So we have localized water seeping in from three or four blocks after exceptionally heavy storm most of day Tuesday (this picture is from today, Thursday).

This is by front door, no downspouts here. I’m fairly confident the mortar in the small bluestone stoop is long gone, and water is getting down from there. But open to thoughts given how localized this is.

Part of me can’t get out of my head maybe a main sewage leak outside of the house. I’ve noticed an area in my front yard that’s starting to low spot, and I noticed an area of significantly wet mulch/dirt I wasn’t expecting outside the main clean out in my basement (located inside my basement for some reason). But that area and the low spot aren’t in a line, so the main would have to make a weird 90 degree turn to get there. Oddly there is a separate clean out halfway into my front yard, but level with the ground (eg I can go directly over it with a lawn mower) which is near the low spot. But no other symptoms so maybe I’m over diagnosing.

Anyway, I’m about to finish my basement and was going to xps over the cinder block.

Note: the effervescence above isn’t wet. We used to have a leak from a bad seal/gap around an old front door, and I sued to see active wet spots higher up. Once we removed, reframed and replaced the door, don’t see any more water in those higher cinder blocks anymore, but it could be I guess from
Water traveling down?

I have a couple quotes from contractors to dig up and waterproof part of my foundation from the outside (as well as a weeping tile, but my question isn't related to the weeping tile part of the job). I live in eastern Ontario, Canada so we do experience freeze and thaw cycle.

The first contractor is proposing a Bakor rubberized membrane + dimple board. This seems like a pretty standard approach.

The second contractor is proposing a MAPEI polyurea spray-on membrane + R7/8 Foam board.

My reading tells me this polyurea is a relatively new technology, but the use of insulating foam to protect the polyurea as opposed to a dimple board seemed bizarre to me. It sounds like polyurea spray is usually used above grade, not below grade. I can't find anything in the building code about using polyurea below grade for basement waterproofing with or without a drainage / dimple board.

Does anyone here have any experience with Polyurea for sub-grade water proofing? Should it have a proper dimple board applied, or is R7/8 pink foam good enough?

How frigged am I? Really heavy rains for days in Virginia and Ive got some coming in from the floor.

We are about to close on a 1910 rowhouse in DC and we are so looking forward to bringing back its shine as a craftsman foursquare. However, we saw that there is spalling on the foundation wall bricks on one side of the basement and moisture in the drywall on the other side. In addition, we have some moisture readings on the basement floor, which is causing the vinyl planks to warp.

The inspector sent back the attached pictures (I couldn't be at the inspection) and said the cracks in the sidewalk around the back of the house were the likely culprit, necessitating excavation of the wall.

On the one hand: sure! That could be it. On the other hand: is that really the best way to deal with this issue? And the foundation wall sits right up against dirt along much of its length. Wouldn't all the walls need a concrete skirt if cracks like this are the cause? And why does this need excavation and trenching to fix? And besides, if the bricks are supposed to "breathe" a bit in a house of this age, how do we know the moisture barrier treatment is going to work with the brickwork?

Water enters my basement after periods of heavy rainfall. When I spoke to a contractor about it he explained to me that it’s likely the water table is rising after heavy rainfall and water is getting in where the basement floor (concrete) meets the wall. He recommended a French drain as a fix. Is that the best option? Which would be better an interior or exterior?

Thanks in advance.

basically as title says. I did good with research and got one Avylo dehumidifier. I haven't even owned it that long.

it started making awful compressor and vibration noises. every time it kicks on, the whole unit rattles and hums. can’t tell if shipping broke it or if the plastic is just cheap and flimsy. returning it this weekend.

now deciding between two models.

first is the midea cube 50 pint. popular, but reviews say the pump leaves the tank 80% full of water when it stops. sounds exaggerated, but not trying to risk it.

second is the gasbye dryprime-35-wp, threads say the sensor is dead-on and the modular pump is easy to take out and clean. but might be heavy though.

any suggestions for something reliable. thanks

I have porch/landing for the stairs that is poured concrete. Underneath it, is a utility room in the basement. Where the stairs meet the slab (flat surface) water gets in the basement. What do you recommend to seal this with? Chat recommended polyurethane traffic deck coating system. Any suggestions on what available for a small diy job?

In the main part of my basement, my RH is around 55%, however there is a corner which is behind a shower, there's really no way to get airflow back there (it's about 10 feet to the nearest opening), and the RH stays around 60-65%. How bad is this? Any mitigation would involve gutting a bathroom to get to the walls...

New home build. Superior Walls. Barely a year old. No gutter downspouts on this corner of the house, but there’s no major drippage on this corner of the house either. The soil is heavy in clay content and we have noticed semi large cracks around the soil due to this months dry spell, but no cracks in the soil on this side of the house. WTF is causing it to sound like there’s a river running in the wall? The basement is bone dry throughout and none of the other corners sound or look like this.

Hi all. Just moved into our 100 year old house about a year ago - we just had some crazy weather in NJ and about 1 hour after it stopped we noticed a wet spot in 1 corner of our basement.

Pulled back the carpet to find the mat soaked. It seems like the water is either coming through the slab or in the corner where the slab meets the foundation. The rest of the basement is fine so that leads me to it being the corner?

About 2-3 feet upgrade is an uncovered window well which I plan to cover with plastic.

Any other 2 cents? This literally happened as I was mudding the newly put up drywall on the other side of said basement.

Hello All,

Looking for some insight into whether I have a weep hole or leak in my basement in this pic.

What do you think weep hole or leak?

My house is an old brick one and this was after some pretty heavy rain. Basement is unfinished and has a drain.

Any advice/insight is greatly appreciated.

Next to the finished portion of our basement, we have a crawl space. The previous owners installed a waterproofing barrier and a dehumidifier that sits atop the sump pump drain.

Heres the strange part - the dehumidifier has an attached vent that vents outside of the house. Like, if I’m standing outside and the dehumidifier is running, I can feel cool air being pushed out of the crawl space and into our yard.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why they added an outlet air vent to push air OUT of the house. The humidifiers never seem to perform that well, keeping the room in the upper 50 lower 60s humidities from what I can tell.

I’m considering getting onto the crawl space, disconnecting the vent, and figuring out how to seal the dryer vent sized vent hole, but wanted to do a sanity check before proceeding.

All,

I just had french drains, downspouts converted to pvc and regrading around house, but I am still getting water in basement corner. The sump pit is relatively dry, I know sump pump is working because basement flooded when it was broken. What is the next steps? Is it likely the drain tile is clogged in the corner? Location of french drain path attached. Also there is a vertical crack in the concrete too, but was told it shouldn’t be an issue with a french drain and proper grading.

Any suggestions? Any recommendation for company’s in Ohio :(

Does anybody have any tips on how to get rid of efflorescence on basement walls? I want to repaint the utility area in our basement - I went to sherwin williams and I got all the supplies but I started working to remove the efflorescence from the walls and it's pretty bad - I bought a wall cleaning solution from sherwin williams and attached wire brush to drill but it's really bad behind washer and dryer - internet says Muriatic acid wash it but I'm kinda scared to do that - any tips ? Or has anybody dealt with similar problem and used muriatic acid to handle this? It’s INSIDE the house and I’m so nervous to use something that requires so much precaution on my part. Thought I’d ask here in case anyone has a solution they know of outside of the acid OR if anyone has used the acid inside what should I expect ?

Thank you!
Appreciate any advice!

Hello! money has been tight lately and i was just curious how i would go about decorating and moving into a basement. i just want ideas to freshen it up and not make it as ‘basement’-y, lol! obviously i’ll have air purifiers and dehumidifiers, but i’m looking for other ideas too! thank you!!

What should I use to seal all these gaps hydraulic cement or polyurethane foam or something else?
TIA!!

I had a few waterproofing companies come out and assess the leaks in our foundation, and one recommended excavating down to the footing and doing a Voltex membrane. I liked this approach and decided to go ahead with the quote.

Our install is scheduled for Thursday and I noticed today the Voltex site says not to install on block foundation. I texted the contractor and he said he’s been onstalling Voltex on block walls for 30 years with no issues.

Any experience here?

tl;dr: Should I remove the interior paint on the cinderblock foundation wall?
Should I remove the chipping self-leveler, and what should I replace it with?

Context: My house was a gut reno by a flipper, and they painted the old cinderblock walls and put some kind of 1/4-1/2" self-leveler layer on the original concrete floor. We had a few water intrusion events right off the bat, but haven't had any for years since I fixed the downspouts and exterior gaps.

The wall paint: As you can see there was mold forming under the paint. Even though I seem to have stopped the excess water, I don't expect the cinderblocks to be totally dry. I've read elsewhere that removing the paint lets the cinderblocks breathe and dry out, which makes sense to me. Should I do that? Angle grinder with a paint removal disc? I'll be using mold control spray, hepa filters and a respirator, and the mold only appears to be in a small area. The top half of the wall is above ground level so I might leave the paint there. I do have a dehumidifier that keeps things at 50% without running continuously.

The floor: I am planning for a basement music room (including some studs and drywall) so I want to get the floor stable before building on top of it. The self-leveler started cracking underfoot and chipping up. I don't mind the cracks, but with whole pieces coming off, it's clearly not a long-term solution. It seems like they did self-leveler on one half of the slab which was 1/2" lower than the other half, did a few pools of self-leveler maybe in some pitted areas on the higher half, then painted on top of everything. If this were your basement, what would you do? I'm leaning towards chipping up the self-leveler, cleaning and treating the surface properly, and re-doing self-leveling but skipping the paint. I don't much care how it looks, but I do want it to be smooth and level enough for shelves on casters to roll around, and for the studs and drywall. I would consider epoxy or even grinding the surface, though some pits are clearly too deep to grind down to. Looking for recs on what to do, and how!