[KISS]

I say outside. Had a few basement waterproofers give some estimates. They ranged from $5K to $13K.

Don't have a wet basement, nor a damp basement.

Just some of the time, like when you get 2.3" of rain in a day there was 1.5" of water in it. Sitting above the drain because there was a rubber backed rug on top of it.

The rubber is now gone. Know where the water came in at. From dumping 3/4 of 1/2 the roof on the side of the house. Not good.

The basement waterproofers showed up and wanted to bust up 16" or so of the entire perimeter of the house and put in various pumping systems with dual pumps and backup power. Yummy.

They want to pump water out and I want to prevent it from coming in.

It usually comes in a window well from a neighbor's landscaping, but it didn't this time. The water alarm was silent.

Looks like I'm going to be doing a significant amount of surface water redirecting.

Saw this really cool stuff. It's like an egg carton with a filter fabric on it. Can be used to collect surface water or an external foundation surface water drain.

Probably a catch basin for the gutter. Maybe even a "Y" for the other gutter.

That should collect water from the neighbor's property and divert it before it gets to the window well.

So, what do you think? Work on the water from the outside or the inside or both?

It doesn't happen very often and the sum pump rarely runs.

[ballengerb1]

So this time the water came up through the drain in the floor, right? Is that drain connected to your sewer or to a sump pump?

[KISS]

No, it didn't come in through a floor drain. Came in through the side of the house where a rain gutter dumps. A fig tree is located at that side right up to the house.

I pulled the rug and removed the drain in the floor and just removed some sediment. It wasn't plugged.

There was an indoor/outdoor rug (15' x 20') covering the drain. The rug had a rubber pad BONDED to the rug, so water that came in about 20' diagonally away could not enter the floor drain. I removed the bonded pad and was able to pour water through the rug.

Other areas of the house got wet, but I do believe that was due to wicking and water seeking a level ground.

Water was over the sump pit by about 1/2". The sump pit is loacated another 20' from the floor drain. The sump pit is shallow and located about 10' from a corner. The pump was running.

The rain had stopped when it was discovered.

[ballengerb1]

If I were asked to fix this problem I am afraid I'd be talking about cutting a trench and installing a curtain drain and full depth sump pump pit. How large, gpm, is your pump? You may need a 1/2 hp pump with higher volume

[KISS]

Who knows. It's a pit viper ss314. Might be a re-branded pump because it's still being sold. Even the manual I have doesn't have any pumpomg info.

The manual of a similar pump: http://www.libertypumps.com/Data/Ins...00G_ForWeb.pdf

It's about a 10" dia, 10 3/8 deep pit, On at 5.5" off at 3-3/4.

There is a crack between the basement wall and floor about 1.5" from the edge except for areas finished by the builder which feeds the pit.

[ballengerb1]

Do you know which model you have, pit viper ss314 doesn't match up with the chart you posted. Any chnace of a pic of that window well and the surronding terrain?

[KISS]

Give me a little time for the pics. I think I have them somewhere.

I know the pump does't match up, but it looks the same dimension wise and has the same HP and current draw. The data I have when the pump was installed doesn't have pumping capacity vs head either. In fact, it doesn't even mention Liberty Pumps.

i.e. PIT VIPER SUBMERSIBLE SUMP PUMP SS314 PIT VIPER PUMPS

NLA

[ballengerb1]

Pretty pricey for a 1/3 hp pump. A good pump will help get the water out but you are also interested in keeping it from getting in. If you don't do a curtain drain then your must regrade around that window well, possibly using an exterior sump pump pit if all else fails.

[KISS]

This time it didn't come in the window well. I have a bilge pump in the well and a water alarm. The power supply isn't on all the time because it's one that makes too much noise. Haven't gotten around to putting the power supply brick to good use, so it can be on all the time.

I paid a little over a $100 bucks, like $119 or so for it.

Regrading iis rough because of a 2' hill perendicular to the window well, maybe 8' away. That water is the neighbors from his landscaping. (actually destroying the landscaping that the previous neighbors did.)

[ballengerb1]

Check with your local building department re: their thoughts on a neighbors drainage affecting your home. Many cities require every home to form drainage to the front or rear of property and they must change their grade if it deflects onto a neighbors property. Just a thought.

[KISS]

Tried that. Must take them (landlord) to civil court. This flooding was not likely because of them. It was our roof water.

[KISS]

OK, here is one pic on a DRY day.

A couple of things:

The right fence is the corner of the house. Look closely, you can see the bricks between the trees.

That odd fence, marks the side of the neighbor's driveway and there is a plastic edging that was installed after he moved in along the driveway. That prevents his driveway water from entering the grass.

In the middle of the fence at the bottom is the gutter discharge. 3/4 of the back of the roof drains there. In a flooded picture, the entire area has standing water about 1/2" deep. (not shown). Note the lack of grass.

The green garden hose is the sump pump discharge from the window well.

[KISS]

OK, here is another pic. This is a view of the neighbor's driveway.

Note the brown fence and compare it to the last picture. It's only about 6' long.

Note the grey strip along the driveway.

Now, a little bit about the other problem (window well)

Look at the right hand side of the tent. It drains into a space between the wooden fence (neighbors) and a chain link fence (ours). Then there is a hedge and in about 3' or so, it drops about 2'. HILL!

The window well is about 5' from the right most fence post on the PREVIOUS picture.

What you cannot see is that there is a Raised flower bed, I'd say about 12' from where the vegitation appears to stop between the tent and the wooden fence. This channel was a nice flower bed and has been destroyed. The flower bed used to gradually make it's way to the left hand side of the tent. Thus dumping all the water on the neighbor's driveway.

About 6' in between the fence and tent, there is a bunch of soil deposited, so water can't make it out of what used to be a flower bed. If it was flat, then the water wouln't take a turn to the right and head into the window well. That's the WINDOW WELL landscaping issue.

Right now, we are snow-covered in the back, so it's difficult to take a picture. I think the CD of the pics are in the car that were taken when things were wet. If they aren't, I can scan the pics I have.

I now have the downspout running to 30' of solid drainage pipe and 10' of perforated pipe running on top of the ground to the front of the house.

So at this point, I think I've temporarily diverted the downspount water and if the sump pump is on, diverted the window well water.

I have about 66' to the curb with a sidewalk that ends about 3' from the street which is about 3' wide. I have to determine the slope that I have. Tunneling drainage pipe under the cement will be a little tough.

Refer to previous pic:

Plan:

A) Put catch basin under gutter discharge. Run 66' to street, under sidewalk to a pop-up. (need to check slope)

B) Get this egg carton stuff on a roll at Lowe's which is about 1" wide by 10" deep and burry at edge of hedge collecting neighbors rainwater. Plumb into catch basin. Get a roll of the stuff. (30-50'). Plumb into catch basin. (Deals with runnoff from his property w/o taking them to court). Landlord says he won't do anything UNLESS gutter drain is taken care of first. The gutter drain does not impact the window well.

Rain entered somewhere perpendicular to the brown fence. The house id about 6-8' from that fence. The property line is probably about 6" to the left of the left-most chain-link fence post by the hedge.

In this picture, it's an optical illusion that the brown fence is at the edge of the fence post. It's about 10' away.

[ballengerb1]

OK how about this, can you trench along the property line and lay in a 4" plastic drain tube with holes and fabric sock covered with gravel. This could act as a French drain and carry the water toward the street. Is this posssible?

[speedball1]

The water didn't come in through a floor drain. Came in through the side of the house where a rain gutter dumps

Have you given any rhought to this? (see image) Tom

[KISS]

Yep, thought of it. Calcs say 48 gals necessary.

More pics: Follow the water (This is the window well issue)

Pic was taken when it was wet - note the hill. The far right corner shows the large fence in the other pictures.

The first pic is the terrain view (73) from the backside.

The window well is located to the far left of the small shed.

The sandbags are trying to divert some of the water.

The trash bags contain yard waste. The limb hasn't been cut up yet.

(77) is starting to show the path of the water. The white is snow. It was taken when it was raining. The wateris sliding off the tent and puddleing.


(78) Fence-Fence is showing the water as it's traveling.

(81) Fence-yard is still folllowing the water

Note, that the water is diverting just before the sandbags.

There is the evergreen tree to the left and the window well is about 3' to the left and 3' back from that tree.

In the far back, you can see a chain link fence if you look closely. About midway (you can't see it) is the gutter discharge pointing away.

(74) closeup sandbags - shows more puddles. The gutter discharge is now going into a corrogated plastic pipe on the ground,

[KISS]

This is the new drain pipe. The water came in about midway on this picture (drain pipe). Note the pooling of water on the driveway trying to enter the grassy area.

I do believe it was successful. Removing the leaves restored the flow along the driveway. Not much was trickleing out of the pipe.

The last pic (driveway) shows the water paths on the driveway. It's effectively coming from both sides of the tent.

[ballengerb1]

If that pipe is perforated just get a sock on it and bury it in a gravel lined trench. Kepp some pitch out toward the street.