Go Back  DoItYourself.com Community Forums > Exterior Improvement Center > Roofing, Gutters and All Waterproofing Anywhere
Reload this Page >

Advice on fixing small foundation leak before it gets worse

Advice on fixing small foundation leak before it gets worse


  #1  
Old 06-19-18, 06:59 AM
J
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Canada
Posts: 59
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Advice on fixing small foundation leak before it gets worse

Hey guys and gals.

So yesterday we had a MASSIVE downpour of rain that lasted for a good hour or so and it ended up revealing some issues that i didn't know i had.

My house is a century home where 3/4 of it is old stone wall foundation and the back part of the house is cinder block foundation. The stone wall foundation has spray foam insulation on the inside of the house and even before we had that done i have never noticed a leak. The cinder block foundation at the back of the house has regular old pink insulation.

So anyways, the rain was coming down so hard yesterday it overflowed my gutters and revealed a small crack at the bottom of my cinder block foundation at the back of the house where water was pooling up and not running off very fast at all. You can see in the pictures previous patch jobs done by the previous owner along with some spray foam put under the siding to fill any gaps to stop critters from getting in (i still need to clean that up since it looks ugly as all hell).

The water was coming in very slowly and as you can see from the pictures the backside of my house on the corner there is built into a small little hill. If you look closely you can see at the top of the hill up against the house there is existing tar on the wall, but near the bottom of that hill where its flat you cant really see any. And its at the bottom of that hill up against the wall is where the water was sloooowly seaping in.

I wanna nip this problem in the butt before anything gets worse. How do you suggest i go about this?

I was thinking of digging away all that stone and dirt underneath of it to reveal the side of the foundation there. Fill any cracks with hydraulic cement and then re-tar over it. What to put back down after im not sure of yet but i wanna know if this is a viable solution.

Note: In the pictures of the outside of the house that gravel area up against the foundation is actually lower than the grass to the left of it. We have lived in this house for a few years now and i've never really noticed an issue with water running off and way from the house (as in it usually flows pretty fast over those rocks). But with so much rain yesterday the gutters over flowing and pooling water at the base of the house there it showed the leak.



 
  #2  
Old 06-19-18, 07:20 AM
XSleeper's Avatar
Group Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 27,061
Received 1,910 Upvotes on 1,716 Posts
You have a finish trim or j channel at the bottom of your siding. That can catch water and could possibly be allowing it to drain down into the top of your block. I would suggest you get a malco sideswiper unlock tool and unlock the 2nd row of siding from the first. Then remove the first row of siding. I bet you may find that there is water damage behind. You should replace sheathing as needed, be sure you lap a wrb (housewrap) under the existing... Then use a starter strip not a finish trim or j channel along the bottom to start the siding in.

Not to say there are not foundation problems to address, but I would do this first.
 
  #3  
Old 06-19-18, 07:37 AM
J
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Canada
Posts: 59
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
I've actually noticed that bottom strip all along the house before and at the side of my house i've noticed that any rain that gets in there just drains out at the very end.... not sure if that's happening at the back or not but thank you for pointing that out!

When it comes to the foundation itself though, what do you suggest i do about that?
 
  #4  
Old 06-19-18, 07:53 AM
XSleeper's Avatar
Group Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 27,061
Received 1,910 Upvotes on 1,716 Posts
You would really need to rent an excavator, dig down as far as needed, power wash the foundation, grind the joints that are cracked, repoint them, then apply waterproofing before you backfill. Often when you go to that much work you want to install a perimeter drain in a sediment sock and then backfill over that with gravel before backfilling with soil.

My point was the your blocks are hollow. Any leak above will show up at the bottom. Your bottom wall plate just sits on top of the hollow block. The foam there indicates a problem and a possible point of water entry.
 
  #5  
Old 06-19-18, 08:03 AM
J
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Canada
Posts: 59
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
I THINK the foam was put there to try and keep out critters to be honest with you. Spiders and what not cause my area is pretty bad for that.
 
  #6  
Old 06-19-18, 08:11 AM
XSleeper's Avatar
Group Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 27,061
Received 1,910 Upvotes on 1,716 Posts
The stairstepped crack in the blocks usually indicates your footing is too... its either sinking or heaving (either was not properly compacted or is not below frost). So you would usually need to dig down at least that far to reveal the extent of the damage. Perimeter drains should almost always be positioned below the footing. They don't do much good if they are above.
 
  #7  
Old 06-19-18, 08:15 AM
J
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Canada
Posts: 59
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
so basically what your saying is that there is a lot more wrong here than what i thought
 
  #8  
Old 06-19-18, 08:21 AM
XSleeper's Avatar
Group Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 27,061
Received 1,910 Upvotes on 1,716 Posts
Well, they have cracked for a reason, yes. How far you want to go to fix it is up to you. Fixing what you can see is fine, but you are ignoring what's below. If it only leaks when the gutters are plugged, you would obviously fix that first. Make sure you have 3x4 downspouts, not 2x3... and extend them further away from the problem area.
 
  #9  
Old 06-19-18, 08:30 AM
J
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Canada
Posts: 59
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Well after work today i will be cleaning out the gutters asap since they were causing the water to overflow and pool up at the base of the foundation and then i will deal with the foundation after.
 
  #10  
Old 06-19-18, 08:56 AM
Marq1's Avatar
Member
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: USA MI
Posts: 9,745
Received 1,210 Upvotes on 1,098 Posts
The first thing I noticed in the picture is the relative location of the downspout drain pipe.

No mater how much water you get it's dumping right on the ground next to the foundation. Getting that water away as well as ensuring the grade of the yard is correct is the first step.
 
  #11  
Old 06-19-18, 09:07 AM
J
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Canada
Posts: 59
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
The water from that down spout is actually dumping into a grate that is functional. It runs underground to the ravine out back (about 25 feet away from that grate).
 
  #12  
Old 06-19-18, 09:46 AM
XSleeper's Avatar
Group Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 27,061
Received 1,910 Upvotes on 1,716 Posts
From the looks of it, when the water is running hard, only half of it is probably going into the grate.
 
  #13  
Old 06-19-18, 09:54 AM
J
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Canada
Posts: 59
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
The picture doesn't really do it justice but i can confirm that everything coming down that spout goes into the drain no problem (i have checked multiple times before when it rains and it surprisingly flows well).
 
 

Thread Tools
Search this Thread
 
Ask a Question
Question Title:
Description:
Your question will be posted in: