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I'm not sure if this is considered a home maintenance or plumbing problem, but

I have an 80 year old house, and have lived here 28 years. We have never had water in the basement (other than when the sewer cleanout needed cabling). Suddenly we have water (flowing the last 3 days!). No leaky pipes, no backed up drains. Before we knew the water was still coming in we had the carpet cleaned, and when it was done you could see the carpet becoming wet from one corner coming out. No walls are wet; water seems to be coming in at floor level in this corner.

Is there anything I can do to avoid costly repair (again, never happened before). I found a clogged gutter and wetness on porch indicated it'd been overflowing. Ground is very wet from snow melting/rain several times during the week, but not raining now and water still seeping in). How long do I wait after cleaning gutter to see if this helps/water stops flowing!?

Thanks much for any advice! T

TAB

[labman]

In a day or 2, I would start looking for another problem. You might inspect the area around the leaking gutter. It is possible it washed enough dirt away leaving a low place for water to collect and run in. If you see any low spots, fill them in with the heaviest clay you can find. Steal a bucket from a construction site or a creek bank if you have to.

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Appreciate it. This downspout is next to a porch we added (actually runs through it near the front door) this summer, looking under it I can see that for about 10-15 feet the exterior brick is wet down to the ground. I'm hoping that's the problem (and I unclogged the gutter). Also, where the porch was put in there were some large bushes taken out, and then we landscaped from the porch out. The grade is good from the landscaping out, but looking under the porch where they dug for the posts etc and the bushes were it looks like the grade slopes back some, so I'm going to try to change that as well.

I just need the water to stop coming in in the meantime so I can see if this truly fixes it.

Thanks again.

TAB

[speedball1]

Tab, Your getting very good advice from Labman. The best place to stop a leak is at its source. However, sometime you have to contain it to so I'm going to give you a link to a basement sealer in case you need it.
http://www.radonseal.com/basement-waterproofing.htm
Good luck, Tom

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A follow-up. My wife was paying the bills today and our water usage was out of the world for September through December. We put in landscaping and an underground sprinkler system in the summer, and with new sod had to run it a lot, and the bill for June through August was 1/5 of the September through December bill, with the sprinkler system off at the beginning of August. And water usage so far in January is at even faster clip. That sounds like a leak somewhere, but I can't find it--and it should be after the meter given the inordinately high bill. I've turned off the water at the meter; its only been a couple of hours, but the water is coming in just as rapidly at the same place in the basement (a spot at the floor; no water on wall).

Given what might be extreme saturation given the water bill, any guess on how long I should wait to expect to see some change in the water coming in with the water turned off (IF that's the problem). We plan to call the City about the water bill and have them come out and see what they can see tomorrow.

Again, much thanks!

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