Hi all,

I have a leaking basement. I am rather displeased, since I already made one big attempt at solving this problem. I installed footing drains on the exterior, which involved a huge trench, tons of gravel and plastic and pipe, and a week of backbreaking work.

It seemed to work for a while! But I think my problem literally goes deeper. I have evidence that the water is coming from UNDER the whole house. It's seeped all the way under, even below my footing drains, and is coming up through the floor and from the floor/wall cracks, even though I filled the larger crack with hydro cement.

So now, I have read about this product called RadonSeal. (http://www.radonseal.com/index.htm) They claim that this stuff soaks into concrete, then crystallizes and forms a barrier to water and radon gas.

I thought I'd ask the experts around here: you guys ever heard of this stuff, or anything similar? Is it bunk, or legitimate? The cost is very reasonable... I could do my basement for about $500.

Any advice or other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks! - james

I would be leery. Other solutions, like Thoroseal, make similar claims... but if you're treating from the inside - and the problem is outside - the problem will probably come up again.

There is no simple or cheap fix for your problem.

I would get 3-4 recommendations of local "basement waterproofers" in your area and go from there.

I looked at the website and thought it seemed like a good product because I have the same problem. Just recently part of my basement flooded. The Northeast is almost as bad as the Northwest with rain lately(it seems anyways). When you mentioned the Thoroseal solution I had second thoughts. I just recently had a boiler put in, and the guy is also a lason by trade, he said the same thing. He said you need to take care of the problem on the outside first then seal on the inside if you choose. Some of these things seem like quick, easy, inexpensive solutions that will end up costing money in the end. Thanks rickj for your repsonse and thanks jamlove for bringing that website up. I thin it is worth getting recommendations.

I haven't heard of it, but that means little. You might check the EPA's website and see what they say about it. My guess is that $500 would be cheap to fix a radon problem. It sounds to me like it could work, and I have a degree in chemistry. If it is half what they say it is, it could be very useful.

I am turned off a little by a mistake I found, ''calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H)''. ''S'' is sulfur, silicone is ''Si'', ''C'' is carbon, calcium is ''Ca''. Little mistakes can ruin credibility. Most of what they say sounds possible.

I agree w/ rickj. You need a waterproofing co. to come in a install a drain tile & sump pump system in the basement. They basically all guarantee their installations. You have the same problem that I have in my crawlspace. Water is entering where the floor meets the wall. If you seal that gap, hydrostatic pressure will occur and some where the water will enter. You should take the $500.00 and put it towards a guaranteed solution.

Thanks for looking into that guys. Labman, thanks for taking the time to look at RadonSeal's claims.

It's discouraging because I thought my exterior footing drains had solved the problem, (the place was dry as a bone for 5 months with plenty of rain) so I have installed a workbench, cabinets, a wall, and all sorts of stuff down there! Now I get to take it all out and get this tackled again.

What have I learned? Never buy a house! Just kidding. But my next house will be a welded stainless-steel sphere with diamond windows!

:)

Thanks again, and maybe I'll post an update for future reference.

In Minnesota we had a basement that flooded quite often. We applied Kilz (many coats) It kept the water out.

What I did to solve problem is:
1. - redo drainage around house
2. - used hydrolic cement on floor
3. - used mold & mildew water proof paint

This is an awsome product. www.zinsser.com
Type watertite in search engine!:)

Together these two are great products aqua plug and watertite. The plug and the sealer.:D
Where sold: watertite = canadian tire
hydrolic cement = u should know
Price: watertite = $42.00 plus taxes
Price: hydrolic cement = $ depends how big your cack(s) is.

I am very pleased, of the results, but don't forget to get a charging backup sysetem for your sump pump - redemable at any canadian tire outlet.(mine lasts 8 hours if their is a power outage.

Cheers

What a shame that you went through so much work only to have the problem recur. After 5 months of having a dry basement I would have claimed success as well. But you did have some success. Perhaps it has been an unusual wet period.
Now that you have started to use the basement I can see that you are eager to stop the wetness , but not at the same extent of work as before. I am not familiar with the product you mentioned, it's a tough call. Not too many building materials can prevent the force of water for too long.
So if you can't completely prevent it I suppose you can try to contain the problem. Groove the floor into a basin with a pump. I don't love sump pumps but it may only be needed at extreme conditions. Damage control, not a permanent solution.

I did learn (and enjoy) something from everyone... my daughter has just bought a house here in the UK (1066 country) and has the same problem... her house is a Victorian terrace and the original coal hole (quite a large space) is part of the house but goes under the road. (in the old days they just chucked the coal down from the truck)... unfortunately, the water is seeping in through the walls from the road which runs above.. and we've been told it's never going to be dry no matter what we do! So the space as her office has had to be abandoned. The experts have told us to just let the walls and floor breath naturally, thus avoiding any fungus inhilation and 6 months before wanting to sell, just paint it to look fresh ! Oh! Dear ! - that's what happens when you get old!!

Have you checked to see that the outside drain has not become plugged from leaves or other debris?

If it stayed dry for 5 months with rain then there may be something that has caused a blockage.

Do the downspouts dump into the outside drain or do they drain near the house?

Lotta I presume your reply was to me?? As it came to my e-mail address.
I am so new on this site that I still haven't fathomed it out!!
Anyway, the dampness in the old coal house has been like this for many years I think so I really don't think we will ever have a cure... the expert says even if you paint it - eventually it will flake and show signs of dampness
However, I will mention your ideas to the family and see what drains where - thanks for your kind advice !

I'm just encountering this problem myself and have been searching for cures and allot of what I'm reading pertains to outside control and maintenance. It seems that all basement are destined to suffer from leakage from one source or another and none are impervious to it, but with proper maintenance we can prevent the problem and inevitably there will be some work involved.

You need to check all sources of water flow outside and redirect water away from foundations as well as build your grade so that water flows away from the house rather than into it.

Something that I saw on a TV show was that they installed a drainage system of pipe around the interior of the foundation in below grade under the cement floor which all came back to the sump. This in effect would take the water coming into the basement from below the floor level and allow it to drain into the sump and then get pumped out into the yard or sewage system away from the house.

Eves troughs and downspouts should be diverted so that the water flows several feet away from the house and onto downward slopes away from the house, but not into your neighbors yard so as to cause the problem onto them.

There is also a blister typed plastic layer which can be added to the exterior of your foundation in extreme dig situations which allows the water to trickle downward to the weeping section of your foundation. Keep in mind that even these forms of drainage need to have somewhere for water to flow and get released since an eventual overwhelming will occur and cause you to encounter it all over again. These waters can also be plumed into your sump and or drained off into gullies or downhill drainage. You'll need to check into your local bylaws to make sure what type of drainage is allowed.

There are several types of foundations which all have different resolutions and proper homework and research will reveal to you which one best suits your personal needs. If all preventative maintenance has been taken then you should be able to find a measure that best works for you. Ask your neighbors and ask the contractors for references, go to those homes and see what work has been done and go to some that have been done years ago to make sure that they have not revisited the problem without resolution. Ask and follow-up before spending. Most of all do your own research; you'll be surprised as to what you can learn. And do yourself. If you hire a contractor you have the right to watch, be there and present and ask allot of questions. If your not satisfied somewhere along the job and you feel that you might be better off getting another opinion then ask away and put a stop to the ongoing job till you get the answers to satisfy your concerns.

Here is a great little site that I have found and I'm sure that you'll get some good answers to your concerns.

http://www.cmhc.ca/en/co/maho/gemare/gemare_002.cfm

Here is another little site that offers up some ideas about teraforming so that water is diverted away from the home. This is inexpensive and can help allot.

http://www.ruralhometech.com/drainag...aks.php?Page=3

Kind of hard to recommend anything without knowing EXACTLY what your exterior grade, plumbing, roofing and watertable information.
1/4, 1/2,3/4 or full basement?

You need a transit, plumbing knowledge, and perk testing... or keep shooting $500 "guess" bullets into the air and hope they hit something.

Keeping water out of the basement is one thing, it can also damage the structural integrity of the home even if the basement appears dry.

After some analyzing of situations I've found that often just installing deeper drainage on one side of some homes cures the problem.

The problem with any type of "sealant" is that it does not address the water sitting around the foundation. Hydrostatic pressure builds up and eventually the water will come in some how. A sealant and footing drains is what foundations are "waterproofed" with when they are built and it's obvious with the amount of problems people have that they do not last forever. You'll never be able to stop water the water permanantly from the outside (negative side waterproofing), so you are best to fix the problem on the inside with a perimeter drainage system and a sump pump system. If you'd like to learn more, there's some helpful information on the Basement Systems website. They have a learning center describing this very problem: Negative-Side Waterproofing
I wish you luck and a dry basement!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jamlove

Hi all,

I have a leaking basement. I am rather displeased, since I already made one big attempt at solving this problem. I installed footing drains on the exterior, which involved a huge trench, tons of gravel and plastic and pipe, and a week of backbreaking work.

It seemed to work for a while!! But I think my problem literally goes deeper. I have evidence that the water is coming from UNDER the whole house. It's seeped all the way under, even below my footing drains, and is coming up through the floor and from the floor/wall cracks, even though I filled the larger crack with hydro cement.

So now, I have read about this product called RadonSeal. (D-I-Y Basement Waterproofing, Radon Mitigation, Concrete Sealers, and Basement Repairs) They claim that this stuff soaks into concrete, then crystallizes and forms a barrier to water and radon gas.

I thought I'd ask the experts around here: you guys ever heard of this stuff, or anything similar? Is it bunk, or legitimate? The cost is very reasonable... I could do my basement for about $500.

Any advice or other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks! - james

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I used to own a basement waterproofing firm. The product you are asking about will NOT help. You have too much hydrostatic pressure for any such hopeful product to solve. Even if it sealed well in some or even most of the cracks and crannies, water would find the next weak point and come in there. Unless you want to play "Whack-A-Mole" with water leaks, you need to face the bad news: You should have put the drain tile along the INNER perimeter, with sump pits in 2 places inside, with pumps sending water to extreme edge of your property. You can do a less arduous fix than doing all of that: determine the wettest area (not where water runs to, but where it comes in the worst). Dig up a circle of bassement concrete right there along the wall, and dig a pit -- then install a big plastic sump pit with lots of 1/4" holes drilled in it. Surround with drqainage gravel or wrap with filter fabric. Re-close with new concrete around it. Put in a sump pump, plumbed to the outside and draining WAY AWAY from house, hopefully down a sloping area. Before doing any of that, though, I assume you did what you can to find out where the water is coming from. Are your gutters and your neighbors' gutters heading right to your foundation? Are you in a hollow? Do nearby city storm drains overflow, indicating you are in a floodplain? Are your current sump pumps exiting way away from the building? Does this go on continuously, meaning you are sitting on a live spring? Does it only happen in strong rains, meaning your city's system of drainage is inadequate? Are you in a house built on a farmers' field, which may mean you are in the path of ancient crop drainage tile? Your problem is the same as if you tried to push an empty 10 gallon aquarium down into a full bathtub. If the aquarium has a leak, the water will rush in. Divert the water in the tub, and no leak. Good luck -- wish there were a quick fix, but there is not.