Is That a Lake in the Basement?

For the past 4 months, the basement has been bone dry.  So dry, that it sometimes made me forget that there can be a problem with water seeping in.  But I was still happy to get a call from Dave at Concrete Presciptions that he could come start our water proofing job last week.

Of course just as they were getting set up, we got a brief January thaw.  The temperatures hit an amazing 40 degrees (downright balmy!!) and the snow had all started to melt.  They were predicting heavy rains overnight.  That can be a flooding nightmare, since the water can't soak into the frozen ground.  It tends to go wherever it can, often into a nice empty basement!  And as it started to rain, I noticed this little puddle in the back corner when I locked up the house at 6 pm.  I took a picture to see how much change we would get overnight.






At 8:00 the next morning, this is what we had waiting for us.  2 inches of water at the low end of the basement.   Okay, so maybe not a lake, but still a big surprise after months of dry basement.  

 JUST IN TIME Waterproofing!!!  Concrete Presciptions quickly drained the water and set about cutting out a swath of concrete around the perimeter of the basement and garage.  They discovered a drainage network of terra cotta pipes that had been put in originally, but in the 70+ years since the house was built, they had become filled with silt and tree roots.

The old pipes were pulled out and the guys replaced them with plastic drainage pipe, wrapped in a membrane that will keep the pipes clear (an important step from the 1940's practice).  This was surrounded with crushed rock.  But my favorite step is the 'dimple' board that goes around the walls.  It ensures any moisture that makes it through the foundation, will be whisked down to the french drain and out of the house.  The final step is to pour new concrete, so we have a nice basement floor.  Love it!

Water started flowing immediately as old pipes were removed

Adding crushed stone around new drainage pipe

Concrete finishing step over dimple board

Now we're ready for a spring thaw and lots of spring showers……that is if spring every gets here!


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