# Small Leak in Basement



## silverado4 (Nov 9, 2004)

I have fixed all the holes in my basement walls that held up the form with Hydraulic Cement. We had a week or two lately of rain, and now I have a leak at the basement floor at the base of the wall. Any Ideas on what I can do to fix this problem.
Thanks


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## Koot (Nov 25, 2007)

silverado4 said:


> I have fixed all the holes in my basement walls that held up the form with Hydraulic Cement. We had a week or two lately of rain, and now I have a leak at the basement floor at the base of the wall. Any Ideas on what I can do to fix this problem.
> Thanks


There's really nothing you can do from the inside at slab level to assure a dry basement floor.

To absolutely assure no future leak you will have to dig down below the foundation level on the outside perimeter of the foundation wall and install a pit for gravel and lay drain pipe (with holes) to pipe the water (coming from either ground level e.g. rain water, or coming from below e.g. hydrostatic pressure from a high water table) away from, and below the level of the foundation. And painting the below-grade exterior wall and wall/foundation joint with an asphalt-based compound...along with installing thick mil below-grade plastic to help prevent water penetration through the wall and/or wall/foundation joint. Further, to prevent water penetration coming from below (hydrostatic pressure) due to a high water table, the interior perimeter of the slab can be jack-hammered out to a distance of about 18" from the wall and a gravel pit installed (below slab level) with a sump pump installed to pump water away from the foundation.

Ground water will flow downward in the path of least resistance through soil and open cracks in a wall or foundation. Hydrostatic pressure from below (high water table) will push upwards (even through a solid concrete slab) to seek whatever level the water table happens to be at the time. Thus, to absolutely assure a dry basement wall and a dry floor, work must be done on the outside perimeter and also inside perimeter to divert (or pump) water away from the problem area to a lower and distant area.


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## silverado4 (Nov 9, 2004)

Sounds like $$$$$$.
I saw that the ground was sinking were it was leaking outside, and I got 10 bags of stone, plus I put 7 mil plastic doubled underneath this. I'll hope the water runs away with this.
Thanks for your info on this.


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## antimoth (Aug 8, 2009)

While koot is correct, sometimes us poor folks don't have ten or more thousand bucks to cut a trench along the wall and lay tiles for a basement sump pump. I have a rental house that only has a well in the floor to collect and pump out the drain water from the washer and basement sink, I had some major seepage at the wall/floor too, Tenant would call, and I'd have to take care of a 1/2 inch of water in the basement. What I did was to "caulk" that seam with hydraulic cement, with a 2x2 inch cover layer of regular cement over it. Did it over a period of months and eventually did the entire wall border, That seems to have worked. Water from the seam has stopped. Its' been years now, To be fair, I also routed the gutters far from the house and I even knocked some holes in the walls of the ejector well, so that some water from under the floor does flow into it and gets pumped out. I wonder if the foundation will someday pop out of the ground with the water there,,,,,


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## silverado4 (Nov 9, 2004)

I search around the internet and found where if your drier vent was plugged with lint, this could cause water in the vent and drain back into your drier. This leak was by one leg of the drier. I went outside and took my vacuum with me. I have 3 plastic vents that open up when the drier is on. Only two were opening. I pulled open the stuck one, and found lint had caused it not to open. I cleaned out the vent, and put a long hose down the vent pipe all the way to the drier. I moved it back an forth in the vent to try to free up any lint in the vent. So far, no leaks on the floor. It's been about two weeks now. I'm going to wait for a big rain storm to see if in fact it was the lint in the vent. Everyone should clean out their vents, I could not believe how much lint there was at the exit of the house where the shutters are to let drier air out. Just think of how much was still in the vent pipe. Thanks for your info.
Silverado over and out


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