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Posted by CL (dnoyeB) Gilbert on August 20, 2005, 6:55 pm
lsulky@home.com wrote:
> There are over 12,000 hits on basement water in alt.home.repair. But I
> couldn't find anything that quite matched up with what I'm facing.
> We've had water appear in the basement guest room twice now. Once one
> year ago, once last week. And I seem to have ruled out all possible
> sources...so I must be overlooking something.
>
> When the water appeared a year ago, it was so strange that we figured
> one of our teens must have tried to empty the dehumidifier and spilled
> it, though they swore they hadn't. But now the same thing has happened
> and the dehumidifier isn't in that room.
>
> FACTS:
>
> 1) The house is a raised bungalow, so the basement floor is only about
> five feet below ground level. The guest room is in the corner of the
> house opposite the main basement drain. It's also far away from the
> city water line and any other water lines that we know of.
> 2) The water appeared centred about 4 feet from either wall, so wasn't
> in a corner nor smack in the middle of the room. One of the
> aforementioned walls is exterior, southeast side, the other is interior
> and load-bearing.
> 3) On the other side of the interior wall is an unfinished work room
> where we can check ceiling joists and see bare concrete block. Bone dry
> in there.
> 4) After a couple of days (we found the water on Tuesday) the water had
> spread in a circular pattern. We had a fan and the dehumidifier in
> there by then.
> 5) Upon lifting the carpet and pad today, I was able to determine that
> the apparent origin of the water is the local high point in the floor.
> My carpenter's level says so, and pouring a bit of water on the floor
> underneath shows that it all flows away from that point. Water poured
> nearby will not flow up to that point.
> 6) The old floor is 40+-year-old asbestos tile, bonded down like
> nobody's business.
> 7) No sign of water from the ceiling. The dining room is above the
> guest room.
> 8) Our basement flooded (as did many people's) after torrential rains
> in May 2000. I put in new drywall and made sure to have vapour
> barriers, sealed joints between walls and floor, and venting of the air
> space behind the drywall to fight condensation build-up behind the
> walls, just in case. So I can easily check behind the walls. Dry, dry,
> dry.
> 9) During the 2000 floods, our main problem was a crack in the concrete
> in another area of the basement where a wall had been taken out,
> probably by the original owners in the 60's. Hydrostatic pressure was
> pushing water through the crack like a tiny geyser. We had the crack
> repaired. We also had the downspouts rerouted to run out to the lawn,
> at least 12 feet from the foundation, instead of into the weeping tile
> system, which is 47 years old.
> 10) We're in the midst of the hottest and dryest summer on record here.
>
> My theories are:
>
> A) Our kids are malicious liars.
> B) The water came through the foundation walls, flowed uphill, dried
> itself off the walls and the carpet through which it came, then flowed
> back out from its rallying point.
> C) We have hydrostatics troubling us again despite near-drought
> conditions.
>
> I am perplexed. What am I overlooking? What fundamental thing do I just
> not understand?
>
> Thanks for ANY ideas!
>
You fixed hydrostatic pressure by patching the floor??? no seriously?
You could have a roof leak, especially considering its a bungalow. We
had a roof leak that showed up in the basement in a colonial.
Is your carpet covering on of your floor drains? The foundation drain
connected one perhaps?
You can always stake out the basement :)
--
Respectfully,
CL Gilbert
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