So, our house is about 6 weeks old now (new construction - we closed
at the of May), and we're having some rather severe problems in our
basement.

While it has been raining seemingly every day now for the past month
here in Atlanta, we've been to the basements of other houses still
under construction in the same subdivision and none of them have
the problem we're having, so it's just our house.

And the problem is, we're seeing water on the basement floor. It's
worst after a heavy rain, of course, but regardless we get wet floors.
It's mostly just at the base of two of the walls, and in one corner
the water actually pools up, though mostly its just dampness on the
floor along the walls. The floor at the middle of the basement is
dry as a bone - it's just where the wall meets the floor, coming out
maybe 2 or 3 inches from the wall.

There's no dampness on the walls, mind you, JUST the floors.

There are no visible cracks anywhere in the floor.

I have a weather gauge down there that showed the humidity at 80%
at one point. The builder came and put a dehumidifier in the
basement, but after a week of running 24/7, the humidity is down
to just 72%.

About a week ago we saw (yellow) mold growing on stuff we had
stashed down there, so we've spent the past week trying to clean
up what we could and tossing the rest.

The foundation has the black stuff (tar?) on the outside, and like
I said, it's not coming in via the walls anyways. The windows and
door are sealed correctly, so that's not the source of the problem,
and anyways the areas most affected are those furthest away from
the windows and door.

The grading on the house appears ok, although I don't have
instruments to measure it - I'm just eyeballing it.

The downspouts were just the standard ones that didn't have any
extensions on them, but after we complained the first time the
builder added some piping to the downspouts so they emptied out
about four feet from the foundation. It appears that did little
to nothing about this problem.

The builder also ran a snake through the foundation drain (which
yes, it is exposed to the surface at both ends) and there was
nothing clogging the drain.

We've checked all around on the second floor ceilings for leaks
and there's nothing visible. Nothing visible in the attic either,
so there's no *obvious* leakage coming in from the top of the
house.

The builder doesn't have any more ideas (at least not that he's
sharing with us), and we certainly don't know what else could
be the problem, unless there just so happens to be a spring under
our foundation (I know one guy to whom that actually happened!).

While it's tempting to just throw down a sealant on the basement
floor and forget about it, that only keeps the water from getting
to the top of the basement slab, it doesn't stop it from
permeating the entire rest of the slab just short of the surface.

I know it's bad form to reply to your own posts, but a thought occurred
to me a few minutes ago, of course only after I posted this...

In the part of the basement where the problem is the worst, above that
area there is a brick and cement porch. Could it be then that the
porch was imporperly constructed? How would I go about figuring that
out?

() wrote in
ups.com:

I know it's bad form to reply to your own posts, but a thought
occurred to me a few minutes ago, of course only after I posted
this...

In the part of the basement where the problem is the worst, above
that area there is a brick and cement porch. Could it be then that
the porch was imporperly constructed? How would I go about
figuring that out?

Before you get into that, do you have gutters and downspouts
directing rainfall away from your foundation?

A porch or patio that slopes toward the house (or just an improperly
graded yard) could also be bad news.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |

The downspouts initially just emptied pretty close to the house, but
the builder added some piping to them so they empty out at least 4 feet
from the foundation.

The grading LOOKS ok, but I don't have instruments to measure it.

wrote in message
ups.com...
I know it's bad form to reply to your own posts, but a thought occurred
to me a few minutes ago, of course only after I posted this...

In the part of the basement where the problem is the worst, above that
area there is a brick and cement porch. Could it be then that the
porch was imporperly constructed? How would I go about figuring that
out?

Sure could- DAMHIKT. Either ponding on the porch, draining down along
outside of basement wall till it gets to the unsealed footer, or poor
drainage around and under the porch, again directing the water to the
footers.

You do have my sympathy- currently dealing with a wet basement myself,
coming up through a floor drain.

aem sends...

wrote:
So, our house is about 6 weeks old now (new construction - we closed
at the of May), and we're having some rather severe problems in our
basement.

While it has been raining seemingly every day now for the past month
here in Atlanta, we've been to the basements of other houses still
under construction in the same subdivision and none of them have
the problem we're having, so it's just our house.

And the problem is, we're seeing water on the basement floor. It's
worst after a heavy rain, of course, but regardless we get wet floors.
It's mostly just at the base of two of the walls, and in one corner
the water actually pools up, though mostly its just dampness on the
floor along the walls. The floor at the middle of the basement is
dry as a bone - it's just where the wall meets the floor, coming out
maybe 2 or 3 inches from the wall.

There's no dampness on the walls, mind you, JUST the floors.

There are no visible cracks anywhere in the floor.

I have a weather gauge down there that showed the humidity at 80%
at one point. The builder came and put a dehumidifier in the
basement, but after a week of running 24/7, the humidity is down
to just 72%.

About a week ago we saw (yellow) mold growing on stuff we had
stashed down there, so we've spent the past week trying to clean
up what we could and tossing the rest.

The foundation has the black stuff (tar?) on the outside, and like
I said, it's not coming in via the walls anyways. The windows and
door are sealed correctly, so that's not the source of the problem,
and anyways the areas most affected are those furthest away from
the windows and door.

The grading on the house appears ok, although I don't have
instruments to measure it - I'm just eyeballing it.

The downspouts were just the standard ones that didn't have any
extensions on them, but after we complained the first time the
builder added some piping to the downspouts so they emptied out
about four feet from the foundation. It appears that did little
to nothing about this problem.

The builder also ran a snake through the foundation drain (which
yes, it is exposed to the surface at both ends) and there was
nothing clogging the drain.

We've checked all around on the second floor ceilings for leaks
and there's nothing visible. Nothing visible in the attic either,
so there's no *obvious* leakage coming in from the top of the
house.

The builder doesn't have any more ideas (at least not that he's
sharing with us), and we certainly don't know what else could
be the problem, unless there just so happens to be a spring under
our foundation (I know one guy to whom that actually happened!).

While it's tempting to just throw down a sealant on the basement
floor and forget about it, that only keeps the water from getting
to the top of the basement slab, it doesn't stop it from
permeating the entire rest of the slab just short of the surface.


I have sort of same problem. House is 3 yeras old, and only 1.5 to me.
Its under warranty. The plumber laid the drain pipes uphill so while
they drain, they hold a lot of water. He will be tearing up the floor
soon to relay some of the pipes.

There is a website with a excellent pdf which explains lots of your
options. When I get to work Ill post the address here, or you can look
for some of my posts/ replies about water over the last month.

IIRC they document will most certainly point to a faulty foundation
drainage system. Do they drain into a sump or into municipal storm
water system?

--
Respectfully,


CL Gilbert

There's no sump and no septic - we are connected to public sewer.

wrote:
There's no sump and no septic - we are connected to public sewer.


Typically its 2 seperate connections. Toilets to to public sewer,
storms go to public storm drain/street runoff system.

check this out
www.misterfix-it.com/keepbasementdry2.pdf

or google for 'keepbasementdry2.pdf'

--
Good luck,


CL Gilbert