# Middle of basement floor wet after rain



## rlk67 (Mar 23, 2014)

We have carpeting in the basement, where the floor is about three feet below ground level outside. For the first time ever, and after three days of rain, there was a round spot (not so large) in the carpet in the middle of the floor. When I pulled it up, the concrete floor was wet (and grainy), and I noticed a smaller wet spot directly to the side a few feet away in the corner of the wall (which is opposite outside.) Nothing in between those two spots on the floor, though.

Is this a matter of just insulating the ouside better by the wall, and sealing any possible cracks, and when is there evidence of a bigger problem?


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Water proofing is done outside not inside.
Gutters with down spouts leading at least 10' away from the foundation.
Water proofing the foundation walls.
Adding a French drain.
No mulch or raised flower beds near the foundation forming ponds.
Grade running away from the foundation.
Sump pump in the basement.


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## rlk67 (Mar 23, 2014)

Wow...thanks for that thorough, quick reply.

Mulch and flower beds are by the foundation. That's something. And maybe cracks by the foundation. 
We bought the house a year an a half ago, so we don't know what kinds of drains there are, but this never happened, and the last owners never mentioned it even though they had carpeting also.


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## eharri3 (Jul 31, 2013)

You have to figure out where the water is coming from before you do anything else. No sense running off spending money and effort when you don't know the problem. I came home one day and found water in the middle of my basement but dry spots next to it. This was was when I was having the gutter above my walk-out basement door replaced and there was a delay with the install that left me with no gutter on that side of the house for a couple days.

Took me awhile to figure out that during the heavy rain from that morning roof water came in through the basement door. As the rain let up it gradually stopped. Because the basement slopes AWAY from the door most of the rain water closest to the door dried up, but some had pooled closer to the middle where the drain was. The gutter got put up again and the problem was solved. If the next spot you saw was closer to the wall and the floor slopes towards where you found the first spot then I would say you have a leak in the plumbing or structure somewhere in that corner that you need to find. Could be worth taking some time and running the hose on that exterior wall to see what happens.


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## rlk67 (Mar 23, 2014)

Thanks for responding. Yeah, I certainly checked the plumbing which runs inside of that wall, because it froze last year and burst in a different place. But it's not the plumbing, first because there's no leak and also there's such a gap between spots.
I really think it's coming up from under the house. It rained for three days, and even though this had never happened before with heavy rain, I think something is going on under there. 
I really hope it's just seepage and I can block it...part of our lawn does go all the way up to the wall on that side, but directly above the spots on the outside is concrete where I guess there might be some tiny cracks where the wall meets. We once had constant flooding in our laundry room after rains, but after I redirected a rain spout, we never had it. But there's no drain pipe around in this spot, except for the one running along the roof which has stuff growing in it. (Oh!)
I just hope it's not something like a rising water table under the house (I hear others taking about with this type of thing). Something where new dirt and sand need to be placed after digging up the basement floor.


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