hi guys. Been awhile. i thought that y'all may know the answer to a mystery i have. i have an older home that will take on water to a certain extent when it rains alot. no biggy, it happens in our town. the basement has several floor cracks from that have developed over the years. Here is the quandry. We have not seen rain for 4 weeks yet i am beginning to get sepage up from the cracks the last few days. What gives?
Its not your sewer pipe leaking ?
If it's not a matter of rain water, I'd look first at your sewer, as Ford suggests, and next at your water service line. Does the water smell bad? What sort of terrain do you have? Sometimes if you're downhill from a water source such as a leaking water or sewer main, that can be a problem too.
Assuming none of the obvious, or not so obvious, it could be that the rain from 4 weeks ago is just getting to the basement now. Other things other than sewer, could be a leaking water line (either yours or public utilities/neighbours), pool discharge pipes, sprinkler systems, etc. I have worked on lots of 'wet basements' with my mini, seems like I do a few (or more) each year. Depends on how badly you want a totally dry basement, but it can be done, just depends on the time and money you wish to spend. First things to check are the obvious, eaves trough drain pipes are pointing well away from the house, all grading around the exterior is going away (often things will settle around exterior walls, and water is running towards the foundation wall.) Make sure there aren't any drains from neighbours or elsewhere pointing towards your house as well. Now...assuming either a block or poured foundation (seems like most of the ones I deal with are block, I don't believe it's the block issue, so much as the age of the house), if all the relatively 'easy' fixes haven't solved it, time to step up to bigger fixes. As far as your water issue right now, I would have to guess that you don't have a sump pump, or pit for one. If there is a corner somewhere that you can do some investigating, I would suggest you drill a hole (or several) through the cement floor and see where the water level is at. Some of the places that I have done have even added a sump pit, gives a place to monitor the ground water level, and if necessary, by adding a sump pump, the water level of the foundation drain can be lowered, gives you a larger 'margin' so to speak before your basement starts to flood. If this is a 30-50 year old home....one thing that I've found is they were often built using clay tile for footing drains. I've found more than one that has broken/collapsed because there was a stray rock in the fill used over them. This also takes years before it starts to reveal itself.
I watch the Holmes on Homes show quite abit its a CND home improvement show mainly based out of Ontario. They have done lots of perimter drains and sealing up old basement walls. Its lots of work hand digging around the foundation to the footings. Powerwash the dirt off the wall then start applying the tar,fabric,poly sheeting and this dimpled plastic over top. As meantioned your going to need to do some exploring which intails drilling some holes or busting some holes into the floor. You should find out if it is your main sewer pipe leaking if it is then you are contaminating the soil which can be bad news down the road. Also Mould which can make you very very sick can be another problem. Good Luck
Got a sump. level ground. 80 yr old ome. it takes in waterf rom the foundation etc. on good rain falls. Gutters are average. How do you check the sewer line and water service line?
Doesn't stink. Just that musty smell from the water it took on 4 weeks ago during very heavy rainfall. A river flows thru town, many get water with heavy rains. The fact that we have not had any for sometime concerns me with this latest moisture. It is not crazy, mind you.... but enough to run the sump 1 or twice today.
call a sewer service company, they'll most likely send a camera down your main line to check for cracks, or use tracing dye. not sure how you'd check the water though? maybe dont use any water in the house and make sure the meter isnt running?? could it be a natural sprig under the basement??
there is 3 wells in the back yard very near the foundation.
If you sealed your basement up it might float right out of the hole like a septic tank :roll You should get the water in the basement problem fixed because of the mold problem. A musty smell isn't good either.
I have seen several homes with the gutter drains tied into the footer drains. BAD idea. If the downspouts do not flow into plastic pipe, you may want to install new gutter drains.
Find a lab that can test the water. Send them a sample. The presence of bacteria would indicate waste water (sewer line). The presence of chlorine or other such additives would indicate municipal water (or the neighbor's pool). None of the above would indicate ground water. Not a sure fire, 100%, iron-clad guarentee, but just a technique to aquire another clue. That seems to be the way to goes with most wet basements, it's very difficult to pinpoint the EXACT casue or source of the problem. Sometimes you get lucky, like smalltime's example, but most of the time, you just have to try something and see where it takes you. BTW...I have the same issues with my basement... Joe
That was going to be my first suggestion. Can you take a few pictures around the house and post them? Some of us might see something we have dealt with before.
Funny....that's exactly what I actually do (instead of watching it done on TV), yet I rarely dig by hand, that's what the mini-ex is for. Though I can guess that on occasion, the yards in Toronto wouldn't even allow a mini to do the work. So far, I've been able to get my (39" wide) mini into every yard I've been asked to. Back to the original issue....go to the three wells near the house, and measure the water level (from ground level). If the level is close to the depth of the basement floor, you know that you are likely dealing with a high water table. Though some will claim that it can be fixed without digging, in reality, either the exterior, interior, or both, needs dug and drained in such a way to lower the volume of water in the ground around the basement. Digging around the outside, cleaning the wall, and installing the plastic barrier membrane Membrane insures that any water traveling sideways through the ground gets stopped, and 'falls' to the drain pipe at the footing. One thing I like about this product, it helps to make up for tough worksites, where it is hard to remove/replace heavy (and poor draining) clay soils with sand or gravel that will readily drain. Though ideally the area adjacent to the wall will be backfilled with a good draining material all the way to the crushed stone surrounding your drain tile. (One thing often not shown in these diagrams, I will use a landscape fabric over the stone bed for the tile, helps keep silt etc out from plugging the tile. Another option would be to use the covered tile.) On difficult wet areas, we have actually backfilled with 3/4" crushed stone to within a foot or so of surface. Often, if at all possible, I will take this exterior drain tile, and tie it in through the wall, to an interior sump pit. Ideally, inside the basement walls, is a series of tile designed to drain the area under the floor. And yes, you can get water coming up from under a house that doesn't ever reach the perimeter drains. Only a couple times have I been involved with homes that were cut inside the basement, trenches hand dug, and tile laid throughout. Again, a pump pit (and sump pump) were also added. One advantage with this is the trenches/tile are often lower than if they were installed at time of construction. This helps to get the water levels even lower, giving you a larger margin of water volume to 'monitor' before you have a flood on your hands. Of course both of these options are costly, somewhat messy, and labour intensive (either yours or the contractors!!) Hopefully you find a somewhat 'easy' fix to the problem you have at hand.
Most of us here don't have to worry about basements most houses don't have them they have 2-3 floors above ground My grandparents old house in Vancouver which most houses have a basement deal with water problems. I know my aunt had to have her perimeter drains repaired I think those were old clay drain tile. As CM1995 said get us some pictures to see what your dealing with them a better answer could be given.
Okay. Here is the deal. The clean water is coming up thru the floor cracks after showers and washing machine use etc. Guess this means that the drain pipe is clogged somewhere from the street to underneath the basement????????????? How to fix??? Thanks.
If you plan on living in the house for years to come replace the sewer pipe with a new one then you never have to worry about it again. If your basement isn't finished its easy to cut a slot in the concrete floor to the main sewer drain in the house. Run plastic (if its legal in your area) or what ever is used in your area. Again using my aunt as a example she had to have her main sewer to the street replace it wasn't cheap but had to do it. Your break in the pipe might be under your basement floor some where so if your repairing it might aswell do the whole pipe. I think your beyond the cleaning stage its into replacing :Banghead
It sure sounds as if you have a clog somewhere, combined with a pipe that leaks. And don't be comforted by the fact that you're noticing if after showers and laundry--those are putting a higher volume in the system than a simple flush, but what you flush isn't going away as it should either. It could be that you have a pipe that's mostly clogged, so the problem only presents itself when you run a lot of water into it. Those kinds of issues don't cure themselves, unfortunately. They only get worse. Certainly, replacement of the pipe is the ultimate answer, but before you go to that expense, I'd try to have it snaked out. The problem in your basement could be due to one bad joint, which only leaks significantly when the pipe is full of standing water. If you get the sewer running free again, you may be able to live with what you have. Do you have a floor drain in the basement anywhere? If so, I'm surprised that you're getting water coming up through cracks in the floor, without also having it back up through the floor drain. Do you know where the sewer exits the house? There should, at the very least be a trap there, with a "fresh air" stack to the surface of the ground. Ideally, there would be a cleanout there as well. If you look into that stack, the water level should be as deep as the trap, which should be deeper than the level of your basement floor. If the water is higher than the basement floor, that would prove that the problem is outside the house. If it's lower than the basement floor, and any water you put into it (garden hose, five gallon bucket, etc.), goes away, that would indicate that the line outside of the house is running ok, and the problem is inside the house. (Warning: If the problem is outside the house, any water you add there could very well end up inside the house.) I did a job a couple of years ago, where the homeowner had had all the inside plumbing replaced, only to learn that the sewer outside the house was the root of the problem. There are lots of plumbing contractors these days with TV camera systems that will televise your sewer for free. And they'll always be able to find something to convince you that you need a new sewer. Something to bear in mind...
I have seen the cameras used on This Old House and Holmes On Homes its interesting what they can see. There are some pipe cleaning options the water snake that runs off of a power washer works good. Its a attachement you hook to a 3000 psi powerwasher that you shove a fairly stiff rubber hose with a 360 degree spray head down the main sewer pipe. It cleans and flushes the line but it is limited to its reach. The plumber at work showed me a attachement that works with a garden hose I said to him thats not going to work. It is a attachement that screws on the end of a garden hose you shove it into the pipe not far and the attachement expands and seals the end off the pipe. The water pressure builds in the pipe till the clog lets go. It worked the pipe the plumber was trying to unclog is a 4 inch the plumber figured the clog was 200' feet from the end we could work on. It took awhile for the water pressure to build up but when the pressure released you could hear it. Now I don't know if thats a good idea if you have older clay pipes it might blow every joint apart.
ive used both of the attachments talked about the one on the pressure washer works best if you have one that puts out about 4-6 gallons per minute most home owner presure washers anly put out about 2 gpm
We tv test when we see something like this. It saves us from digging the whole thing up without cause. I did one last year that sounds a lot like what you have. A big tree out by the road, got ahold of the clay pipe and shoved a hundred little roots through a joint. It clogged and broke the sewer lateral at the same time. We are the last town around here to OK SDR35. It's pretty standard. By the way. What do you guys mean by "tile"?
Clay pipe around here is often referred to as clay 'tile' because it is often used in drain systems such as footing drains, and septic 'tilebeds'. I know a lot of it was used in the 60's and into the early 70's around here, then plastic started taking over. (Though I would hazard a guess it was around long before the 60's, I really haven't ran into a lot of it with older places.) I do know of a couple farms that were tile drained with clay tiles in the 50's, one of the farmers years ago showed me the sketches he had showing the tile locations.
We have a solution. Digger242j nailed it i feel. The sewer dept. came out this morn. and the water was all the way up to street level. After a flush the water was still running ( now 6 feet below ground level) to the street. After a shower and 2 loads of laundry...... No water and in fact is receding in the basement. A rare occurance for me to s:beerchug solve a homeowner problem with no money and really very little effort. Thanks to all and to all a good day.:notworthy Go Bears. Go Cubs. Go Celtics.
Glad to be of help.
I'm surprised you didn't Citrol it. You really got lucky here big time.
"I'm surprised you didn't Citrol it. You really got lucky here big time." I sure did. Tried penetro90 to "loosen" the leak...did not work:beatsme :laugh