# Standing Water on Basement Floor after Rain - Pics..



## concretemasonry (Oct 10, 2006)

I guess is that you have a high water table.

You are looking at map of your basement floor with the wets area being to low spots. Is seems the remaining water is around the posts and the spot in the far corner where the old drain apparently is. If this is the case the hydrostatic pressure is forcing water up at junction of the steel and surrounding concrete.

since it associated with the rains, you can probably rule out an interior water leak (especially from the color of the water).

Do the neighboring houses have any problems? If not your exterior drainage and downspouts are not doing the job, so they may have to be adjusted for your location and site. Downspout extensions are not a simple magic sure all since the native soil and type of backfill must be considered.

Dick


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

No sump pump in the basement?
I would help relieve some of the pressure.


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## markaj311 (Feb 10, 2013)

No, I do have a sump pump its just in another corner of the basement.


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## jomama45 (Nov 13, 2008)

As Dick mentioned, it's most likely that you have a high artificial water table. I'd assume you have been bombarded with lot's of rain, as we have here, the last few days. Unfortunately, there is no paint, sealer, caulk, patching compound, etc... that's going to hold back that kind of hydrostatic pressure. Concrete won't either, as it's not waterproof on it's own. Nor will a sump crock/pump without an entirely well functioning system. The system involves exterior and interior draintile, covered in adequate amounts of free-draining stone, cross bleeders through the footings, and a either a drain to "daylight on the exterior, or a sump crock & pump. When any one of these parts of the system fails, you will see the water take charge, as you're seeing now...........


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## hellothere123 (Aug 16, 2008)

A couple ideas that have helped me...and they are real basic but here is the list I had to go through

I replaced eaves...mine werent draining properly
Sump Pump
Installed french drains around my property to move standing water away from the house
sloped dirt around house with proper slope

no more probs


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## markaj311 (Feb 10, 2013)

It must be from standing water around my house. I have extended my downspouts 6 ft from the house. I also may add another downspout to one corner of the house as well. I'd like to fix the grading as it currently doesn't slope away from the home, however the ground level is right up to where the brick meets the concrete basement. Think I can still add soil and slope it away?


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Without some pictures taken outside it's hard to know.


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## SPS-1 (Oct 21, 2008)

markaj311 said:


> I'd like to fix the grading as it currently doesn't slope away from the home, however the ground level is right up to where the brick meets the concrete basement.


Thats very bad that ground does not slope away from the house, and not good that the ground is right up to the brick. There should be weep holes at the bottom of the brick, and they normally say to keep the bottom of the brickwork 8" above grade. You don't want to cover the weep holes with dirt.


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## Daniel Holzman (Mar 10, 2009)

The topic of wet basements has been discussed repeatedly on this forum over the past few years. I suggest you do a search of threads related to "water in basement" etc.

As has been indicated by previous posters, it is essentially impossible to seal concrete against water penetration. If you could do it (essentially you would be building a boat), most basement floors would crack under a small amount (less than 6 inches) of static water pressure, since your basement floor almost certainly is not reinforced adequately with steel (if it has any at all) to resist uplift.

Solutions that have been discussed previously on this forum include grading away from the house, proper installation of downspouts, installation of interior and exterior perimeter drains (sometimes incorrectly referred to as French drains in this forum), and installation of sump pumps and pits. Virtually every topic related to groundwater intrusion has been discussed, you may want to review the threads, and see what has already been discussed.


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## stadry (Jun 20, 2009)

pretty much the guys who have regraded outside & done downspout work have not solved their problem but only delayed its return.

pay attn to jomama & holzman,,, 1 does it for a living & the other's got a license 

your sump pump's worthless UNLESS it has wtr to pump,,, it should be obvious the wtr can't get to the pump,,, think of your bsmt as a ship's hull below the wtrline,,, your bsmt's completely surrounded by wtr,,, IF there were a way for that wtr to reach your pump, your floor would be dry :thumbsup:

the only thing, im-n-s-h-fo, that drylock materials solve is keeping dry walls white ( or whatever color you choose to tint it ),,, sure as **** it won't stop wtr &, even if it did, the wtr would STILL be inside your very fine home's walls doing unseen damage,,, so stop listening to those guys wearing aprons & vests - they're just clerks ! ! 

french drains got their name from the manner in which courtyard paving stones were laid at the palace of versailles, fr ( fountainbleu ),,, they collected rainfall & directed it to the left under the hall of mirrors where it then fed the reflective pools in the lower garden,,, water ran downhill even back then !


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## hellothere123 (Aug 16, 2008)

basically the things I listed before is what I did and i am good...the french drain or whatever you call it is just weeping tile under the grass at a good slope so that the standing water moves away from that area...

go out in a rain storm and see if you can spot where all the water is going...I went out with my umbrella and on one side of the house the "puddle" was above my ankles...now with the french drain in place = no problem

I would have loved to have weeping tile around the entire house and it is the best idea, also to have the entire land re- landscaped...but I dont have enough money to even make a dent in that bill

So its a good alternative - but it comes with no guarantee

good luck


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## stadry (Jun 20, 2009)

we generally define ' weeping tile ' as orangeburg pipe & install 4" hdpe corrugated pipe,,, orangeburg will eventually rot & collapse,,, IF you're considering a sub-surface drainage system, its best to have it installed alongside the foundation below the basement walls,,, caution that you don't install a full-perimeter ' dry well ',,, unless you can discharge the collected water either thru mechanical means or slope drainage to daylight ( run downhill ), success isn't possible.

we buy 50' rolls of the hdpe pipe for about $1 per lf


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