The battle to keep the basement dry...share your story

enjoyvelvet

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The battle to keep the basement dry...share your story

I bought a 1919 Craftsman style bungalow back in the summer of 2008 and I wasn't collecting at that time. Fortunately, I bought a house with a walk out basement (well theres 3 steps) and when I started collecting I realized how fortunate I was to have a basement with easy access. The basement was waterproofed back in 1995 and its got a sump pump and french drain which keep things pretty much 100% dry. For awhile I was battling the rear door that would get water up underneath it and most recently the wall farthest from my games sprung a pinhole leak which I have since patched and put drylock over. Fortunately my games are on the two walls that stay perfectly dry and don't have any discoloration on them from water seeping in. I can't help but wake up a few times in the middle of the night during a downpour to check on everything though...

anyone else battle to keep their basement dry and their games safe?
 
While I would love to have a basement again, here in Houston, it is an open invitation to having an indoor swimming pool. :eek:

It is like a beach, go dig a hole and before you can fill it in, it fills up with water. When you plant trees, you dig a 5' deep hole, fill all but the top 1' of it with pea gravel and spagnum, add the tree and put 2' of mulch on it. Otherwise, it drowns (been there, done that, got the t-shirt).

ken
 
Our walk out basement is dry for the most part. We run a dehumidifier that we empty every few days. I just ordered a small dehumidifier for the bathroom/bedroom on the opposite end of the big dehumidifier. I also just ordered one of those plug in rechargeable dehumidifiers for the under-stairs closet. I normally leave that closet door open...
 
anyone else battle to keep their basement dry and their games safe?

Yes, I have an American Foursquare and the same water issues. I don't know why anyone thought putting in a basement was a good idea on the Eastern Shore.

Be sure to check your downspouts to make sure you don't have water draining unnecessarily close to the house; downspout extensions or splash blocks can make a surprising difference.
 
There's always french drains as a solution. I'll probably be doing one to eliminate water from getting in my crawl space.
 
While I would love to have a basement again, here in Houston, it is an open invitation to having an indoor swimming pool. :eek:

It is like a beach, go dig a hole and before you can fill it in, it fills up with water. When you plant trees, you dig a 5' deep hole, fill all but the top 1' of it with pea gravel and spagnum, add the tree and put 2' of mulch on it. Otherwise, it drowns (been there, done that, got the t-shirt).

ken

Are you saying that the Alamo doesn't have a basement?
 
DriCore tiles are your friend

If you've got 7/8" of ceiling height to spare and are willing to spend about $1.50/sq ft. DriCore tiles are great for a subfloor. I put them in my basement and it is perfectly dry.

A couple of other nice perqs are that it keeps the basement floor a little warmer and it gives your floor a little 'give' so it feels more like a finished floor instead of a hard concrete.

They are easy to install since it's all tongue and groove. The only downside is that at $1.50/sq foot it adds up quickly.
 
http://www.tredyffrin.org/pdf/publicworks/CH2 - BMP3 Dry Well.pdf

I did whats on page 2. I used a 5 gallon bucket buried underground about 8 feet from the house. Drilled holes in the bottom, filled it with large rock, cut a side opening for the house to flow into, and locked the top back on.

I used to get wet corners in my basement every now and then before the games went in. No longer.
 
You've been to my place so you kinda know what im working with. I have been fighting water since I moved in and slowly buy surely getting the problem solved. When I first moved in it would literally get a foot of water across the entire basement after every heavy rain.
We french drained the front of the house and that helped alot. My problems have always been where the wall meets the floor.
What I have done so far is painted entire wall with block sealing paint. On the areas where I have framed up walls I anchored the bottom 2x4 to the floor and used massive amounts of caulk at the wall/floor intersection. This worked excellent and has been holding great for over 6 months. The problem is I still have alot more walls to build down there so there are areas that are not sealed yet.
I fixed a major leak about 2 weeks ago when we had those heavy storms for about a week straight. I came home and the water had just started coming in. I went out in the pouring rain and dug a trench to divert the water from the house. I thought it was coming in through the basement door but later found out it wasnt. I dug down to the footer on the outside of the house just left of the basement door. What I found was a compromised mortar joint that was pissing water out. I jammed a screwdriver in there to open the hole to about 3/4" and it shot water out for an hour and a half! As soon as that water pressure was relieved the water immediatly stopped running in the house. Man I was happy because that was the only major leak I had left. The only other areas I have now are just spots that get slightly wet or only damp and they are all areas I havent addressed yet so I should be able to do something with them.
My house was built on red clay and they put no sand or gravel under the foundation. I dug a whole for a sump when I first moved in and hit solid clay as soon as I broke through the concrete. Yeah I have a sump that does absolutely nothing.
If you ever need any tips on stopping water just hit me up. After 8 years of fighting this I have a few tricks for it.
 
Pretty good tips here. I get a wet basement too sometimes (my house is 50 years old). One thing that I do a couple times a year is clean out the gutters on the roof. I haven't gotten water since I cleaned them out last month, and we've had a couple of good rains.

The other thing is the landscape around the perimeter of the house. If you haven't redone thje landscape recently, make sure there is no erosion, or that the land isn't dipping toward the house at the foundation. If it is, you may want to fill it in so that it slopes away from the house.

Pardon my idiocy, but what is a French drain?

-Mike
 
Basically a french drain is when you dig around the outside wall of a house and lay drain pipe and then backfill with gravel. Its mandatory for new construction most everywhere these days as is gravel and sand under the house. Back 30+ years ago there were no provisions in the building laws and it was pretty much up to the builder.
 
Hmmm..good topic..and something you don't think about until the rain hits..:D

When I first moved in I didn't notice the water I got on the basement wall that faced the front of my house..until I started collecting games...then it became apparent I had some issues....I eventually talked to a buddy and he suggested french drains so I had a company come in and check out my issues....

One of the most important things I found out that is really lost a lot of times when dealing with water is you can't really block out water...you have to learn to control where is flows...those sealers are nice but what ends up happening is the water builds up somewhere else and then causes other problems..usually costing more money to repair than the issues you would have had if you didn't seal an area in first place...

A french drain essentially directs the water and gives it an escape route so its not coming in but also not going somewhere else it shouldn't...

The other thing I learned was that designs on homes ...especially in 60's had those dam small water trap basement stairs..where the drain couldn't handle heavy rain so it would come in under basement door...and because you had stairs leading to the drain..the water couldn't be graded away from door...I solved this cheaply by having an new awning hung over the entire porch so heavy rain kept most water out and the drain could handle the small amount that drained on stairs...

Last thing and this is still on going...is have your drains checked with one of those cameras and flushed first...in my case I also need to divert the original rear drains so they don't come back into the home into a larger drain and then filter back out to outside drain..this was how they did thing many years ago..now code would never allow it...so if I stay in my home I will plug those and do runoffs in the yard so no water coming in rear drains is filtering back in my home...that always runs you the risk of a backup...I solved this though by eliminating all trees close enough to clog gutters and drains and for last few years I've had no issues whatsoever....

Just my two cents on that issue...
 
I worried too until I lost the fight in 2008. We got a 1/4 inch of water in our basement and some of my machines sucked that right up. We had a sump and backflow valves installed in March of this year and I am trying to wrap up refinishing the basement by Christmas. Needless to say my projects has dropped pretty far behind.


ArcadeMaze
 
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If you've got 7/8" of ceiling height to spare and are willing to spend about $1.50/sq ft. DriCore tiles are great for a subfloor. I put them in my basement and it is perfectly dry.

A couple of other nice perqs are that it keeps the basement floor a little warmer and it gives your floor a little 'give' so it feels more like a finished floor instead of a hard concrete.

They are easy to install since it's all tongue and groove. The only downside is that at $1.50/sq foot it adds up quickly.

When I do the floor in the spring that is the system I am going with. Then... it should be bulletproof.

ArcadeMAze
 
I've been fighting water since I moved into our place with the walkout basement. We removed a cystern during the remodel and that just opened up a can of worms. I finally dug trenches to move the water away from the house as I couldn't do french drains. I don't think the fight is over yet. At least I'm wearing an appropriate shirt.
 

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