Homeowner headache

Greenthumbfarms

Greenthumbfarms

Well-known member
It has been a week of headaches here. The basement has been taking in water due to the rains. Called a foundation repair service that was highly recommended to me to fix it right, they will be here to do an estimate in Monday
Now on top of that the gas valve in the furnace decided to let go. It is going to be an expensive week for home repairs...
 
I'm finding the contractors are behind on their jobs. Put a complete heat pump HVAC installation out for bids. Took a month just to get the contractors in to appraise the job.

Ordered a complete heat pump HVAC installation in January. Coming Monday the contractor is scheduled to show up to lay out the ducting and locate its units.

Need the HVAC locations so we can install an electric subpanel for the water heater and kitchen wiring.

Interesting. The air outlets are installed in the floor near exterior walls. Returns are installed high in the interior walls.
 
I have had no experience with those heat pumps, bur the layout you described for the heat and return registers is surprising, I jave always seen both located at floor level.
I made the call for the basement contractor to come for the estimate yesterday and they put me on the Monday schedule. I'm thinking it helps that it is a small, local company
 
Greenthumbfarms":7h93fna7 said:
The basement has been taking in water due to the rains.
Click to expand...

How is your gutters and down spouts?

Gutters clean?

Down spouts taking the water clearly away from foundation?

How is the land graded around the house?

Nice gental grade going away from the from the foundation?

If all that is good, then you might need new footer drains.

A proper job entails digging up around the house down to next to the footer.
Washing the wall with a pressure washer.
If not been done then parging the cement blocks with mortar, then having someone apply tar to that when the mortar is dry.

Installing new 4" sdr35 perferated pipe along your footer on grade to your sump pump, and back filling with 57 washed gravel from the footer to the ground level at least 8" thick between the basement wall and the dirt.
 
SamsFarm":2zq4vowc said:
Greenthumbfarms":2zq4vowc said:
The basement has been taking in water due to the rains.
Click to expand...

How is your gutters and down spouts?

Gutters clean?

Down spouts taking the water clearly away from foundation?

How is the land graded around the house?

Nice gental grade going away from the from the foundation?

If all that is good, then you might need new footer drains.

A proper job entails digging up around the house down to next to the footer.
Washing the wall with a pressure washer.
If not been done then parging the cement blocks with mortar, then having someone apply tar to that when the mortar is dry.

Installing new 4" sdr35 perferated pipe along your footer on grade to your sump pump, and back filling with 57 washed gravel from the footer to the ground level at least 8" thick between the basement wall and the dirt.
Click to expand...
Clean, oversized gutters that are pushing water away from the house. The tile and sump pump probably will have to be installed, as I have neither. Still looking to see what the basement service thinks. I was hoping not to put that kind of money into this house, as it us a starter house I hope to be out of in the next 1-2 years. But I don't believe in half-assing repairs, so I will have to see what the service thinks is the best plan of attack.
 
Type of foundation? Where is the water coming in?

1897 house, limestone rock foundation, sitting on hardpan. I painted Drylok on interior basement walls. Drylok is a cementitious type sealer.

I put in a sump pump and cut a slit in the cement floor to drain water to the sump pump.

My problem is that water comes up through the floor. With the Drylok, only get an occasional seep through the walls.
 
Eugene":1cx311iy said:
Type of foundation? Where is the water coming in?

1897 house, limestone rock foundation, sitting on hardpan. I painted Drylok on interior basement walls. Drylok is a cementitious type sealer.

I put in a sump pump and cut a slit in the cement floor to drain water to the sump pump.

My problem is that water comes up through the floor. With the Drylok, only get an occasional seep through the walls.
Click to expand...
Concrete floor and block walls. All seepage is where the floor and walls meet. Seepage is one thing but having to babysit every rain to prevent a serious flood is another
 
Greenthumbfarms":2b28zlnx said:
The tile and sump pump probably will have to be installed, as I have neither.
Click to expand...

No sump pump in your basement?

Are you high on a hill to where you have natural drainage from the below the grade of your basement floor?

Or maybe in the city where your stuff flows into a city storm sewer or the city sewer?

I had a friend, her house was in the city and all drains went to city sewer.

She had some flooding issues when the sewer could not handle a major storm.

First I installed new downspout drains run underground to the curb, and put a backflow preventer in the basement floor for her sewer line!

That made a major improvement, but if the rains was heavy enough, she still get water in the basement because of seepage from the walls.
(The backflow preventer was keeping the sewer from coming into the basement, but at the same time not letting the floor drain function.)

Then I added a sump pump in which the house had at one time, but someone filled in!

I redid her basement floor drain to go into the sump pump crock instead of the city sewer also.

Her new sump pump pumped into the line for the downspouts.
(Luckily I thought we might add the sump pump at a later date and had pre installed the provisions in the downspout drains outside for the sump pump to tie into!)
 
I am situated in an older neighborhood, in an older town. No subdivision streets with storm drains other that what has been built in the last 10-15 years. The concrete floor in the basement is far from flat, typical 100 year old basement floor without rebar in it. Even with the lone floor drain being at the lowest point, the water never seems to make its way over there on its own.
Did get the heat going today, yesterday we were under the suspicion that the motherboard in the furnace had gone kaput. Naturally it ended up being the gas valve, which we couldn't get until this morning. $975 for the valve installation and general service to the furnace. On top of that the electric bill is going to be through the roof after 2 days of using space heaters. It's always something around here...
 
For the floor to wall connection weep, some contractors cut the concrete out near the walls, install a tile and then pea gravel rock that directs the water to a new sump. This is a pretty easy way to manage the water rather than fight it.
 
outdoors4evr":6mvn9mbh said:
For the floor to wall connection weep, some contractors cut the concrete out near the walls, install a tile and then pea gravel rock that directs the water to a new sump. This is a pretty easy way to manage the water rather than fight it.
Click to expand...
That is exactly what the contractor suggested. He has me on his schedule to come out and do that by the end of April
 
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