Posted by David Krulac on March 15, 2010 at 09:02:36:
In Reply to: Basement wall 'leaking'? posted by IB (NJ) on March 14, 2010 at 01:26:03:
as JT said.
Just recently had a house that was built in the 1960 where the soil around the foundation had compressed since it was built. This is a common occurance as the soil then is sloped toward the house. the former owner put in one of those drainage systems with an inside french drain, lower wall skirting and a sump pump. I added 6 inches of soil to the outside and built up the grade so that the slope is AWAY from the house. In addition I cleaned the gutters out and extended the downspoats 10 to 20 feet out into the yard. i did this underground with an outlet that pops up when there is water pressure and goes down when there is no water pressure so that you can run the lawn mower over it without damage.
always check gutters first and grade as they are commonly the problem and can be fixed relatively easily.
The waterproffing systems costs about $4,000+ here and are built on the premise of allowing the water to come into the house. I've seen people do these systems to sell their home. It impresses some buyers, and their warranties do help sell houses.
In the extreme, i have seen 100 year old + farmhouse where there was aperpetual stream through the basement. One place had different levels of flooring and a canel channel for the stream. The elevated moisture levels and the possibility of stream flooding, seem to be extreme, but the house was standing over 100 yuears. Makes you wonder what the original builder was thinking to build their house there when there were other more desirable site on the farm.