I've been battling a leaking basement wall ever since we bought our house nearly three years ago.
Underneath our porch area, the concrete walls are half poured concrete (lower half) and half concrete blocks (upper half). Right along the seam where the blocks sit on top of the poured concrete seems to be the issue. When we get heavy rain multiple days in a row, I come home to a huge pool of water, not standing water, but still a LOT of water. All the water seems to be coming from the seam of where the blocks sit on the poured concrete. There seems to be SEVERAL pinhole leaks in the seam because I can see the trails of water going down the wall after a good rain.
Here are things I've done to try to fix the problem so far:
1. Regraded the front lawn making sure to slope AWAY from the house at the proper pitch.
2. Had a new concrete sidewalk poured. The old sidewalk had settled and actually sloped TOWARDS the house!
3. Added a surface drain near the problem area that ties into our buried downspouts.
4. Cleaned and tested all gutters around the area.
5. On the inside of the house I tried the waterproofing paint. Still leaked.
5. I also applied "concrete caulk" with a very large bead and smeared along the seam almost how you would mud drywall..
The caulking seemed to work well for a few months, but now the water is coming back through.
I've seen products like FlexSeal and the Rustoleum liquid rubber spray and thought I would give it a try next, spraying a nice thick and wide coat along the seam.
I also thought about troweling on some sort of hydraulic cement of even thinset.
I had a basement waterproofing company come out to look at it and they wanted to install an interior perimeter drain and direct the water to a sump pump for around $3,500.
If anyone has any suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Chris
Underneath our porch area, the concrete walls are half poured concrete (lower half) and half concrete blocks (upper half). Right along the seam where the blocks sit on top of the poured concrete seems to be the issue. When we get heavy rain multiple days in a row, I come home to a huge pool of water, not standing water, but still a LOT of water. All the water seems to be coming from the seam of where the blocks sit on the poured concrete. There seems to be SEVERAL pinhole leaks in the seam because I can see the trails of water going down the wall after a good rain.
Here are things I've done to try to fix the problem so far:
1. Regraded the front lawn making sure to slope AWAY from the house at the proper pitch.
2. Had a new concrete sidewalk poured. The old sidewalk had settled and actually sloped TOWARDS the house!
3. Added a surface drain near the problem area that ties into our buried downspouts.
4. Cleaned and tested all gutters around the area.
5. On the inside of the house I tried the waterproofing paint. Still leaked.
5. I also applied "concrete caulk" with a very large bead and smeared along the seam almost how you would mud drywall..
The caulking seemed to work well for a few months, but now the water is coming back through.
I've seen products like FlexSeal and the Rustoleum liquid rubber spray and thought I would give it a try next, spraying a nice thick and wide coat along the seam.
I also thought about troweling on some sort of hydraulic cement of even thinset.
I had a basement waterproofing company come out to look at it and they wanted to install an interior perimeter drain and direct the water to a sump pump for around $3,500.
If anyone has any suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Chris