Basement wall is leaking - who do I call? archived

There are the waterproofing cos that do the outside stuff, too. Pretty big job, I think. Then you could call masonry co to repoint your basement walls.

sounds like you need your yard regraded I used Juan foen work on my yard he can probably help you 973 615 3379

Soon after we moved in, there was a trickle called Hurricane Irene. The back wall of the basement started leaking about halfway through the storm. I went outside and found that the cobblestone border thingee around the driveway was preventing water from draining off the yard. I knocked the mortar out from between two of the stones so the water could drain into the driveway and haven't had a problem since.

So I guess what I'm saying is, take a walk around and see if there's anything that's glaringly obvious while your yard is flooded that you might not have noticed when it was dry.

Check your gutters as well. We have two areas in our basement that suddenly were getting puddles every time it rained. We finally realized both spots were right where leaders came down into an underground pipe. We had visions of cracked pipes and massive digging projects, until we also realized the leaders were clogged, causing an overflow of water dumping along the side of the house. Cleaned the gutters, problem solved.

Is this a new thing? Seeing you have a sump and french drains, it's probably happened before.
Our basement walls have weep holes to allow water gathered around the foundation to come in and be pumped away.
Hurricane Irene in 99 was a big wake up. Water was pouring through the walls like a fountain and then coming up through the floor. We poured a slab under the deck which happened to be the spot where most of the water was coming through and lined the driveway with Belgian blocks to keep some of the water away from the house.
There's no surface standing or running water around the foundation now but the sump pump is still running anytime there's a big storm or melt.
See if you can dig a trench to drain the water near the house away and yes great idea to see if your gutters and downspouts are draining correctly, but some places in town there's underground water that's just going to happen when the ground is saturated.

Irene was 2011, I think the one in 1999 was Floyd. And yes, definitely check the gutters, that got us during Irene.

Thank you all for your feedback. Water coming in through the wall is a new thing. The sump pump and drains have been successful with keeping ground water out (I've been here over 12 years)...coming through the wall is new for me. I guess the gutter and the water against the house are probably the easiest to do and now move to the top of my to do list.

However, regarding the pointing...is that something that occurs on the inside wall or the outside wall? Should that occur before I have a patio/concrete sidewalk/etc installed?

FC said:

Irene was 2011, I think the one in 1999 was Floyd. And yes, definitely check the gutters, that got us during Irene.

That's right, spacing on the names.

@pmart- we had significant leakage through the walls whenever it rained. We realized the downspouts were not properly draining rainwater away from the foundation, and were in fact pooling it against the walls. We spent $1500 to have them all repaired and properly routed and it is now like night and day- the basement stays bone dry in the fiercest downpours.

I noticed a couple if weeks ago that the PVC extender from our front sump pump had popped off and it was simply emptying out next to our foundation. I am sure if I didn't repair it I'd soon have a water situation in that corner of the basement, too. You might want to just do a walk around tomorrow to make sure there's no telltale puddling against your home.

@marcsiry - we, too are experiencing wall leaks in a basement we recently had completely gutted to pave way for a re-modelling job that we've yet to start (so perhaps it's good we're seeing the problem areas that need to be addressed now). We would love to ensure our downspouts are properly flowing water away from our property, and we definitely see pools gathering by the side of the house, etc. at present - could you kindly let me know whom you used? We also have an old (wading pool?) in our backyard which is now almost filled with rainwater after the showers, and since it definitely leaks, we're curious if somehow that water could be flowing into the basement via some old plumbing or something (?) We'd love to work with anyone who can help us get to the bottom of what's causing this problem before we renovate (without the solution hopefully costing what we were planning to spend on the renovation itself )…Thanks for any more thoughts!
- rj

@robjohn99 - I looked through my email and asked my wife (who arranged for the work) and we can't recall who did it. We do know it was an andividual name, like "John Smith" rather than a company name. We may have even found him here via MOL.

Sorry we can't be more helpful- perhaps someone else has a recommendation for someone to do this work.

@robjohn99 we're having this done in a few weeks by Avellino Waterproofing though we've had Gregory Waterproofing do work in the past (install hydro backup on sump pump) - both great companies so for us it comes down to the estimate/price.

Customer service-wise, Avellino is better at returning calls, following up, etc.

FWIW, if you find your downspouts are blocked during a heavy rain and water is cascading off your gutter, and you can't get up there to clear them, here's a quick fix. You can take a piece of 4x8 plywood, or anything reasonably stiff like a plastic banquet table, and lean it against your house at an angle underneath where heaviest water is coming down. Just diverting it a few feet can make a big difference in how much water gets into your basement.

great tip Tom!

But who do you call to evaluate the initial problem? We're also noticing wet basement walls, but I'm not sure if it's a waterproofing issue or something else, as it's coming from just one spot.

tom said:

FWIW, if you find your downspouts are blocked during a heavy rain and water is cascading off your gutter, and you can't get up there to clear them, here's a quick fix. You can take a piece of 4x8 plywood, or anything reasonably stiff like a plastic banquet table, and lean it against your house at an angle underneath where heaviest water is coming down. Just diverting it a few feet can make a big difference in how much water gets into your basement.

I have been wondering about doing something like this to keep rainwater from seeping down through the soil along one side of my house where we've had occasional problems...

TarheelsInNj said:

But who do you call to evaluate the initial problem? We're also noticing wet basement walls, but I'm not sure if it's a waterproofing issue or something else, as it's coming from just one spot.

Would also love to find someone who can do an analysis and make recommendations to address specific problems. We had Avellino come in not long ago, and I was hoping they would do this, but they just delivered the standard sales pitch for the French drains and sump pump... not impressed with them.

Oy, we definitely do not need that. We've never had a significant water accumulation in our basement, so we definitely don't need drains or a pump. It's just a trickle on this one area of the wall.

After Irene, I had lots of water in the basement. Shortly after, I got french drains and a new sump pump, old one conked, not a drop of water in basement since. Also had walls and floor waterproofed.