Is Your Basement Leaking?

The rainwater drove holes through the concrete blocks and mortar in our basement walls. The paint was coming loose. The basement was flooded. The plaster board was softening near the floor. And, worst of all, the concrete floor around the furnace began to crack and water was coming up through the cement, ten feet from the outside wall. We knew our house was being undermined. Gallons and gallons had to be vacuumed and mopped every rainfall.

Fear of expensive repairs filled our minds. And since our health is not good, we did not need the nervous anxiety of tools, mud, men, and furniture being transported throughout the house.

We noticed that most of the leaks seemed to be forming above the tar level, where we had added soil near the foundation. We had added soil because of the advice of well meaning friends and internet articles. But this was making the problem worse. The first thing we wanted to do is add tar to the blocks above the old tar line. So we had to have the block dug out. And we were not well enough to do it ourselves.

A very generous friend offered to dig the dirt out around the block.

Aha! He discovered the problem! How grateful we were. A simple fix and we stopped the flood.

What was the problem?

Over the years, two feet deep under the surface of the soil, our gutter drains had settled. They fell several inches from their original location. Dirt had filled in the pipes.

And another thing: Surface erosion was taking its toll. Our now dislocated downspouts had moved four inches downhill.

So now all our rainwater was pouring around the foundation of the house. And there is a lot of rain here in Ohio.

The kindly digger riveted several inches of extra downspout to the bottom of our existing downspouts and firmly attached them to the original drains.

The problem is solved. After a few heavy rains, which washed the mud out of the drains, our basement is dry.

By the way, while the dirt was away from the foundation, we tarred the block up to the current level of soil, just as a precaution.

All this for under $50.

And free labor.

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You can purchase foundation tar at a hardware store for under $30 a five gallon tub. We purchased ours on sale at Busy Beaver, for about $23. We also purchased a tar brush, since any brush we used would be useless after the tar penetrated it.