Hello

I have been following this forum for some time and I am looking for thoughts on this problem a client of mine has, any input would be appreciated.

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Quote:

I am wondering whether your technology could help us determine the source of water around our foundation.  We've purchased our house in August of 2008.  It's a 5 year old house built in a subdivision that was developed on a buried creek.  We also have a grade at the back of the house as we live right by a railway track.  During heavy rainfall our sump pump pumps thousands of gallons of water  24 hrs/day often for an entire week.  Our sump pump has failed to work twice already causing our unfinished basement to flood. We hesitate to invest any money into renovating it because of this problem.  We understand that some of the water is coming from the rain fall but the amount of water that runs through our pump is just enormous.  We're starting to believe that there is some water source right underneath our house which, when it rains, rises, accumulates around our foundation and runs through the pump. We have consulted with a city engineer to try to solve the problem. He's suggested that we raise that ground level at the back of the house with some sod and also diver the water pumping out - away from the house.  If, however, the problem is much more serious, i.e. underground water, then implementing these solutions might be pointless. Would you be able to detect the water around our foundation? It would have to be done during a heavy rainfall. Our house is quite small, little over 1000 square feet.  We are not interested in assessing how energy efficient our house is, but simply where the water accumulates around our foundation.

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thanks

larry

It may be possible to detect the source using thermography but I don't think it is a very good bet. Even then, a solution to the problem would still need to be developed and implemented. The issue you'd need to contend with is whether the water is primarily surface (you might have a chance of seeing that from outside, say from the roof) or subsurface (you might see that from inside); both would be very, very tough.

  That said, solutions should not be that difficult regardless of the source. Roof runoff and sump pump discharge should definitely be made to flow well away from the house. Ground water from the from the grade out back could be intercepted by a "French" drain, essentially a ditch filled with gravel to an outflow. I've seen this combination used very successfully in many cases. I don't mean to be practicing engineering on this messageboard but would suggest a visit by a good engineer or drainage expert is probably the best way to do. A flooded basement, especially if mold becomes involved, is probably at least as expensive as solving the problem itself. 

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Thermally Yours,

John
ASNT NDT Level III #48166
The Snell Group
www.thesnellgroup.com
www.thermalsolutions.org
800-636-9820

Hi Larry,

I am not an engineer, but your clients should retain one ASAP.  I have dealt with these types of problems for the last 20 years. You quote them as having a "unfinished basement" which leads me to believe it is a livable space i.e. 9' ceilings. Normally in this scenario a french drain is installed on the exterior of the basement walls with varying amounts of "leach rock" calculated by an engineer.  How this works is any water trying to penetrate the exterior basement walls will take the path of least resistance, enters the rock,  drops into some leach pipe and then drains into a sump pump to be pumped out.  In high ground water applications you don't want a french drain around the house to "attract" water. Whether or not you have a french drain around the house is not really an issue.........sounds like the Civil engineer on the original project may have made a boo-boo.

I have seen your type of scenario actually lift the interior basement slab and the footing with 10' of wall on it.

I have used an interior waterproofing paint called Drylok which actually sealed basement walls and I have used it to seal the inside of manholes that were 10' below water level.  This might be a quick-fix until they get their problem solved.

Good luck!!

Keith

 

 

Some other helpful information would be to know what the basement is made from. Is it concrete or is it block? If it is block it might be going thru the mortar joints. There are many different options on what could be done. Drain boxes are a great way you get water away from your house. Granted it may take some work on the homeowners part but the results would benefit them in the long run. The most important thing for the homeowner to do is to fix the landscaping around the house and slope the ground away from the foundation.