Basement Concrete Moisture (No SUMP PUMP)


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Old 03-03-18, 12:57 PM
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Basement Concrete Moisture (No SUMP PUMP)

I recently bought a house build in the 1960s. No sump pump. There is usually some moisture on the floor in the two corners of the basement. I have a dehumidifer running. I also use a fan sometimes to improve circulation. When it rains there is usually a small puddle in the corners. The base at one of the basement wall looks slightly like mold. My question is do I need to do anything or is this normal expected basement stuff?
 
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Old 03-03-18, 01:03 PM
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In my opinion water in a basement is not normal or healthy.

That being said I can understand that this has probably been going on for a long time. It can be resolved but not cheaply. Internal drains installed to channel the water to be removed.
 
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Old 03-06-18, 01:06 PM
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Anything you can do outside to keep water away from the foundation would be a good start - gutters, downspout extensions and grading.
 
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Old 03-10-18, 03:17 PM
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your floor's 4" thick,,, wtr entering the bsmnt wall is leaking into the cmu voids then leaking out onto the floor,,, easiest & least expensive solution's a sub-floor wtr drain system incl sump & pump,,, hopefully your btm cmu courses aren't grout filled,,, God never meant for man to live underground w/o paying a price
 
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Old 03-10-18, 08:21 PM
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staydry has the right approach.

The best approach is an interior drain tile below the floor and inside the footing that supports the masonry walls. - All the better if the first course of block is not filled. I borrowed a concept from a builder friend that sold 200 to 400 homes a year and claimed to not have wet basement problems.

I had purchased a new, partially finished, unoccupied 3 br, split level home that was 75' long including the attached garage that intercepted the natural drainage pattern. The general contractor was going bankrupt, so the price was right and it was located on a golf course.

I installed an interior basement drain tile system myself because of the the obvious builderr's mistake. All of the surface water was intercepted by the footings (4' to 8' below the lowest basement level) that was funneled along the footings to and collected in lowest accessible elevation which was a 25'x25' block basement. Because of the grade, sidewalks, driveways and landscaping, an exterior solution was not possible.

I had a contractor come in and saw thebasement floor around a 12" wide area where the slab was hammered out and the soil was excavated to allow a 4" perforated pipe to be installed below the slab to collect water and draw down the water in the soil around the house. - I ran the heavy sledge hammer. I also shoveled the debris into pails for my 12 year old son and his buddies to dump in big a pile by the street. I had to cook a lot of burgers for a week or so his football team-mates. I also had to contribute to the sponsorship/jerseys of the team.

I had a contractor load the pile into a truck and dispose of it a few block away. About every 6 or 8' along the walls I left a 12" section of the floor in place to provide lateral resistance and keep the walls in place. - The spacing of the sections left in place were spaced to allow the lengths of the pipe to be slid in place and covered later. The basement slab had the typical situation where it was poured on top of the strip footing under the wall.

I knocked a 1" hole (about) in the bottom face of the block that was sitting on the footings and then inserted 3/4" flexible plastic pipes between the block and down to the area near the 3" perforated and filled around it with a coarse sand and 3/4" rock mixture and capped the area with concrete to match the floor elevation. I coated the inside of the block walls with Thoroseal. I put in a sump (about 16" diameter by 24" deep) to collect the water from the perforated pipe and to house a pedestal sump pump.

That was about 30 years ago and as far as I know from my o;d neighbors everything worked as planned.

Dick
 
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Old 03-12-18, 10:08 AM
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I am a relative know-nothing, but.....we had similar situation in CA. Lived on a slope and water did intrude in our garage/basement.

Fix was to dig outside the perimeter by the foundation, on two sides, and install rock, drain line, cloth and cover back up. Second, because a friend had an electric jackhammer....was chip out an inch or two, INSIDE the basement at the junction of floor and wall....and cram in hydraulic cement. Worked fine.
 
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Old 03-18-18, 06:31 AM
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Thanks for the great responses.
 
 

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