cracks in the convrete garage floor - water seeping in

robphelan

our house is about 3 years old and is backs up to a dry creek bed. there is a natural slope from the road down past our house to the creek.

the builder installed a french drain in front of the house to help drain heavy rains. the drain funnels the water around the house and out to the creekbed ~120 ft back.

Last year it rained very heavily (we're in san antonio) - my wife called me at work one morning reporting water in the garage. she thought it might be the hot water heater leaking. turns out that the water was seeping out of cracks in the garage floor. this only happened those 2 days of heavy raining - however, i don't want to sell this house and have the new buyers sue me for this.

I'm worried about what kind of damage is being done and what I can do about it. I seem to recall the builder saying we have a 5 yr warranty on the slab.

any suggestions/thoughts about what I should do?

thanks,
robert.

Zero Punch

Sound like more grade work is in order. If it's coming down faster than the present setup can handle that is all I can come up with. When you say heavy rain what are we talking about, 4-5 in per hr on saturated ground on a natural water course? Is this normal rain in your area or a 10 yr rain or 50 yr rain or 100yr rain? You can get those figures from the national weather bureau for your area they keep records. I did work once on a house that was built over a stream. Nice view!

robphelan

hmmm.. you made some good points.

I checked and 2004 was the 6th wettest year in recorded history (since 1871) - having 45.33". In November, about 15 inches of rain fell over the weekend. the seepage occurred early in the week after the ground was thoroughly saturated.