i live in an old house with an unfinished basement. everytime it rains really hard, i get water in my basement -it comes up from the floor on just one particular side. in fact, i can almost pinpoint the exact spot, about the size of a football, where it seeps up from.

i cleaned out my gutters a few weeks ago and bought extensions that drain farther away from the house, which helped a little. but on really hard rains, the gutters can't handle the flow, and they overflow a bit, so i still get water eventually seeping up from the basement floor.

i just got a price for new 6" gutters, i thought they would be cheap (did my old house a few years ago for $700, about the same size as this one), but man, aluminum must have gotten very expensive or something, because the estimate for this house was for over $1100, same company!:doh0715:

is there any kind of paint/epoxy that might help seal the concrete floor as a temporary fix? do these work, anyone have experience with anything like this?

i know the long term solution is to probably dig out that side of the house, and waterproof the foundation, but right now i don't have the bucks to do it the right way and since i am not staying here long term, am looking for a cheap solution.

any advice appreciated, thanks.

yup there is, they sell the stuff at home depot and lowes, usually there is a display with a couple cinder blocks with water trickling behind them. one is coated, one isnt. one is wet, one isnt. wish i could remember the name.

still going to cause problems for you in the long run. best bet is to handle that issue now, as the coating is a temp fix in that situation.

Never had this problem, but then again ive never had a basement.

But one suggestion is if you know where its coming up from, then go somewhere and get a bag of quickcrete. Maybe even two bags. But mix it up and then pour it into the whole where the water is coming in at, and then smooth it off with the floor.

Wouldnt that work or help?

like stated above, you need to get the water away from the foundation, so address that. also, the water table might be coming up and you might need to install a sump pump in the low spot. pretty simple process. you gotta bust out some floor, dig down a bit, and put in the sump pump. google it for the real directions. good luck.

It's called Dry-Lok. I put several coats in my basement. Never even gets musty down there anymore.

Before you just paint your basement floor have a hole bored to the depth of the basement floor about 10 feet from the side of your house closest to the spot you see in side.

Watch that hole to see if it fills with water. If it does you need to do more than paint the floor.

Some people dig out arounfd the foundation and install drain pipes to send the water away from the house.

It all depends on how long you plan to keep the house. If I were going to be there for years I'd do whatever it takes to do the job right.

It's called Dry-Lok. I put several coats in my basement. Never even gets musty down there anymore.

just got some dry-lok...$30 for a gallon of the extreme duty stuff. i'll put a few coats on and see how it goes....thanks!:thumbup

SUMP PUMP!!!

Ok well you can use that mortar and paint stuff all you want but it wont stop the water problem. First thing is check you rain gutters and downspouts outside. Make sure they are free and clear. and the downspouts are going away from the house.(which you said you did) Next. What does the dirt around the house look like? Make sure its pitched away from the house. And if I was you id go and do the bigger gutters and pitch the dirt before digging anything up. let us know how it goes.

i live in a historic house, built in the 1900's, i have the same problem with water comming in but due to various additions to the house, historic socity and 100+y/o roto's and roses doing it the right way isnt possible. instead we had shockcrete sprayed on the inside foundation, installed french drains, and 2 sump pumps. never had a problem since. french drains arent hard to install but labor intensive and tedious to do right. but not too expensive

I've used the Drylok many times and it works great

Ok well you can use that mortar and paint stuff all you want but it wont stop the water problem. First thing is check you rain gutters and downspouts outside. Make sure they are free and clear. and the downspouts are going away from the house.(which you said you did) Next. What does the dirt around the house look like? Make sure its pitched away from the house. And if I was you id go and do the bigger gutters and pitch the dirt before digging anything up. let us know how it goes.


Big one right there. Get some dirt, and grade it down from the foundation. That'll help quite a bit right there.

Ours was really bad here in southern NJ, to the point that they actually had to trench in the basement with jackhammers along the walls, install this plastic grid stuff that was about an inch thick all along the walls, and lay concrete back over top of it. They graded it down back to the corner where they dug about 4 feet down, and installed a drain basin with a 1/3hp sump.

It's called Dry-Lok. I put several coats in my basement. Never even gets musty down there anymore.

You have a basement in this big ass rock of a state? I want another basement.:cry

my house was built in 1929. The primary footer was made of tile and the house shifted and cracked the footer.

Basically what i did was went around the house and dug three quarters (about 4') of the way down and installed a secondary footer (CPVC that's supposed to swell three times it's size before it cracks, schedule 80) , then tar papered the wall from the outside. The pipe was then diverted to a sump pump installed in the basement

When i backfilled the whole i filled it with about three foot of river rock and then a foot of top soil around the grassy areas. around the driveway and patio i backfilled the last foot with #57 gravel.

I then sealed the interior walls with Dry-Lock and installed bathroom (the green stuff) drywall through out the basement.

This was all on dad's buck and my back, but needless to say all the seeping walls in the basement stopped.

Turn it into a room for the mother in-law:thumbup