Water In Basement

[DKAudio]

I just got a house in March and I have had water in the basement 2 times. It is not a lot, just a water coating on the floor along the edge in the basement. I do not have gutters (I do have a big overhang though, probably 18" or more). The grade is also not the greatest. Hopefully I will be able to work on the grade this weekend. Gutters are so expensive that I don't know what to do. The water wasen't coming through the wall, as far as I could tell it was only seeping through the floor. All of the concrete and cinder blocks are painted but where there was the most water you could see bubbles in the paint. Any ideas?

[Cmudr1]

We've had to deal with the same problem after buying our house back in Nov. The first thing you need to do is get as much of the water away from the house as possible to reduce what can seep through. The best way obviously is new guttering with a long drain that leads away from the foundation. The second option is to change the slope of the ground to drain the water as far away as possible. Both of these can be very expensive and time consuming, unless you're ready for some manual labor. As far as the outside of the house, I'm not sure if theres a whole lot more that you can do...just remeber the goal is to get as much of the water to drain away as possible.
Now on the inside, the best thing I know to do would be scrape off the bubbling paint and an area around it, with wire brush or something similar. Then they make all kinds of cement sealer, waterproffer, but I would suggest using a spray method, like one of those garden sprayers, and spray a good amount of the sealer around the base and especially where the water seems to coming from. Spraying and coating too much of the wall isnt going to hurt so make sure you do a generous portion near the leak. You need to also check and seal any cracks you find. You can pick up all kinds of filler and sealer at your local hardware store.
Just remeber the best thing to do is get as much water away from the house as you can. This is usually a big project to tackle and will take some time to completly waterproof the basement. Good luck getting it stopped. At least its summer and isnt freezing cold and frozen outside...

[kactuskid]

I couldn't agree more, 90 percent of basement water problems can be solved by 3 simple things.

1. Maintaining a postive slope away from your foundation walls. Ideally 1" per foot for 6 feet out. And at the same time you need to make sure that the earth is a few inches below your siding. Once the earth is sloped away, compact it down. Getting a few 2x12 short boards and stomping on them against the earth will usually do the trick. Then lay down 6 mil plastic. On top of the plastic install decorative stone, 1-2" type does well and is maintenance free once done.

2. Install those gutters and keep them clear of debris. You really need gutters in order to keep all that roof water away from the foundation. Not only are you getting water in the basement, but the water pressure can and will eventually bow your walls in and cause horizontal cracking due to the hydrostatic pressure that's produced from all the water. The water can also undermine your footings and cause vertical step cracking due to settlement. Not good

3. Extend your downspouts as far away from the foundation walls as possible.

The best gutters are the aluminum ones that are made right on site to fit, they're rolled outta the truck. Yeah, they're not cheap, but a drop in the bucket compared with the price of foundation work

[DKAudio]

I actually found a guy who lives 3 blocks down from me who has a bunch of fill. He had a tree that had Dutch Elms Disease so they dug it up. He said that his property is all sand 1 foot below the surface. So, the fill is made up of small wood chips (from the tree), sand, and normal black dirt. Will this make an ok fill? Will the wood chips from the dutch elms disease tree affect any of my plants or trees or is it safe? He said that dutch elms doesn't exist below the suface so all that wood is ok. What do you think? Thanks

[kactuskid]

Well, yeah, it's free fill, but my opinion is this is not the type of fill you want. You want a fill that's not gonna settle out after a few years, something with a clay base would be ideal. Any fill that has wood chips in it will settle out after a few years due to decomposure of the wood, and the sand being mixed in doesn't help.

If nothing else just call up a landscape company and you should be able to get a yard of black dirt delivered for under $45.00. Then like said above, after it's sloped and racked out you need to compact it to make sure it's at the height you need, then add more if necessary.

[pushkins]

I'm not a pest expert but I can say adding rotting wood up against any foundation is asking for termite trouble. You may as well put a huge neon sign and little itty bitty tables all set up in nice rows for them.
and that's before you deal with the settling of your "free fill" as kactus mentioned.