I have water in my basement. It is a 100 year old gem of a farmhouse with walls thick as Fort Knox. I have not officially witnessed the water entering the basement. We have only lived here two years and there was no disclosure regarding this issue from seller. Sometinme prior to selling they replaced/fixed the well and ran new pipe into the house. It is the black 1.5" or so type stuff but they hacked up the concrete floor about 12-18" away from the wall to feed the pipe up from the ground. It seems to us that the only time we get water is when the entire yard and fields have been saturated. Is it possible that the water comes up from under the foundation through that hack in the floor? There is no sump pump or floor drain but I am wondering about hacking through the floor to sink a bucket to hold sumper. Any ideas for the rookie?

-- Paul (pbray@tds.net), April 12, 2001

Answers

if there was no problem before the new pipe,, sounds like they messed with the natural drainage in that area. Maybe cut thru a clay layer,, or,, backfilled with something that aloows the water to track along the pipe. You could get a sump installed ( or do it yourself), pick the lowest area, if you have water there already,, pick the deepest. Though I would see about sealing up the concrete first,, adding a sunmp is a pain,, and tends to go out just when you need it the most

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), April 12, 2001.

Make sure your roof guttering is clean and working properly. Getting your roof water collected and diverted well away from your foundation is half the battle for a dry basement. Old farmhouses with seasonally damp basements are common. If you have a spot in the basement that the water naturally drains to, you could install a sump and pump, but unless you install perforated drains with open graded gravel backfill beneath the floor and outside the basement walls, you'll still have to contend with seep water crossing the surface of the basement floor as it drains to the sump. I know of basements that were sealed on the inside in an attempt to prevent seepage, and the resulting hydraulic pressure caused the concrete floor to break and bulge upward with water spewing several inches up out of the cracks.

-- Paul (hoyt@egyptian.net), April 12, 2001.

I live in an 80+ cottage with a field stone foundation, and a giant rock in the basement(it's very cool-no pun intended)There is a natural spring that runs very close to the property, and when the water table gets high enough, it actually bubbles up thru the crevices in the rock. We have to check and spray on a regular basis for bugs-larvae really-that bubble up with the water, I'm talking in less then 5 gallons, we mop up and have a dehumidifer for the dampness that NEVER goes away.

-- Kathy (catfish201@hotmail.com), April 12, 2001.