Basement Update

Ok, so as some of you may have seen in the BST, my basement got a little wet a few days ago. So now I’m in the process of completely stripping it out.Bought this house a couple of years ago from a flipper (first mistake), noticed in the before pictures that there was a moisture issue in one corner, he said all the moisture/mold etc had been dealt with, and I believed him (second mistake).

The almost 10" of rain was just enough to wet all the carpet good, and really soak the baseboards. It was when I took off about two feet of drywall in one corner that I noticed I had a bigger problem.

So the plan is to strip it out, dry it out, seal the block, put a new vapor barrier on (that should have went on before I bought it) drywall, etc. Gonna be slow going, I'm in school full time and working 2 part time jobs.

Anyone wanna come swing a hammer?







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"Like" was not exactly what I meant...

Good luck with it. If at all possible, look into diverting the water from the outside, as in a trench and drain to give the water someplace to go other than up against the block.

Windini said:

"Like" was not exactly what I meant...

Good luck with it. If at all possible, look into diverting the water from the outside, as in a trench and drain to give the water someplace to go other than up against the block.

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Exactly this, it should be higher on the priority list, but I’m really not looking forward to all that digging.


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Had a house with a basement. When it started leaking like a sinking ship (even with a french drain and sump pump that couldn't keep up with Matthew two years ago) I solved my problem. I sold it.

dlee12 said:

Bought this house a couple of years ago from a flipper (first mistake)

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fieldgrade said:

When it started leaking like a sinking ship (even with a french drain and sump pump that couldn't keep up with Matthew two years ago) I solved my problem. I sold it.

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@dlee12 , did the guy you bought your house from chat about his special BBQ sauce recipe?

Windini said:

@dlee12 , did the guy you bought your house from chat about his special BBQ sauce recipe?

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LOL, I don’t recall.


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Windini said:

@dlee12 , did the guy you bought your house from chat about his special BBQ sauce recipe?

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...and I sold it "AS IS", with full disclosure. I thought they were going to knock it down and start over like a lot of folks do in that neighborhood, but they moved right in. Every time it rains hard I still get a mild case of PTSD.

And my long pig recipe is not for sale/sail/sell/cell.

concepthomes1 said:

I'd really consider exposing that foundation wall from the outside and seal from that direction. You really don't want any water penetrating the block and sitting.

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This.

If it was me I’d call a couple of the companies that specialize in this work and chat them up when they come to give you an estimate. The only one that comes to mind is “Sealing Agents” but that’s because I’ve heard bad things. Anyway, lots to learn from discussions as long as you talk to several and can weed out the self-serving stuff.

I’m looking at those pictures and thinking that is some weird electrical. Crazy how they busted the brick out and set the single gang boxes into the block foundation. How about those wires attached feeding the circuits. Jeez. Everyday you see something bizarre.

Unless you seal the outside of the foundation it’s going to happen again sometime.

BlackGun said:

Unless you seal the outside of the foundation it’s going to happen again sometime.

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And unless you can get under the slab and seal the slab/wall joint it may still happen.... Most companies try to flood that area in hopes it somehow get's where it's needs to be...

Good luck and best bet is like mentioned earlier regrading the yard so the water flows away from the house with working gutters and drainlines. You can try to seal it out till your blue but it will eventually fail again if the grading is not taken care of. As black gun mentioned that is very questionable electrical work as well to bust holes out in the foundation for electrical boxes, might want to look farther at that before covering it back up.

BlackGun said:

I’m looking at those pictures and thinking that is some weird electrical. Crazy how they busted the brick out and set the single gang boxes into the block foundation. How about those wires attached feeding the circuits. Jeez. Everyday you see something bizarre.

Unless you seal the outside of the foundation it’s going to happen again sometime.

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Yeah, I thought that was strange as well. I’m considering just leaving it unfinished at this point.


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Still working on getting all the old out as I get free time. Slow going. Going to look at renting a mini excavator or something to dig out around the foundation and seal it, install a drain, etc. prior to trying to do anything on the inside.

The back side won’t be an issue, just gonna have to get rid of the deck, but we wanted a bigger one anyway.

The front side or the house however, has a covered front porch...do I brace it against the side of the house, then tear up the brick?




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I don’t normally hear of issues where the porch has an overhand being an issue. If it were me I would probably leave the porch unharmed unless you just put a drain system around it. Ale sure your gutter drainage is well planned out away from the structure and not buried. Corregated drain pipe is cheap.

Is water coming in under the porch area? If not I wouldnt be to concerned with that area since it looks like the A on the roof is turned the other way just make sure ground slopes away from foundation well right in that area. Maybe a french type drain to catch run off or gutters if none on the porch and pipe down spouts away from house.

Jp8819 said:

Is water coming in under the porch area? If not I wouldnt be to concerned with that area since it looks like the A on the roof is turned the other way just make sure ground slopes away from foundation well right in that area. Maybe a french type drain to catch run off or gutters if none on the porch and pipe down spouts away from house.

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Just to the left in the pic is the front door. About 8 feet under that is where I first noticed the water coming in.


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dlee12 said:

Just to the left in the pic is the front door. About 8 feet under that is where I first noticed the water coming in.


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Is there by chance a down spout dumping out on top of ground in that corner of porch by the door by chance? If so might just need piping away and solve majorty of your issue. Or look to see if ground slopes up into that corner there to create a ponding effect.

Shoot a picture of the entire front of the house with grade.

Ha! you found me!

The driveway is concrete, albeit in poor shape. (PO's used salt on it in the snow) This was a couple years prior to us buying it. To the left in the photo, right under the magnolia tree, is a retaining wall w/ drains, however, the idiot that redid the place put a second wall up (in front of the first) that follows the contour of the driveway using standard landscape pavers and back filled it with clay. The plan is to remove that wall, probably sooner rather than later. I think that's is whats causing at least part of the issue up front.

The back side has a french drain, that I'm pretty sure has clogged. Hello shovel....

Hard to tell from the photos, but it does slope down away from the house, and slopes toward the driveway.

I had Tarheel Basement Systems come out last year to look at the foundation, (back corner at the garage had a crack had developed in the concrete as the house settled.) They wanted $25K to level out the back side of the house, that was going to require us to remove the deck and the AC for them to do it. And over $50K to do the entire house.