Before you do any of the things the others suggest, paint the floor.
With waterproof paint recommended for basement walls (maybe floors to,
but the usual problem is walls).

Back in 1961, my mother still owned the house she and her late husband
had lived in, and the tenant complained about the wet basement
(actually he had gotten a reduction in rent on the promise that he
would fix the place up, but he never did anything except complain to
the building department about the wet basement as he moved out owing
some rent.)

So the building department was after my mother, and the inspector told
her that all she had to do was get this waterproof paint. Well my
mother was 53 and I was 14 so I got the job of painting it, and I did
my best but I'm pretty sure I painted some cobwebs right onto the
wall. But it was under the stairs. The whole wall, floor to ceiling,
side to side, only took an hour, iirc.

I actually didn't think any of this would help, but apparently it
solved the problem completely and for years thereafter, at least 5 but
I think she had the house even after my motehr and her husband moved
700 miles away. That is, the basement was dry afterwards.

The hardware store at Myrtle and Jay street in Brooklyn had a display
of part of a cinder block, painted on one half and not on the other,
with a pump circulating the water, and the water came right through
the unpainted part and not a bit on the painted part.

I would think the paint is as good now, hopefully even better than it
was in 1961. I don't know if you need to take off the paint that is
there now first or not, but if you have to paint it again no big deal.
You only need do a square foot or so. I'm sure you can paint over the
waterproof paint with paint that matches, or contrasts with, the rest
of the floor.

Don't go for hard ways to do things if you can do them easily.

P&M


On 21 Sep 2006 10:14:46 -0700, wrote:

I have pinhole leak in my concrete basement floor. At worst, it leaks
maybe one drop every ten seconds. The water flows across the floor
where I walk all the time, collects, and keeps the humidity high. It's
more of a problem than "pinhole leak" would suggest.

What can I do to stop the leak?

It looks as if someone tried to patch it - the leak is in the middle of
a small mounded-up area in an otherwise smooth concrete floor. (The
floor is all painted.) It's about four feet from the sump pump and
walls.

There are some other leaks at the joints between the wall and floor. To
help with these, I plan to extend the outlets of the gutters farther
from the house, seal the joint between the garage and the concrete
driveway apron, etc... But the pinhole leak is such a tiny leak - Is
there some direct fix? I might try simple/cheap/quick fixes even if
they're not guaranteed to solve the problem.

Thanks for your help.