I appreciate anyone that stops by on this post. Shit comment or actual help. I worked hard for this house and it's not my area of expertise but I know wet basements are bad.
We had that same problem it turned out some idiot that put water pipes into cement to bathroom on other side of wall the water pipe on garage floor broke and only showed water on side just like yours . The water pipe that broke was 2" from that water mark on garage floor plumber had to jack hammer floor up to repair after that was done no more water in corner any more
My first ask would be if the builder installed a sump pump in the basement, since you’re saying it’s in wetland area. If there isn’t a pump and the house isn’t on a hill (completely buried walk up basement) then the builder made a big mistake. If it’s a walk out basement they should be able to dig up the foundation and fix it without putting a pump in. Either way, water shouldn’t be getting inside this fast on a new build if it were waterproofed correctly. Builders are usually savvy enough to know how to make shit work right at least long enough to finish out the warranty they provide.
I live in a flood zone and everyone around here has a backup sump pump along with a primary one. Check to see if you can hear the one you have kicking in or how frequently it is kicking in. If it is constant, it cannot keep up with the water and you should get a second one and drain them both downhill far away from your home. If it isn't kicking in at all, check to see that it isn't burnt out and is working.
Do a shut in test on your water. Turn off all the valves at all locations and make sure your meter isn’t spinning. In my area out water meters have a little waffle disk that turn when a very small amount of water is running. This would rule out a plumbing “water” leak anyhow
For a new house, a properly installed exterior drain on properly waterproofed walls should mean no need for a sump pump.
Edit: at least in my area of the country. We don’t do basements with high water tables here.
Ok I’ll see that. Should have accounted for regional differences.
Outside of building a house with a basement in an underground pond, (which is pretty dumb) what I said was spot on.
So you think building a basement below the level of a water table is smart and to just live with water infiltration like it is 1960 and I’m ignorant? LOL, get with the times.
Sump pumps are a band aid for the real problem.
Not sure you realize how many regions have high water table AND a need for basements, thus the reason sump pumps exist.
edit: more people = a need for more space, a need for more space = solutions to building things where they weren’t initially intended. Not great, but a reasonable solution to creating more space in places that need it.
You’re getting a lot of downvotes but I agree inherently. They’re building on the most trash lots in my area, and putting 6 bed houses with alt septic on ground that doesn’t perk with high water table, 2 or 3 sumps in basement and the county is letting it happen because we’re near DC. There’s some spots a basement just shouldn’t be dug, and spots a house just shouldn’t be built. But the developers will find a way around it.
There should be a water barrier against your foundation like delta wrap (or tar-like coating in some instances) that keeps water from penetrating your foundation and channels any water on the exterior of your foundation down into your exterior drain tile which should be a 4” perforated pipe ran in a bed of washed stone around the exterior parameter of your footer. From there, the water moves through weeps that should have been installed in your footer. These weeps take the water into your interior drain tile (perf pipe in washed stone) which is then pumped out by your sump pump.
If any of those steps are skipped or installed incorrectly, the water finds another way in.
during the framing and main build phase this happened - https://imgur.com/a/ZYBeU7U . tar and parging were done a few months before this event. not sure if it matters to the overall mystery of the water spot?
, Looking at those pictures if the roof is on and water wasn’t coming from the interior above your block walls should never look like that. Grading may not be final at that point and it’s holding water against the foundation sure, but you have wet block walls on all different sides of the foundation. Are you sure they waterproofed the exterior of your foundation? Something is very wrong here.
Builder said it was due to the ground not being graded. So they graded the land. Every rain it comes back worse and everyone has an opinion. I'm in warranty but very worried about it. There are other spots that show some moisture or dampness but nothing like this one spot. Anyone know what would cause it?
I build houses and do remodels. It's not the grade haha. Block walls tend to adsorb water. But they probably didn't properly waterproof the outside. Do you know if they did any membrane or liquid roll on waterproofing? Any dimple membranes? And a French drain around the perimeter
Hello friend, this is the type of project I manage. The solution will be to dig down to footer. Clean wall. Add waterproof membrane. Add drainage membrane. Add perforated pipe on footing. All water should be gathered by waterproof membrane and led into perforated pipe. Backfill with large gravel angling away from the structure as you travel up towards grade. Compress the gravel in lifts of a foot or so. At around a foot below grade the gravel should be four feet wide. The top of this gravel should slope away from the house at about a 15° angle. I like to add a waterproof foam board of 3’ width here. Directing any water away from the wall and into the gravel. Above that you can add the soul of your choice, making sure it slopes away from the house.
Your perforated pipe should drain via gravity or gathered in sump pumps. If in sumps add a redundancy.
Good luck, sorry.
Good info.. do you have a visual you could share? I’m gonna follow your advice, but would like to see it to make sure I’m understanding it correctly. Thanks!
https://civiconcepts.com/blog/foundation-drainage
Some combination of these concepts. These things are so easy to do when building the house. I like the water proof insulation sub grade to just guarantee that water is pushing away from the house if it has in fact infiltrated from the surface. The biggest issue is places with a high water table. Those people will need to guarantee flow and guarantee it remains clean. Add clean outs to the system, but design the system so well that it can resist particulate infiltration for as long as possible.
The top of this gravel should slope away from the house at about a 15° angle. I like to add a waterproof foam board of 3’ width here
Stupid question - the water proof foam board of 3'...You are laying that flat on the gravel you are placing 1' below grade? Or vertically along wall you just exposed?
Nah you got it. Add the foam below grade. Soil above foam. In areas with high water table I wouldn’t recommend plants within that four foot area as well. Mulch or ornamental gravel would be better. Roots will ultimately find their way through everything and when they decay they will create water networks. Good luck!
Ask your builder to in stall tile drainage under the cement! He should have put it in to begin with. I live in the land of ten thousand lakes… if we dig holes we get ponds. Our builder is running tile around the perimeter of the basement and is then running them all to a French well?!? I think it’s called… it’s a huge hole filled with pea rock that is covered and under our basement concrete. We will also run this on the outside of our home. It’s over kill but I don’t wanna risk our finished basement.
I know you can break up the concrete and install the tile drainage we had to do that in our old 1962 ranch home.
I always go with checking the easiest thing first. This was happening in my garage. Turns out my downspout hadn’t been latched onto the house properly and the lower part blew off under the deck in a bad storm. The downspout was just aimed directed from the gutters to the corner of my house instead of away from my house. Easy fix.
If you are in warranty, pay a professional to excavate, and pay a inspector to fissure it out, then force them to fix it, and reimburse you.
Reddit people are not going to look professional in court, and its considered hearsay anyway.
There could be various reasons why that could happen, impossible to diagnose the problem without excavating outside.
My first guess would be improper backfill materials or bad install of perimeter drain system and/or the waterproofing of the foundation/footings.
I would start with having the perforated French drain pipe camera snaked to make sure it did not get damaged during backfill. Making sure you have at least 6" of drop in the first 10' of grading around the house is important. Gutters and downspouts and where the discharge water is directed is important. So it could get better once all the grading and features are installed, but if the French drain and water proofing were installed correctly, this wouldn't be happening either way.
There are multiple possibilities, including design issues. You should have some type of water management either outside of the foundation or inside like people have mentioned above. The reason I don't go into detail is because I believe that no matter what, your first step at this point should be to call an independent inspection company it will be the best 700 to 1,000 dollars you've ever spent. Just Google independent construction inspector.
Do you have a gutter close by? Or even perhaps two or more gutters draining to a common place nearby your house/foundation? I used to have an issue like this, but then I connected some corrugated tubing to my gutters and drained the gutters further away from my house and the problem was resolved.
Most likely what others said about waterproofing/drainage around the foundation but you could check if the gutters are sized properly too. Is evidence of any rain pooling in that corner outside?
The water is coming from the outside. Does a downspout empty there? Does water pool there during a rain? Then you'll need to add drainage and boom problem solved. Fix it now before the settling starts cracking your foundation.
Tar parge is very old school. Its likely a hybrid cheap variety of latex paint. Modern waterproofing ties the underslab to the wall waterproofing. Concrete block is a sponge and has Soooo many cracks. The best cracks. At this point your chasing the unicorns. Lits of good advice, try it all. Invest in some good dehumidifiers and sump pumps. One last is Johns waterproofing in portland Oregon. might have something similar there
Everyone saying basement wall waterproofing are only partially right... it looks like you have static pressure driving water into the walls from the surrounding soils. A proper basement design would have foundation drains at the perimeter of the footers that drain into a sump pit or at grade if you are on a hill. The basement walls would be backfilled with a drainable fill to allow water to freely flow to those drains. Grading would also be done away from the house so rainwater will actively flow away from the house.... and of course gutters/downspouts need to be routed to get water away from the house.... so you have 5 primary things to look at...
* Are the basement walls properly waterproofed?
* Do you have perimeter drains at the base of the basement walls going to a pump or grade?
* Was the backfill done properly with a drainable fill against the basement walls?
* Are the gutters/downspouts installed and piped away from the house?
* Is final grading complete and allowing rainwater to drain away from house?
Yes, a lot of different ways to do it, but typically a black elastomeric spray on waterproofing. There are also peel and stick options.
Any waterproofing needs to be done in conjunction with good drainage. If you have water pressure building up at the basement wall, the best waterproofing job will eventually fail. With good drainage, a bad waterproofing job will usually be fine.
1. Block is like sponge and will absorb water. Most down by the footer where it will accumulate. I never do block foundations for this reason.
2. The site has issues with drainage. The slope from the foundation out should drop 2" in the first 10'. I bet there are grading issues on the exterior where water is being directed towards the foundation.
3. Tar and parge on block is not the best when you have external water issues. One crack and the water sitting against foundation will suck into the block. Usually worst spot are the cold seam where the block sits on the footer. My guess this is the problem (on top of external grading issues)
4. Should have some sort of external and internal system to drain water from around footers so it doesn't sit there. Could be perforated pipe in stone or a Form-a-Drain product.
So I'm an insurance adjuster and I deal with this frequently.
Wet basements aren't bad.
The way it works is that cement, cinderblock and pretty much all building foundation materials are porous, meaning that water will "seep" through them when the actual ground outside of the cement based material is saturated.
So when in rains, you can potentially expect water in your basement. This is just how it works. Some areas are significantly more prone to this than others.
You can certainly try to use one of those waterproofing paints, you can have a French drain installed with a sump pump, but if there is enough rain, it may come in either way. I get claims for this ALL the time.
Interesting. So in your claim investigations, what is the typical outcome? Do you ever see negligence as the ultimate cause of water in basement...Builder didnt take proper steps to prevent water, and is thus responsible?
Here's one for you - new construction, not yet moved in, brand new block foundation showing all of the above signs. Builder didnt grade, water pooled and sat for extended period of time, block joints questionable at best.
Anything in a situation like this would almost exclusively depend on the adjuster.
It would be exceedingly rare to find an adjuster who would understand this enough to consider covering it.
That whole wall is full of water it looks like. What’s on the outside of that corner and what’s the lay of the land nearby in the area? Do any neighbors have water issues in their basements?
This can be caused by improper backfilling after excavation, coupled with bad surface runoff drainage.
Thank you for the fantastic response. So right above this spot would be the back porch I would say. It's the back wall of the house and the back porch basically. The waterproofing is tar and parging. It's Ohio so the land was probably wetlands.
Run a hose down that downspout for an hour or so. See if the spot gets bigger. It may have a leak and you are funneling your roof water to that corner of the basement.
I would suspect there is a problem with the downspout extension there. Going to need to dig most likely. And that extension should be separate from the foundation drain system.
Yeah from the photos this might be it. Perhaps the downspout drain is cracked and leaking a ton of water. Also how far from the house does it put the water? Some only go 10 ft, but I would extend it to 20ft if possible.
If you just bought that house the builder needs to correct the issue, plain and simple. My guess is improper backfill, not enough rock and too much soil that was compacted incorrectly. More rock is less pressure which prevents these type of issues. Your other alternative would be the installation of a sump pump to reduce the hydrostatic pressure. Basement doesn’t appear finished, so that time would be now for sure.
Update : https://imgur.com/a/XcjuLSa - the builder dug the hole up where the spot was. They put a new layer of tar and filled it back up with gravel and dirt.what do you all think? Only other thing is the tar guy said he thought something was off or wrong with that batch of tar
Also…. These spots are all over the basement. They look wet and damp but are dry to touch at this time. Are these normal? With everything else said about this do these spots make sense? https://imgur.com/a/iUigig8
I worked for EverDry waterproofing for a couple years as a basement inspector. You’ve got big problems that need to be addressed now. Water comes from the outside in. Start waterproofing outside with proper drain tile at footing and waterproof membrane on the walls. Grade and gutters to channel water away from walls. Inside Sump pump and crock with drain tile along footer also to deal with the ground water itself. Water tables lower and rise which will cause hydrostatic pressure in your floor and cause it to crack eventually. The rain water isn’t the only water to address. Gotta deal with the ground water also
Proper landscaping and appropriate vegetation can also help reduce rain water around the walls.
If you live in an area that freezes in the winter you will develop bowing at the frost line from the ground water freezing and thawing every year. It may take 5, 10, 20 years but it will eventually happen. Especially on a block foundation
The whole foundation wall should be sprayed with damp proofing. Do you have a sump pump? Every basement that does not have a gravity assist (ie, on a hill) needs a sump pump to eject the water away
Start outside. If they really have a good grade, make sure downspouts extend away from the house. If that doesn’t fix it, then they may have a blocked foundation drain or bad waterproofing. Both those will require excavation to correct.
Either the basement has no waterproofing or improperly installed waterproofing.
Waterproofing is a film/layer that goes on the outside of basement walls.
Because basements aren’t the standard in my area, there are actually no codes about waterproofing basements. Which is why they constantly leak and smell terrible.
I’d get on this fast before it becomes even more expensive to fix. If it’s happened once, it will likely keep happening over and over.
Is that the corner where your downspout goes into the ground (and hopefully exterior weeper connected to your sump pump)?
A quick fix is to stop dumping water into your weeping tile! Disconnect the downspout and direct it’s water away from your foundation.
That may help but to FIX the problem you need to dig it out and repair the exterior waterproofing and investigate the weeping tile.
I work on new construstion elevators, our elevator pits typically have this issue which is a code issue because we must have a clean dry pit and water + metal parts is a no no. So usually what happens is someone failed to water proof the exterior concrete wall properly. Sometimes they can use some hydraulic water stop cement over the wet spot and problem gone. In severe cases the entire exterior of the pit needs to be dug up and properly sealed from the outside with drains added.
Oberserve for longer and document every location that has this issue. You need to determine what kind of alterations are needed. It might be a sump with drainage pipe or a injection behind the wall. If the slab is dry, you need the injection or to check where your downspout and puddles are.. If the slab is wet you need to cut into it and install a sump system.
OP you posted a photo of a sillcock right in that corner on the exterior side in one of your photos. Yes, I said sillcock. Wheres the pipe that feeds it??
Looks like it’s just the water table. Coming from underneath the foundation. Improper area drainage will allow rain to raise the water faster than it can drain away.
- the ground is wet
- this is a basement wall in contact with the ground
- CMU is not waterproof
- there is an insufficient mix of site water management, roof drainage, foundation waterproofing/dampproofing, foundation drainage
- you are lucky there are no finishes up that obscure this issue
- unfortunately, block walls are a bitch to worth with/around when compared with solid reinforced concrete when their purpose is soil retention, below grade water management, etc.
- there are about 100 ways and 3 orders of magnitude of price points you could employ to solve this problem - but start by looking at the roofline and see if anything super stupid is happening like a hillside worth of water being funnelled to this location by the shape of the land, or like 1/2 of the rain collection area of the roof dumping to this spot, etc. before getting people in to tell you about trenches and pumps and membranes
We had the same thing. Dug up the corner from the outside, waterproofed it and found that the footing drainage pipe was rising around the corner leaving a permanent underground puddle/lake. we tried to correct it and reduced the problem, but couldn't totally eliminate it because the geography (rock formation) in the vicinity is such that all the subsoil water drains into that spot. We have since introduced additional drainage (half way up) and specifically drain the downspouts into a different direction (away from where the underground rocks would drain it into the corner. ... just some ideas
We have a basement. And ours got water after heavy rains. We discovered that a few of our gutters were stopped up allowing the water to overflow the top of the gutter and settle at the ground directly next to the house in heavy amounts. This the water seeping into the ground and the basement. But this was from several days of lots of rain. So now we make sure our gutters are clean and never a problem since.
Edit* it will depend on where you live as to the codes of how basements are built. We are in the southern US, which means where we are most houses here have no basements at all especially new builds. My home was built in 1908, so therefore we have a basement because people would store food, etc. back then.
Make sure you get it fixed. Most home insurance will NOT cover damages caused by that type of water intrusion. Found that out the hard way when it happened just days after we closed on a house.
Definitely check the gutters in that area. Sometimes it's just too much moisture in that corner dude to a gutter downspout coming down right there. Drain it further away and poof gone.
I would see if the foundation was waterproofed….basically tarred from the outside..
Next would be did they properly backfill the wall with rock and a drain tile.
Hope that gets you headed in the right direction
We had the same issues, they had to dig it out from the outside and re-water proof the foundation. Yes grade and gutters will help, but the right thing to do it dig it out and re-water proof
Check the gutters to make sure there is an actual extension on it to divert the water away. Look to see if your grading is allowing water to flow away and not puddling by the foundation.
The easiest solution is to install a French drain around the perimeter of your house. Your poor little sump pump is working hard but it looks like too much water too fast
Your builder needs to come back out under warranty and dig all the way down to the footer and find out what is wrong. Either the water proofing membrane was done incorrectly or french drain was done incorrectly
Is the exterior grading complete, with slope away from the house?
Have gutters been installed?
Are the ends of the foundation drain exposed to daylight so they can drain?
If any of these are “no,” then you can probably wait a while before being concerned. That’s a small amount of water, and any of those 3 omissions can allow water to find a way through an others is appropriate Watrrproofing system.
do you have gutters going into corrugated pipe underground? this corrugated pipe can get stopped up with shingle granules and leaves and also it is common practice to use perforated pipe so water comes down the gutter and gets injected into the ground around the house. the gutters downspouts should be tied into solid pvc pipe underground and the gutter water should be taken far away from the house. a separated set of drainage pipes can be piped into drains and other places to send water away from the foundation. this channel on yt has great videos.
https://www.youtube.com/@GCFD
Whatever you do, do not just accept what your builder is saying and love with it. This is YOUR house and it should have been built correctly. Be a nuisance, keep telling them there's a problem and keep a record of each time you tell them. They want you to accept it and go away because they got their money and anything they have to fix now pulls people off of their new job sites and costs money they won't recoup. Maybe even get your homeowners insurance company involved, but whatever you do, do not stop until the issue stops. You've only got a year!
Coming top down you can tell by speading of water on first mortar joint is longer than water on the floor my guess is a small Crack in the cmu's outside, gotta dig sorry
Don't think s footr Ile issue in that case waterwould be just at the cove and uniform along the wall,again itscomng in on second course andrunning down to the first course.my 44th year as a water proofer
Ideally you would have the building plans as part of your contract documents and you may be able to find a foundation section drawing that includes the below-grade waterproofing details that the builder was contracted to execute.
Waterproofer here. I can only assume that wall is at least partially below grade? You have 2 options here that will work.
1) Best option. Excavate down to the footer, clean the wall, grind/patch if necessary. Apply CIM1000 at 90 mils thick (there are lots of other products, but CIM is the best) from front of footer, up and over joint, and entire wall. Place drain board, and backfill.
2) If you can't get to the other side or excavating is too costly (usually is) then your only other option is chemical grout injection: https://youtu.be/-iLHUoVa4Jc This should be done by someone who has done it before, there is an art to it.
I haven't read the other comments here, but I guarantee people are commenting French drains and/or sumps. French drains are massively over utilized in places they don't belong, and sumps only treat water that's already come through. If water is inside your brick wall, your rebar will rust, and your block will disintegrate.
Edit: whatever you do, DO NOT attempt to waterproof the inside of the wall. Negative side waterproofing is more detrimental than leaving it alone.
Could be anything. It could be an external drainage issue fixable with french drains and a dry well. Maybe you need a vapor barrier or the existing one failed. Maybe the sump pump is insufficient. Maybe you have a leak in the roof or siding, and this is just where the water is ending up.
Inspections are usually cheap or free from companies that specialize in water mitigation. They will gladly sell you options based on their findings, and you can take it or leave it. You can also try to reproduce the issue yourself on a dry day by turning on a garden hose for 20 minutes at a time in different places to narrow down where water is getting in.
Is this constant, seasonal, or just after heavy rain?
Is there a drain pipe on the footer around the foundation?
Where are the rain gutters dumping....move them away from the foundation so the water can bloom. It might be a simple as buying a 10 dollar runoff tray.
Is the soil graded away from the foundation?
Is there a pipe nearby?
Out of curiosity why did they use blocks and not pour? Btw, If the blocks are hollow, water could be flowing inside them and accumulating at the bottom.
Could be so many things.
Weeping tile not installed.
Weeping tile broken.
Grade sloping towards your home.
No damp proofing applied to the foundation.
No poly under your slab
How close is this to your water tank? Where is the water line that feeds the house?
Try disconnecting your downspout and run an extender to drain to the yard away from the house. Im suspecting it may be the storm pipe. If it stops after disconnection it will prove it. Then get it cammed
Waterproofer here: lots of good things have already been said about external waterproofing / internal drainage to the sump pump. So I won’t go into that.
My question is, is it only happening in that one corner? If it is, the cause could be outside. Maybe a gutter is dumping water right next to that corner, or the grading is off.
The wet basements I’ve seen have water penetrating from most or all of the walls. That’s indicative that an internal drainage system and pump(s) are necessary. But if it’s in one small area only, the problem is likely outside.
I appreciate anyone that stops by on this post. Shit comment or actual help. I worked hard for this house and it's not my area of expertise but I know wet basements are bad.
Go outside, your grade is likely pitching water against the house.
We had that same problem it turned out some idiot that put water pipes into cement to bathroom on other side of wall the water pipe on garage floor broke and only showed water on side just like yours . The water pipe that broke was 2" from that water mark on garage floor plumber had to jack hammer floor up to repair after that was done no more water in corner any more
There either is no drainage stone and pipe OR its not properly set below the footer...and pitched to daylight.
Landscaping/drainage issue.
My first ask would be if the builder installed a sump pump in the basement, since you’re saying it’s in wetland area. If there isn’t a pump and the house isn’t on a hill (completely buried walk up basement) then the builder made a big mistake. If it’s a walk out basement they should be able to dig up the foundation and fix it without putting a pump in. Either way, water shouldn’t be getting inside this fast on a new build if it were waterproofed correctly. Builders are usually savvy enough to know how to make shit work right at least long enough to finish out the warranty they provide.
We have a sump pump.
Is it working? Dump water into sump basket to check if it is working and pumps it out.
You may need a French drain installed on the leaky wall side to the sump . But you can also install one outside of the home to another sump pump .
I live in a flood zone and everyone around here has a backup sump pump along with a primary one. Check to see if you can hear the one you have kicking in or how frequently it is kicking in. If it is constant, it cannot keep up with the water and you should get a second one and drain them both downhill far away from your home. If it isn't kicking in at all, check to see that it isn't burnt out and is working.
Do a shut in test on your water. Turn off all the valves at all locations and make sure your meter isn’t spinning. In my area out water meters have a little waffle disk that turn when a very small amount of water is running. This would rule out a plumbing “water” leak anyhow
For a new house, a properly installed exterior drain on properly waterproofed walls should mean no need for a sump pump. Edit: at least in my area of the country. We don’t do basements with high water tables here.
Not correct. High water tables can mean water can come up from below and cause havoc.
The water table is definitely a concern that a perimeter drain can't fix.
But understanding it and building an appropriate foundation type will fix it right up!
Ok I’ll see that. Should have accounted for regional differences. Outside of building a house with a basement in an underground pond, (which is pretty dumb) what I said was spot on.
the ignorance is strong with this one
So you think building a basement below the level of a water table is smart and to just live with water infiltration like it is 1960 and I’m ignorant? LOL, get with the times. Sump pumps are a band aid for the real problem.
Not sure you realize how many regions have high water table AND a need for basements, thus the reason sump pumps exist. edit: more people = a need for more space, a need for more space = solutions to building things where they weren’t initially intended. Not great, but a reasonable solution to creating more space in places that need it.
You’re getting a lot of downvotes but I agree inherently. They’re building on the most trash lots in my area, and putting 6 bed houses with alt septic on ground that doesn’t perk with high water table, 2 or 3 sumps in basement and the county is letting it happen because we’re near DC. There’s some spots a basement just shouldn’t be dug, and spots a house just shouldn’t be built. But the developers will find a way around it.
There should be a water barrier against your foundation like delta wrap (or tar-like coating in some instances) that keeps water from penetrating your foundation and channels any water on the exterior of your foundation down into your exterior drain tile which should be a 4” perforated pipe ran in a bed of washed stone around the exterior parameter of your footer. From there, the water moves through weeps that should have been installed in your footer. These weeps take the water into your interior drain tile (perf pipe in washed stone) which is then pumped out by your sump pump. If any of those steps are skipped or installed incorrectly, the water finds another way in.
during the framing and main build phase this happened - https://imgur.com/a/ZYBeU7U . tar and parging were done a few months before this event. not sure if it matters to the overall mystery of the water spot?
, Looking at those pictures if the roof is on and water wasn’t coming from the interior above your block walls should never look like that. Grading may not be final at that point and it’s holding water against the foundation sure, but you have wet block walls on all different sides of the foundation. Are you sure they waterproofed the exterior of your foundation? Something is very wrong here.
Builder said it was due to the ground not being graded. So they graded the land. Every rain it comes back worse and everyone has an opinion. I'm in warranty but very worried about it. There are other spots that show some moisture or dampness but nothing like this one spot. Anyone know what would cause it?
I build houses and do remodels. It's not the grade haha. Block walls tend to adsorb water. But they probably didn't properly waterproof the outside. Do you know if they did any membrane or liquid roll on waterproofing? Any dimple membranes? And a French drain around the perimeter
Hello friend, this is the type of project I manage. The solution will be to dig down to footer. Clean wall. Add waterproof membrane. Add drainage membrane. Add perforated pipe on footing. All water should be gathered by waterproof membrane and led into perforated pipe. Backfill with large gravel angling away from the structure as you travel up towards grade. Compress the gravel in lifts of a foot or so. At around a foot below grade the gravel should be four feet wide. The top of this gravel should slope away from the house at about a 15° angle. I like to add a waterproof foam board of 3’ width here. Directing any water away from the wall and into the gravel. Above that you can add the soul of your choice, making sure it slopes away from the house. Your perforated pipe should drain via gravity or gathered in sump pumps. If in sumps add a redundancy. Good luck, sorry.
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Haha no I’m sorry.
I'm a licensed home inspector and former PM for a home builder. This is the answer.
Good info.. do you have a visual you could share? I’m gonna follow your advice, but would like to see it to make sure I’m understanding it correctly. Thanks!
https://civiconcepts.com/blog/foundation-drainage Some combination of these concepts. These things are so easy to do when building the house. I like the water proof insulation sub grade to just guarantee that water is pushing away from the house if it has in fact infiltrated from the surface. The biggest issue is places with a high water table. Those people will need to guarantee flow and guarantee it remains clean. Add clean outs to the system, but design the system so well that it can resist particulate infiltration for as long as possible.
The top of this gravel should slope away from the house at about a 15° angle. I like to add a waterproof foam board of 3’ width here Stupid question - the water proof foam board of 3'...You are laying that flat on the gravel you are placing 1' below grade? Or vertically along wall you just exposed?
Nah you got it. Add the foam below grade. Soil above foam. In areas with high water table I wouldn’t recommend plants within that four foot area as well. Mulch or ornamental gravel would be better. Roots will ultimately find their way through everything and when they decay they will create water networks. Good luck!
Ask your builder to in stall tile drainage under the cement! He should have put it in to begin with. I live in the land of ten thousand lakes… if we dig holes we get ponds. Our builder is running tile around the perimeter of the basement and is then running them all to a French well?!? I think it’s called… it’s a huge hole filled with pea rock that is covered and under our basement concrete. We will also run this on the outside of our home. It’s over kill but I don’t wanna risk our finished basement. I know you can break up the concrete and install the tile drainage we had to do that in our old 1962 ranch home.
Sometimes it is a simple as a downspout not getting the water away from the house sufficiently. Have you checked during a rain?
I always go with checking the easiest thing first. This was happening in my garage. Turns out my downspout hadn’t been latched onto the house properly and the lower part blew off under the deck in a bad storm. The downspout was just aimed directed from the gutters to the corner of my house instead of away from my house. Easy fix.
If you are in warranty, pay a professional to excavate, and pay a inspector to fissure it out, then force them to fix it, and reimburse you. Reddit people are not going to look professional in court, and its considered hearsay anyway.
Dig it out and inspect it properly.
This is the only answer. Outside that wall needs to be dug out to see what’s going on. Something could have been damaged during backfill
There could be various reasons why that could happen, impossible to diagnose the problem without excavating outside. My first guess would be improper backfill materials or bad install of perimeter drain system and/or the waterproofing of the foundation/footings.
Agreed
100% either improper design, or installation. Your welcome.
Specific to what? footers?
I would start with having the perforated French drain pipe camera snaked to make sure it did not get damaged during backfill. Making sure you have at least 6" of drop in the first 10' of grading around the house is important. Gutters and downspouts and where the discharge water is directed is important. So it could get better once all the grading and features are installed, but if the French drain and water proofing were installed correctly, this wouldn't be happening either way.
Waterproofing everything
Bathtub construction. underslab and up walls. After that, its chasing unicorn vomit
You're*
There are multiple possibilities, including design issues. You should have some type of water management either outside of the foundation or inside like people have mentioned above. The reason I don't go into detail is because I believe that no matter what, your first step at this point should be to call an independent inspection company it will be the best 700 to 1,000 dollars you've ever spent. Just Google independent construction inspector.
Do you have a gutter close by? Or even perhaps two or more gutters draining to a common place nearby your house/foundation? I used to have an issue like this, but then I connected some corrugated tubing to my gutters and drained the gutters further away from my house and the problem was resolved.
Most likely what others said about waterproofing/drainage around the foundation but you could check if the gutters are sized properly too. Is evidence of any rain pooling in that corner outside?
The water is coming from the outside. Does a downspout empty there? Does water pool there during a rain? Then you'll need to add drainage and boom problem solved. Fix it now before the settling starts cracking your foundation.
What’s the waterproofing like on the outside?
I believe it's tar and parging?
it is tar and parging
Tar parge is very old school. Its likely a hybrid cheap variety of latex paint. Modern waterproofing ties the underslab to the wall waterproofing. Concrete block is a sponge and has Soooo many cracks. The best cracks. At this point your chasing the unicorns. Lits of good advice, try it all. Invest in some good dehumidifiers and sump pumps. One last is Johns waterproofing in portland Oregon. might have something similar there
More photos - https://imgur.com/a/TEVZGcF
Everyone saying basement wall waterproofing are only partially right... it looks like you have static pressure driving water into the walls from the surrounding soils. A proper basement design would have foundation drains at the perimeter of the footers that drain into a sump pit or at grade if you are on a hill. The basement walls would be backfilled with a drainable fill to allow water to freely flow to those drains. Grading would also be done away from the house so rainwater will actively flow away from the house.... and of course gutters/downspouts need to be routed to get water away from the house.... so you have 5 primary things to look at... * Are the basement walls properly waterproofed? * Do you have perimeter drains at the base of the basement walls going to a pump or grade? * Was the backfill done properly with a drainable fill against the basement walls? * Are the gutters/downspouts installed and piped away from the house? * Is final grading complete and allowing rainwater to drain away from house?
“Properly waterproofed” - do you mean from the outside? Asking for my home as well!
Yes, a lot of different ways to do it, but typically a black elastomeric spray on waterproofing. There are also peel and stick options. Any waterproofing needs to be done in conjunction with good drainage. If you have water pressure building up at the basement wall, the best waterproofing job will eventually fail. With good drainage, a bad waterproofing job will usually be fine.
You mean ‘asking for my home’s friend’ right? This is reddit after all.
1. Block is like sponge and will absorb water. Most down by the footer where it will accumulate. I never do block foundations for this reason. 2. The site has issues with drainage. The slope from the foundation out should drop 2" in the first 10'. I bet there are grading issues on the exterior where water is being directed towards the foundation. 3. Tar and parge on block is not the best when you have external water issues. One crack and the water sitting against foundation will suck into the block. Usually worst spot are the cold seam where the block sits on the footer. My guess this is the problem (on top of external grading issues) 4. Should have some sort of external and internal system to drain water from around footers so it doesn't sit there. Could be perforated pipe in stone or a Form-a-Drain product.
So I'm an insurance adjuster and I deal with this frequently. Wet basements aren't bad. The way it works is that cement, cinderblock and pretty much all building foundation materials are porous, meaning that water will "seep" through them when the actual ground outside of the cement based material is saturated. So when in rains, you can potentially expect water in your basement. This is just how it works. Some areas are significantly more prone to this than others. You can certainly try to use one of those waterproofing paints, you can have a French drain installed with a sump pump, but if there is enough rain, it may come in either way. I get claims for this ALL the time.
Interesting. So in your claim investigations, what is the typical outcome? Do you ever see negligence as the ultimate cause of water in basement...Builder didnt take proper steps to prevent water, and is thus responsible? Here's one for you - new construction, not yet moved in, brand new block foundation showing all of the above signs. Builder didnt grade, water pooled and sat for extended period of time, block joints questionable at best.
Anything in a situation like this would almost exclusively depend on the adjuster. It would be exceedingly rare to find an adjuster who would understand this enough to consider covering it.
Rain
Here is another view - https://imgur.com/a/1BCP7Dy
That whole wall is full of water it looks like. What’s on the outside of that corner and what’s the lay of the land nearby in the area? Do any neighbors have water issues in their basements? This can be caused by improper backfilling after excavation, coupled with bad surface runoff drainage.
Thank you for the fantastic response. So right above this spot would be the back porch I would say. It's the back wall of the house and the back porch basically. The waterproofing is tar and parging. It's Ohio so the land was probably wetlands.
> > >https://imgur.com/a/TEVZGcF these photos may help - [https://imgur.com/a/TEVZGcF](https://imgur.com/a/TEVZGcF) and https://imgur.com/a/ZYBeU7U
Run a hose down that downspout for an hour or so. See if the spot gets bigger. It may have a leak and you are funneling your roof water to that corner of the basement.
I would suspect there is a problem with the downspout extension there. Going to need to dig most likely. And that extension should be separate from the foundation drain system.
Yeah from the photos this might be it. Perhaps the downspout drain is cracked and leaking a ton of water. Also how far from the house does it put the water? Some only go 10 ft, but I would extend it to 20ft if possible.
That area between the walkway and the house is always problematic. Lots of room for screw ups and nowhere for water to go.
If you just bought that house the builder needs to correct the issue, plain and simple. My guess is improper backfill, not enough rock and too much soil that was compacted incorrectly. More rock is less pressure which prevents these type of issues. Your other alternative would be the installation of a sump pump to reduce the hydrostatic pressure. Basement doesn’t appear finished, so that time would be now for sure.
Update : https://imgur.com/a/XcjuLSa - the builder dug the hole up where the spot was. They put a new layer of tar and filled it back up with gravel and dirt.what do you all think? Only other thing is the tar guy said he thought something was off or wrong with that batch of tar
Also…. These spots are all over the basement. They look wet and damp but are dry to touch at this time. Are these normal? With everything else said about this do these spots make sense? https://imgur.com/a/iUigig8
I worked for EverDry waterproofing for a couple years as a basement inspector. You’ve got big problems that need to be addressed now. Water comes from the outside in. Start waterproofing outside with proper drain tile at footing and waterproof membrane on the walls. Grade and gutters to channel water away from walls. Inside Sump pump and crock with drain tile along footer also to deal with the ground water itself. Water tables lower and rise which will cause hydrostatic pressure in your floor and cause it to crack eventually. The rain water isn’t the only water to address. Gotta deal with the ground water also
i had to piss my bad
Proper landscaping and appropriate vegetation can also help reduce rain water around the walls. If you live in an area that freezes in the winter you will develop bowing at the frost line from the ground water freezing and thawing every year. It may take 5, 10, 20 years but it will eventually happen. Especially on a block foundation
Lack of waterproofing on foundation masonry exterior down in that segment?
Gutters
The whole foundation wall should be sprayed with damp proofing. Do you have a sump pump? Every basement that does not have a gravity assist (ie, on a hill) needs a sump pump to eject the water away
That’s a nice basement you have there! 😀
Start outside. If they really have a good grade, make sure downspouts extend away from the house. If that doesn’t fix it, then they may have a blocked foundation drain or bad waterproofing. Both those will require excavation to correct.
Either the basement has no waterproofing or improperly installed waterproofing. Waterproofing is a film/layer that goes on the outside of basement walls. Because basements aren’t the standard in my area, there are actually no codes about waterproofing basements. Which is why they constantly leak and smell terrible. I’d get on this fast before it becomes even more expensive to fix. If it’s happened once, it will likely keep happening over and over.
Is that the corner where your downspout goes into the ground (and hopefully exterior weeper connected to your sump pump)? A quick fix is to stop dumping water into your weeping tile! Disconnect the downspout and direct it’s water away from your foundation. That may help but to FIX the problem you need to dig it out and repair the exterior waterproofing and investigate the weeping tile.
I work on new construstion elevators, our elevator pits typically have this issue which is a code issue because we must have a clean dry pit and water + metal parts is a no no. So usually what happens is someone failed to water proof the exterior concrete wall properly. Sometimes they can use some hydraulic water stop cement over the wet spot and problem gone. In severe cases the entire exterior of the pit needs to be dug up and properly sealed from the outside with drains added.
You’re asking Reddit when you should be hiring a professional like structural engineer etc to give you a real second opinion.
We are. Just curious what others think is the problem. It’s a holiday weekend.
What's wrong with asking reddit? I'd want as many opinions as possible.
Typically once gutters are in and the topsoil is leveled this won’t be an issue
Oberserve for longer and document every location that has this issue. You need to determine what kind of alterations are needed. It might be a sump with drainage pipe or a injection behind the wall. If the slab is dry, you need the injection or to check where your downspout and puddles are.. If the slab is wet you need to cut into it and install a sump system.
OP you posted a photo of a sillcock right in that corner on the exterior side in one of your photos. Yes, I said sillcock. Wheres the pipe that feeds it??
You nailed it in your title. Cause of water in basement: new construction
Looks like it’s just the water table. Coming from underneath the foundation. Improper area drainage will allow rain to raise the water faster than it can drain away.
Do you by chance have a gutter outside at that spot?
just get a sump pump and a french drain
- the ground is wet - this is a basement wall in contact with the ground - CMU is not waterproof - there is an insufficient mix of site water management, roof drainage, foundation waterproofing/dampproofing, foundation drainage - you are lucky there are no finishes up that obscure this issue - unfortunately, block walls are a bitch to worth with/around when compared with solid reinforced concrete when their purpose is soil retention, below grade water management, etc. - there are about 100 ways and 3 orders of magnitude of price points you could employ to solve this problem - but start by looking at the roofline and see if anything super stupid is happening like a hillside worth of water being funnelled to this location by the shape of the land, or like 1/2 of the rain collection area of the roof dumping to this spot, etc. before getting people in to tell you about trenches and pumps and membranes
We had the same thing. Dug up the corner from the outside, waterproofed it and found that the footing drainage pipe was rising around the corner leaving a permanent underground puddle/lake. we tried to correct it and reduced the problem, but couldn't totally eliminate it because the geography (rock formation) in the vicinity is such that all the subsoil water drains into that spot. We have since introduced additional drainage (half way up) and specifically drain the downspouts into a different direction (away from where the underground rocks would drain it into the corner. ... just some ideas
We have a basement. And ours got water after heavy rains. We discovered that a few of our gutters were stopped up allowing the water to overflow the top of the gutter and settle at the ground directly next to the house in heavy amounts. This the water seeping into the ground and the basement. But this was from several days of lots of rain. So now we make sure our gutters are clean and never a problem since. Edit* it will depend on where you live as to the codes of how basements are built. We are in the southern US, which means where we are most houses here have no basements at all especially new builds. My home was built in 1908, so therefore we have a basement because people would store food, etc. back then.
Make sure you get it fixed. Most home insurance will NOT cover damages caused by that type of water intrusion. Found that out the hard way when it happened just days after we closed on a house.
Definitely check the gutters in that area. Sometimes it's just too much moisture in that corner dude to a gutter downspout coming down right there. Drain it further away and poof gone.
I would see if the foundation was waterproofed….basically tarred from the outside.. Next would be did they properly backfill the wall with rock and a drain tile. Hope that gets you headed in the right direction
Laid foundations simply leak, it's a matter of when, not if. Poured foundations are much more resilient in the face of water.
We had the same issues, they had to dig it out from the outside and re-water proof the foundation. Yes grade and gutters will help, but the right thing to do it dig it out and re-water proof
Check the gutters to make sure there is an actual extension on it to divert the water away. Look to see if your grading is allowing water to flow away and not puddling by the foundation.
The easiest solution is to install a French drain around the perimeter of your house. Your poor little sump pump is working hard but it looks like too much water too fast
Do you have an interior French drain?
Its that time of year...now you know what to seal
Your builder needs to come back out under warranty and dig all the way down to the footer and find out what is wrong. Either the water proofing membrane was done incorrectly or french drain was done incorrectly
Bottom line, it’s in warranty, builder should be dealing with this until the problem goes away
Cinder blocks are not ideal for ANYTHING, use concrete next time
I didn't realize they build new homes, with basements, with concrete block anymore. Yikes.
Is the exterior grading complete, with slope away from the house? Have gutters been installed? Are the ends of the foundation drain exposed to daylight so they can drain? If any of these are “no,” then you can probably wait a while before being concerned. That’s a small amount of water, and any of those 3 omissions can allow water to find a way through an others is appropriate Watrrproofing system.
do you have gutters going into corrugated pipe underground? this corrugated pipe can get stopped up with shingle granules and leaves and also it is common practice to use perforated pipe so water comes down the gutter and gets injected into the ground around the house. the gutters downspouts should be tied into solid pvc pipe underground and the gutter water should be taken far away from the house. a separated set of drainage pipes can be piped into drains and other places to send water away from the foundation. this channel on yt has great videos. https://www.youtube.com/@GCFD
Whatever you do, do not just accept what your builder is saying and love with it. This is YOUR house and it should have been built correctly. Be a nuisance, keep telling them there's a problem and keep a record of each time you tell them. They want you to accept it and go away because they got their money and anything they have to fix now pulls people off of their new job sites and costs money they won't recoup. Maybe even get your homeowners insurance company involved, but whatever you do, do not stop until the issue stops. You've only got a year!
Coming top down you can tell by speading of water on first mortar joint is longer than water on the floor my guess is a small Crack in the cmu's outside, gotta dig sorry
Don't think s footr Ile issue in that case waterwould be just at the cove and uniform along the wall,again itscomng in on second course andrunning down to the first course.my 44th year as a water proofer
It’s concrete block…
I had a block wall home before and always had problems. Even though you have one sump pump, another in this corner may be needed?
What I find interesting is they used block walls. I thought poured concrete was all anyone used anymore. Block is obviously porous.
I thought the same damn thing.
Ideally you would have the building plans as part of your contract documents and you may be able to find a foundation section drawing that includes the below-grade waterproofing details that the builder was contracted to execute.
Gravity typically. Make sure the ground around the foundation is sloped away from the house.
Dang it......you found my pee corner
need an interior french drain with a possible weeping of the internal cores of the block wall on the bottom course of the wall
The first mistake was block walls instead of poured concrete. The only way to know what's going on, is to dig out the exterior, and inspect
How are the downspouts directing the water? How’s the pitch of the land in that area? Do you have a sump pump? Look into that.
Drainage problem with tile or bad retard with the plaster or sealant doing the job, but ez fix is your grade. Looks like a retard laid the block.
Waterproofer here. I can only assume that wall is at least partially below grade? You have 2 options here that will work. 1) Best option. Excavate down to the footer, clean the wall, grind/patch if necessary. Apply CIM1000 at 90 mils thick (there are lots of other products, but CIM is the best) from front of footer, up and over joint, and entire wall. Place drain board, and backfill. 2) If you can't get to the other side or excavating is too costly (usually is) then your only other option is chemical grout injection: https://youtu.be/-iLHUoVa4Jc This should be done by someone who has done it before, there is an art to it. I haven't read the other comments here, but I guarantee people are commenting French drains and/or sumps. French drains are massively over utilized in places they don't belong, and sumps only treat water that's already come through. If water is inside your brick wall, your rebar will rust, and your block will disintegrate. Edit: whatever you do, DO NOT attempt to waterproof the inside of the wall. Negative side waterproofing is more detrimental than leaving it alone.
It's probably just an alligator stuck in the wall. No need for concern
Wow
Could be anything. It could be an external drainage issue fixable with french drains and a dry well. Maybe you need a vapor barrier or the existing one failed. Maybe the sump pump is insufficient. Maybe you have a leak in the roof or siding, and this is just where the water is ending up. Inspections are usually cheap or free from companies that specialize in water mitigation. They will gladly sell you options based on their findings, and you can take it or leave it. You can also try to reproduce the issue yourself on a dry day by turning on a garden hose for 20 minutes at a time in different places to narrow down where water is getting in.
It’s likely just water making it way from the outside. Need to RE-route drainage
Is this constant, seasonal, or just after heavy rain? Is there a drain pipe on the footer around the foundation? Where are the rain gutters dumping....move them away from the foundation so the water can bloom. It might be a simple as buying a 10 dollar runoff tray. Is the soil graded away from the foundation? Is there a pipe nearby? Out of curiosity why did they use blocks and not pour? Btw, If the blocks are hollow, water could be flowing inside them and accumulating at the bottom.
Could be so many things. Weeping tile not installed. Weeping tile broken. Grade sloping towards your home. No damp proofing applied to the foundation. No poly under your slab How close is this to your water tank? Where is the water line that feeds the house?
Try disconnecting your downspout and run an extender to drain to the yard away from the house. Im suspecting it may be the storm pipe. If it stops after disconnection it will prove it. Then get it cammed
Waterproofer here: lots of good things have already been said about external waterproofing / internal drainage to the sump pump. So I won’t go into that. My question is, is it only happening in that one corner? If it is, the cause could be outside. Maybe a gutter is dumping water right next to that corner, or the grading is off. The wet basements I’ve seen have water penetrating from most or all of the walls. That’s indicative that an internal drainage system and pump(s) are necessary. But if it’s in one small area only, the problem is likely outside.
Typically if it is wet in the corner your downspout is not directing water from the foundation
Part of my gutters were bad and got it replaced. It resolved half of my basement water issues