Thanks so much for your very complete response. I was thinking of
simply filling in the area, after digging down sufficiently, with
concrete but my neighbor mentioned something about ice expansion,
heaving, and pressure against my foundation wall. I dont really see it.
If I should pour concrete that is to butt against his concrete
driveway then where is this ice going to push against? ;-)

I like everything that you mention and will follow this course of
action. I need to research the "pool" drain notion though. I was
thinking of a drain pipe cut in half lenghtwise and using this as the
form for my small concrete "ditch-like" drain that would run against
his concrete driveway pitching from front to back of house (or visa
versa) to encourage water flow.

BTW, I am in upstate NY.

A question about these "french drains"... These would be buried under
the ground and, much like the above would move water away from the
house. What happens to the water at the end of this drain under ground?

Many Thanks again.


Italian wrote:
Drainage, Drainage, Drainage is what I tell people when we do jobs like
this but they do not seem to understand the importance of having all
that surface area (driveway, slab, ect) head in some direction for when
it rains, this is classic example. If I were you I would (now that it
is summer) take the time to first dig down in a couple of spots to
inspect the block portion of your foundation. Since your house is so
old Im assuming you are on the east coast somewhere. Water and older
block donot mix very well heck water and new block don mix well. Anyway
check to see if you have any visable damage cracks, loose morter, holes
ect. if you can do this from the inside remember that the block is
probably 12" wide and could look perfect from the inside and be damaged
on the out. After establishing if you have damage or not REPAIR IT
FIRST because you will allways have moisture in the ground regardless
of fixing the driveway problem. After that there are a coulpe of things
I would recomend. First and probably the most Ideal would be to fill
this area in with concrete and put what is called a POOL drain the
length of the driveway draining to a safe area. To illustrate you would
place this drain next to the existing slab and then pour the new slab
up to the house making sure that the area from the house to the drain
has a slight enough slope towards the drain that you do not create the
same problem.
The second option is simply putting in a french drain (not with holes
down, this is incorect)
down the entie length of the house area. Another option I suppose could
be that if the slab is draining to a specific area more than another
and then just flowing over the rest of the ground you could put a
single drain there and agin send it to a safe area. Idealy If you are
not concerned about landscaping this area (which you shouldnt anyway) I
would do the first option and try to convince your neighbor to do the
same.
endoking wrote:
The rain seems to be coming from the new slab in concert with less
surface area of moisture absorbing ground that is now covered by slab.

Thanks

Italian wrote:
Where is this water comming from? Drainage off the roof dripping into
this area or from rain water flowing off the slab?

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.