Basement Floor Waterproofing Advice?

Rick! Thanks buddy, you wouldn't scold me if you didn't give a sh**. You got me pegged man. I'm a natural engineer, but people shove me around every time.

I just talked to Yvette!

" Hey Yvette, you know there's a lot of really great smart guys at the coal club, they're saying you really need perimeter drains."

" I have faith in you, Dan."

" Oh. Like the faith you had in me last week when you let Larry from the church tell me how to hook up the generator "his way?" Remember? To the well only? When I told you good advice from a bunch of forum members told me the Generac could run everything?"

No truer saying than You can't win an arguement with a woman. Same ole same ole.

(Larry's actually a great guy, he's in his 70's, has a pacemaker. Has a place in upstate NY, his place here in town has totem poles he made himself, he and his ole lady love Alaska. He used to heat with coal. Always has car grease onhis hands. Big dude. He tries to take care of the church. You should have seen the ancient Kohler 4cyl generator he towed over during Irene, to pump out the church basement. The thing is, he also is the one that put in the retaining wall behind the church, with his son, with the big set of landscape block stairs that channels rain water directly at the church. HAHAHAH ya caint make this stuff up!)

Rick, this is a good deal here, I go months without rent, and just have to step ut to the plate in emergencies. A little too much with Irene....

Larry's son has some equipment, I'm hoping they can make a deal to pull a French drain, at least from the corner of their addition into the woods, to relieve the piling up of rainwater. Will keep ya posted.

Hey I fixed the error....
Just typin' too fast...
Credit where credit is due...

When the foundation was dug the contractor created a bathtub in those soils...
Every time it rains the "bathtub" fills and now you need to drain that tub to daylight...
To fix the damage done by someone else...
And convince the homeowner to do it the "right way" now...

CapeCoaler wrote:The ONLY thing that will work is to trench the basement footer on the outside and run the drain to daylight...

Dan, this cannot be stressed enough. Anything you do to the inside of the basement is designed for moisture penetration. Drylock, Epoxy, etc... is not designed for WATER penetration.
You HAVE to attack the problem from the outside of the foundation.

When the foundation was dug the contractor created a bathtub in those soils...
Every time it rains the "bathtub" fills and now you need to drain that tub to daylight...

This is soooo true. Underground, water will drain TOWARDS the foundation, just because the soil is loose from being dug up to install the basement originally. No footing drains installed was a way for the contractor to save some bucks. I'm surprised the building inspector didn't catch that. Can you get a set of the plans, and see if footing drains were originally designed to be installed?

Dann757 wrote:Rick! Thanks buddy, you wouldn't scold me if you didn't give a sh**. You got me pegged man. I'm a natural engineer, but people shove me around every time.................

Dan,

I too am a sucker at times for under selling my work. Just trying to give you a root in the ass. Like my dad did to me.

No offence intended or implied. But it seems like you know what to do, you just have to get these people to listen to you, that's all. I appreciate the arrangement you have there. Sometimes it is tough when the owner is getting advise from every Tom, Dick, & Harry when you KNOW what has to be done and she doesn't want to listen to you. But since she said that she has faith in you, then tell her to let you dfo the job right the first time and be done with it.

And don't let Larry change the plans to what "he thinks" will need to be done. Dig it, trench it, lay the friggin' pipe and cover it up. And then sit back and enjoy every time it rains.

And if you experience frequent black outs, hook up an outside recepticle for the generator. Tell her that since you proved it will work your way, it needs to be done properly now. With a proper recepticle, she could hook it up herself !!!

Rick

DVC500 at last wrote: No footing drains installed was a way for the contractor to save some bucks. I'm surprised the building inspector didn't catch that. Can you get a set of the plans, and see if footing drains were originally designed to be installed?

Wow, I gotta get the plans. Great point Chris. The town was coming here a year and two years later finishing inspections, unbelievable. I hear that man, the water goes toward the foundation.

Rick 386 wrote:And if you experience frequent black outs, hook up an outside recepticle for the generator. Tell her that since you proved it will work your way, it needs to be done properly now. With a proper recepticle, she could hook it up herself !!!

She couldn't pull the cord enough to start it. They're getting older, he's a decorated Viet Vet, white collar guy, just had hips replaced; house maintenance not his interest. Irene was the worst blackout here in 25 years at least. Usually lose power briefly only in the spring when squirrells hit the wires.

This water rise is only twice a year or so. I'm gaining on it. I'd love to see the outside dug up and drained properly. I don't have the equipment to excavate.

Check out this polyurethane product: http://www.sanitred.com/permaqualities.htm

The product description is incredible. But I could see applying it and having it blow up like a water balloon like in the Three Stooges

This is nothing compared to the pics Richard put up.

I don't have the equipment to excavate.

United Rentals or hire a excavator operator...
http://www.ur.com/index.php/equipment/rental/brow ... escription
Not that hard to run one but trenching a foundation takes skill...
'cause if you f***up and collapse the foundation it gets expensive quick...

Cape Coaler thanks.

I like that pic on the rental page. Really not that big of a job and I could save all the plants I'm sure. I'm still trying the cheap way, running several coats of Drylok onto the walls, patching with Fast-Plug where I can.

I want to come up with a way to unclamp the pedestal sump pump so I can keep it out of the few inches of standing water that hangs in the little sump pit. Then I would have to be ready to drop it back down though...Sometimes the pit does go bone dry.

I see some of the complicated stokers guys have here, set up to perfection. I love that. I don't own this place so the motivation isn't really that intense for me.

I have never touched a backhoe in my life and of course I regret it.

I have had a million gigs in my life; years ago I was working construction and the company owner was showing off his new backhoe. He swung the boom and it stopped an inch from the corner of the house. It was new and very responsive! He expected his old sluggish backhoe response. There was a guy on that gig that taught me how to move boulders. You have any fulcrum and a couple of railroad bars and you really can move big ones.

I put about 4 coats of Drylok on the inside walls, am putting 2 part water-borne epoxy paint on the floor. Going to need 2 coats.

Got tired of researching every different type of epoxy and just got Muralo epoxy floor paint.

I saw a urethane flexible concrete coating and thought I bookmarked it. Have to find it again, has to go on bare clean masonry though.

Somebody mentioned building up the grade outside. I was wondering if there's anybody that routinely supplies soil or clean fill with a lot of clay in it. I could remove the plantings and grade it like 1/12, a serious pitch. I know this wouldn't guarantee anything, but it would be another cheap step in trying to solve or reduce this problem. I could do this on the inside corner and the gable end. I know the best thing is proper perimeter drains, I don't own the place, I get extremely concerned and obsessed with details. Nothing in this for me except trying to help.

The customer in the neighborhood on the other hand, wants results with his walk-in basement water problems. The landscaper caused most of his problems and he damn well knows it. When the homeowner has exactly zero mechanical ability it gets tough to explain things.