[Artoo]

Hi Everyone! Thanks in advance for any advice that you can give.

We're looking to finish our basement, and have a small issue with water leaking through the walls.

. It is damp to the touch, but I wouldn't consider this a full-on leak. It's almost as if the water is just leeching through certain parts of the foundation wall. (Apparently I can't post pics yet, so I put it in my album that you can view under my profile)

I've reached out to a few professionals in our area that specialize in basements as well as other contractor friends I have. Everyone seems to suggest something different, so I'm reaching out to everyone here to see if I can get a consensus on the issue.

To give some information on our house that may help. It's a modular home that we got about 5 years ago. The exterior of the foundation walls were waterproofed, and covered with plastic, and then backfilled with approx. 1 foot of gravel up to ground level. The ground slopes away from the house on all sides except for the wall that is leaking water, and the ground is nearly perfectly flat on that side.There is a deck attached to the house directly above the offending wall, so doing any work on the exterior of the home to divert the water is pretty much impossible due to cost.

There are no issues with the downspouts. All gutters flow into a pvc drainage system that exits about 50 ft from the house. We did have the cinder block walls filled with concrete and rebar prior to the house being set on the foundation. I've taped aluminum foil to the wall to determine if the problem is from the outside or inside, and the majority of the water seems to be flowing through the exterior, but I did have some condensation on the interior side of the aluminum foil as well.

There is a perforated pipe that is attached to both the interior and exterior of the footer that is tied into the drainage system that feeds away from the house which is basically an interior drain tile system minus the sump pump, but the home is built into the side of a mountain so we're able to flow anything that hits the interior drain tile away from the house via gravity. I don't imagine we would ever have issues with hydrostatic pressure pushing water up through the floor because any water is going downhill and fast.

When excavating for the home, the previous owner said there was a rock shelf where he originally wanted to put the house, so he had to move the foundation to cut down on costs. Some of the professionals seems to think the groundwater may be hitting that rock shelf, and flowing straight into the basement wall and that the exterior waterproofing wasn't up to snuff and that the drainage system is taking care of most of it, but it just can't keep up completely and some is leeching through the wall.

Some have suggested that drylok latex waterproofer will take care of the issues since it's not so bad. Some have said to absolutely not use drylok, and that we should put 12-15 mil plastic on the walls and that's all we need. Some have suggested both, and some have suggested that we do an additional full drain tile system with a sump pump.

It may be worth mentioning that we plan on putting a home theater in the basement, with carpet, and I'm worried about moisture issues with that.

Thanks again for any help you can offer. I really appreciate it!

 

[SeniorSitizen]

I would not consider finishing that basement until the drainage problem was solved and a free standing roof built over that section of the house extending to and beyond the opposite side of the house.

 

[SPS-1]

Some have suggested that drylok latex waterproofer will take care of the issues since it's not so bad.

A professional waterproofing contractor suggested that ? Really ?

 

[Nealtw]

Do you have a concrete floor now, doesn't look like it.

Here they have draped 10 mil sheet poly that catches and directs the water down to the drain below the floor

 

[schreibdave]

I dont have any great ideas on the waterproofing that you have not already mentioned. But is it an option to locate your stud/sheetrock wall 2ft or so off the concrete wall so that you can check conditions and address if necessary?

My finished basement was finished when the home was built and we have 2" of foam insulation up against the concrete. Seems to be working ok (3 years later) but I have no idea what is going on behind there.

 

[Artoo]

There is no concrete floor at all right now, it's just gravel outside of the small concrete slabs for the supports.

The prevailing plan from most of the basement specialists was to use the plastic sheeting to divert the water into the existing drain tile system, poor the concrete slab for the basement, and then frame the walls a couple of inches off the plastic.

 

[Nealtw]

There is no concrete floor at all right now, it's just gravel outside of the small concrete slabs for the supports.

The prevailing plan from most of the basement specialists was to use the plastic sheeting to divert the water into the existing drain tile system, poor the concrete slab for the basement, and then frame the walls a couple of inches off the plastic.

That would be my plan, as it is easy and cheap to do I would do all the walls, up to the top of the foundation. There is a corrugated plastic that sits on the footing and up the wall just passed the floor to allow the water to pass.

Cover all the dirt with poly taped and seal to the wall poly. You want to seal the poly around posts and pipes going down.

 

[Nealtw]

 

[stadry]

impo, drilock's great IF you own the co but that's about it,,, xypex/kryton are much better mtls & pass certain astm tests,,, its really difficult ( if not impossible ) to waterproof something from the negative ( interior ) side