to be drained away before pushing up against the bottom of the slab
 
#3 ·
Thanks meboatermike. I agree with you on that. I'm thinking we could do a shallow (2' deep) trench drain around the living room with it's own perf.tile/gravel and daylight it far away. Supposedly if you go down about 2' you will start to hit clay in which water likes to start traveling horizontally and we are on a flat, even slightly neg. grade so that water surely heads right for our basement. We were also thinking an interior sump pump but wouldn't it be smarter to try to prevent water from getting in in the first place? Any opinions on this option are appreciated!
 
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