[l008com]

My foundation is a little weird. It is a poured cement foundation c.a. 1960. But the footing hight is all over the place, some places it's way above the floor, some places it's way below. Where it was below, it created a bit of a cavity which I did fill in with some floor leveling cement. But theres still lots of spots where not only is it unappealing to look at, but there are several places where there are gaps at the floor line where water comes in when it rains heavy, critters can still creep in, and there are a few spots that always look moist.

I want to use a drylok wall paint product on my walls to seal them up, but I think I need to deal with the floor/wall seem first.

Over at my grandmother's house, her basement has this nice beveled edge all around the floor. I'm thinking something like that would be nice and helpful here to help seal the gap and fill any voids before painting on a sealer.

Is this the right approach for this sort of thing? If so, what is the right cement to use for the job? And do I need to do any prepwork? In some places, it would be a transition from the wall to the footing, which are pretty rough surfaces. But some places it would be the wall to the floor, and the floor is quite smooth. I wouldn't want this newly added cement to not "stick" to the surface. Maybe the solution to that is roughing up the surface? If so, what's the best way to do that? Sounds like labor intensive job.

If it's not clear what I'm talking about doing, here is a diagram. Just a simple little angled bit of cement, ultimately going all the way around the basement. Probably no more than 4 or 5 inches in size:

 

[l008com]

Here are a bunch of random photos of my basement. Ignore what's going on in each photo and look past the subject to the background, and you will see lots of wall/floor seam:

 

[l008com]

And some more...

 

[l008com]

Also it might be useful for me to clarify, I do not intend on EVER "finishing" this basement. I intend for it to stay a basement/workshop/home gym/storage area for the rest of the time I own this house. I just want it to be the nicest regular basement I can make it.

Also I get a lot of mold in the basement. Even though it doesn't feel damp at all, it's clean and well lit enough that mold on the bare wood really stands out. I've tried running a dehumidifier but as soon as I turn it off, the humidity level goes from as low as 30, right back up to 45/50%, sometimes higher.

I do get water in the basement in certain spots when it rains very heavily. These are spots where there is gaps between the floor and wall. But it's also spots with poor grading outside, and that's not grading I can really fix right now, as it's asphalt walkway that abuts directly agains the foundation, and is under a giant handicapped ramp. That part of the fix will happen eventually but not now. Water doesn't come in often though, only during prolonged heavy rain. But the spots where it does come in do remain most looking all the time.

 

[Nealtw]

Your floor appears to be lowered, if you had a perimeter drain on the outside it would be just below the old floor level, so when they did this work they should have put a system inside with a sump pit and pump. Unless you can dig up the floor and do that work you are not going to beat this from inside, They don't waterproof the outside of a swimming pool and you can't waterproof the inside of a basement.

 

[stadry]

^5s on the turbo cyclonic pre-filter dust collector,,, terrific little addns, no ? we use 'em on all our 5 & 7" hand grinders & vacs

 

[huesmann]

IMO the "ugly" bottom of the wall is the least of your problems if you're getting water in through it.

 

[3onthetree]

I had a hard time stitching the pics together in 360' because they were taken at different equipment stages. But I think there was an addition with footings 8" lower, and the old house slab was lowered to match the height of the top of new footings? Regardless, the last pic showing the lumber rack makes the case. The new slab is a tad below the bottom of the old footing (tiny gap shows?). In a case like that, there should be underpinning, because the old wall can be pushed in from hydrostatic pressure. Not to mention continuous water entry. In fact, you can see lots of evidence of water just sitting outside at the base of the wall.

The mortar "cant" shape you propose putting around the wall (or bottom of old footing)-to-slab transition will not stop any water whatsoever.

 

[l008com]

I don't think they lowered this floor. There is no sign of that, and the footing is not visible at all on the other side of the basement. Furthermore the back of the foundation is at ground level and has an exterior door that would be underground if the floor was originally up. The original owners made no upgrades to this house at all that you couldn't stick on with some glue or tape. I think this is just the odd way this house was constructed. Again I think most likely the reason would be granite under the house preventing the footing from going any deeper on the high side (by the lumber rack).

That said, do I have any option here at all to keep the water out when it rains heavy, besides digging up my entire basement floor, which obviously isn't going to happen, or getting a whole new driveway and walkway, which will happen eventually but not any time soon unfortunately.

 

[3onthetree]

There could be other things to do outside even around the hardscapes, the interior, well, I'm surprised an interior footing drain was not installed. Also, it would be a natural wonder that the granite shelf follows the outline of the footing since the slab looks to be below the footing. But I could be misjudging the dark shadows on the vertical planes as gaps and the footing is actually 14" or 16" deep to below the slab.

 

[Nealtw]

I don't think they lowered this floor. There is no sign of that, and the footing is not visible at all on the other side of the basement. Furthermore the back of the foundation is at ground level and has an exterior door that would be underground if the floor was originally up. The original owners made no upgrades to this house at all that you couldn't stick on with some glue or tape. I think this is just the odd way this house was constructed. Again I think most likely the reason would be granite under the house preventing the footing from going any deeper on the high side (by the lumber rack).

That said, do I have any option here at all to keep the water out when it rains heavy, besides digging up my entire basement floor, which obviously isn't going to happen, or getting a whole new driveway and walkway, which will happen eventually but not any time soon unfortunately.

It is a mystery. We expect the floor to add support to the wall to stop the wall from kicking in at the bottom when wet soil is pushing on the outside.



I have seen the floor lowered like that and I guess it could have been like that to start, but when they lower the floor and expose the footing they put a bulkhead around the edge to hold the wall and they add drainage below that.