On May 3, 3:49*pm, Metspitzer wrote:
On Thu, 3 May 2012 11:25:48 -0700 (PDT), Bryan Scholtes





wrote:
On May 3, 1:19*pm, Metspitzer wrote:
My basement has started leaking water when it rains hard. *My sister
has moved into the basement and I would like to have someone out to
see about stopping the leak.

Is there any way to tell what is causing the leak without having to
wait for a heavy rain?

Basements are not waterproof.

Water leaks are usually caused by poor gutter downspout placement, as
well as poor grading of the soil toward the foundation.

Google is your friend. Lots of info about leaky basements.

In my case, I had no gutters and the basement always leaked. I needed
to install gutters and have the downspouts at least 10 feet away from
the foundation. Also, I spent $700 having my soil re-graded. Fine
gravel was dumped around the foundation and sloped away. The 2 inches
of topsoil was added and grass re-planted.

No plants closer than 10 feet to the foundation should be watered. You
want all of that as dry as possible.

That is most likely the problem now that you mention it. *I had
gutters installed a few years back. *Around the same time as the
basement started leaking.

Thanks- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I'd say the water from the downspouts should go 7 ft min
away from the house. 10ft would be better. And the
grading should direct water away from the house. After
inspecting everything, don't assume what is happening
during a rain. You need to go out there in a heavy rain.
As an example, I was having a problem and until I did
that I didn't realize that one of those corrogated drain
pipes I had on a downspout didn't go up far enough.
With a heavy rain, water was pouring out the top of it
right at the foundation.

Those type of things are easy, where to start and are
often the problem.