Water leak through basement wall

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Thanks again Pushkins for your comments. Y'know - in reading these threads about the pipe and the sleeve it sits in.....it seems to me my "issue" isn't to do with either. It's the concrete that's supposed to be "bonded" TO THE SLEEVE. The concrete is supposed to be right up to the sleeve (not the pipe), and that's where the water's coming in. If, as suggested earlier, that the problem be fixed from the outside - the earth would have to be dug down approximately 3-4 feet to "get to" where the water pipe encased in the sleeve goes into the concrete slab. I don't understand in the drawings in earlier threads how you get a wooden dowel to push the sealant tube through the concrete. In other words, I understand fixing the tube to the dowel etc. etc., - makes good sense - but where is there a space/hole big enough to feed that through. The concrete is supposed to be tight to the sleeve is it not - and because it isn't (inside my house), there is leakage. I'm assuming that if someone dug down deep enough to try and see where the problem lies - I'm thinking all they'll find is hairline cracks somewhere close to the sleeve. Where/how do you get a hole big enough to feed a dowel through. The gap (inside my house) that's EITHER SIDE of the water pipe is only about 1/2" - but that's NOT where the water is coming from - it's UNDERNEATH the sleeve where there is no room for any such dowel. This sure is frustrating to understand. I talked to a handyman today about it - he said he'd charge around $500 and basically dig down to where the water pipe is and see if he can find where the water's coming in. But he can't do it for a month, and there's more rain forecasted . (just as a fyi - I have another leak on the same wall inside my house - where it joins the other house in the very corner (I lilve in a townhouse) - there's a hairline crack in the corner with a pinhole size opening, and water was just pouring out of that too when we had 6 inches of rain the other day. Over the course of 24 hrs, I filled 3 buckets full of rain water running into my house.

[pushkins]

Firstly I understand where your leak is coming from, secondly I or anyone else ever said "your fix" involves dowel rods etc...you cannot look at a previous post and assume you can always use that advice for your situation, what i said was your fix requires moisture sealing the exterior side of the area around the water line entrance, this is done by coating the entire area around and over the pipe with a water proof sealant and usually adding a membrane over that while it's wet then resealing a second time. Think of it like a patch that is applied to the area.
Concrete can never seal water tight against a steel tube by itself, it doesn't matter how close you can get it (expansion and contraction will cause havoc as well), there should be a sealant added to the hole before the pipe is inserted, then the pipe is inserted then more sealant is added, this gives the seal required between tube and concrete. It sounds like in your case that sealant was added to the internal of the tube before the water line was inserted but not between tube and concrete.

Now you made mention of an additional leak on the same wall (3 buckets of water is a lot of water over 24 hours), even with 6" of rain that seems like a lot of water, this leads me to think that maybe your drainage system is not doing it's job, your grading is incorrect (you should have at least 6" of fall AWAY from your house over 10') Many times I see grading towards the home as the main culprit for water issues in basements and crawlspaces.
make sure you have the correct grading outside away from the property, make sure your downspouts don't dump down near the foundation walls.

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Pushkins - thanks very much for your last reply. This makes sense to me. Yes, I think what the other posts were referring to is if you're doing the insertion of the sleeve/pipe etc., to start with, not to repair after it's in.
The 3 buckets of water were for both leaks. The grading is correct. In fact I just recently (before this last heavy rain), went over the area leading to my house and added about 10 bags soil, tamped down, mulch etc, to increase the grading slope. The drains are not a problem, I have an attachment to the drainpipes (the black round tubing), that goes underground and feeds out toward the sidewalk. (heck, maybe the tube's broken underground and it's dumping water underground as well).
The other leak that's in the corner of the basement is definitly a crack in the concrete issue - you can actually see it - it's only hairline, but in the center (where all the water comes in), there's a teeny hole about 1/16" round and that's where the water comes from) - but that doesn't mean that once the area outside is dug out, that the compromise in the concrete will be in the same place - could just be travelling to that spot from a different area outside. Anyway, makes me wonder how far down he's going to have to dig to research it out. OMG - I'm dreading it - my yard is going to lose all my shrubbery, dirt everywhere. Wish there was another solution.

I'm going to copy this last reply & give it to the handyman guy that's going to do the job in 4 wks so he can see your suggestions. (he did mention something about the patching & sealing as you said, so hopefully he seems to know what he's doing, altho' he said he's never done it before).
Thanks again!!! Nora

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Pushkins - thought I would update you on my basement wall situation. I had a guy from Mid-Atlantic waterproofing come by to look at my wall. After a long presentation by him, he said I needed all this extensive work done, drilling out the floor, installing drains, the bathroom excavating etc. etc. His fee was $10,000. After I told him I was going to get other estimates he FINALLY came down to $4800. I was very wary of the pricing practices, so I told him no. Long story short, someone else saw a thread of mine and directed me to "StructaBond" a company on the east coast (they have several places), that does liquid epoxy pressure injection into cracks. He told me that the one crack was just a simple settling crack over time, and same type of situation underneath the sleeve of my water pipe where the soil pressure had caused fissures in the sleeve - he said it's quite common. He injected this liquid epoxy into the walls which then travels all the way to the front of the wall where my garden is, and it expands and firms up like concrete. So no need for digging out the front yard to "patch it" from the outside. They warranty their work for 3 yrs and it cost me $700. No more leaking and it's rained a few times quite heavily.
So, I had an education all round - I've found out from a few contractors that these basement waterproofing companies can be such scammers - telling you you need all these elaborate systems, when you don't. I'm sure in SOME cases it's necessary, but in my case it wasn't. I'm glad I kept researching it. This might be good information for anyone out there with similar basement wall problems, and worth looking into Structa Bond. Don't know if they're located anywhere but the east coast - there might be other companies that does this work under a different name. (by the way, he told me the foam filler type thing doesn't work for putting into water seeping cracks, because there are "tiny air holes" in the filler, and eventually the water seeps through these holes and returns into the cracks.
Nora

[pushkins]

No one suggested you fill "cracks" with spray foam, that act in itself would be almost impossible and if you could get foam in there then the crack would be big enough that you would have much bigger problems.
I believe the reference to using spray foam was for around the water line entrance, which is where you initially mentioned as you problem site.

Yes your right, unfortunately there are some and I do say "some" unscrupulous contractors out there, it's not the first time I've heard of prices going from $10k to $5k.