On 21 Jul 2006 08:46:31 -0700, "RayV" wrote:


endoking wrote:
From what I have read most of the leaks that occur are from the floor
level. Mine is a little different. A little background...

I helped my neighbor put in a concrete driveway on one side of my house
and suddenly we noticed that we were getting leakage in the basement.
He had the same problem on his side as well. My theory, since we we
never had a problem before, is that we covered up enough ground surface
area with concrete that the only remaining ground near each of the
houses was getting saturated with water ;-)

My house is well over 100 years old and has a poured basement wall
(narrower on top and wider on the bottom). On top of the poured floor
starts several rows of concrete blocks. The leakage is occuring at the
seam between the blocks and the poured wall.

My neighbor filled the ground area up to his wall with bags of blacktop
to fix his problem (have to check with him to see how this worked out)
and I notice that we have a greater problem since he sealed his end
(not too surprising). I have had several suggestions from friends. One
was to dig down on my side and seal the outside at and around the seam
with tar. My neighbor mentioned filling with "pea gravel?" as my side
sits in something of a slight depression. I really dont want to do this
several times so I thought that I would ask the question here ;-)

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

French drain should resolve your problem.

I thought a French drain was only inside the house. I don't want to
nitpick but I don't want him to have miscommunication problems with
others if he uses the wrong word.

dig a trench
insert a preforated pipe with the holes down
make sure the pipe is sloped towards the discharge point
fill trench with gravel
cover with dirt

most instructions say to place landscaping fabric at the top of the
gravel, some say to cover the pipe with it. I agree with covering the
gravel and having the holes of the pipe facing down.

http://tinyurl.com/zcnkc