There are over 12,000 hits on basement water in alt.home.repair. But I
couldn't find anything that quite matched up with what I'm facing.
We've had water appear in the basement guest room twice now. Once one
year ago, once last week. And I seem to have ruled out all possible
sources...so I must be overlooking something.

When the water appeared a year ago, it was so strange that we figured
one of our teens must have tried to empty the dehumidifier and spilled
it, though they swore they hadn't. But now the same thing has happened
and the dehumidifier isn't in that room.

FACTS:

1) The house is a raised bungalow, so the basement floor is only about
five feet below ground level. The guest room is in the corner of the
house opposite the main basement drain. It's also far away from the
city water line and any other water lines that we know of.
2) The water appeared centred about 4 feet from either wall, so wasn't
in a corner nor smack in the middle of the room. One of the
aforementioned walls is exterior, southeast side, the other is interior
and load-bearing.
3) On the other side of the interior wall is an unfinished work room
where we can check ceiling joists and see bare concrete block. Bone dry
in there.
4) After a couple of days (we found the water on Tuesday) the water had
spread in a circular pattern. We had a fan and the dehumidifier in
there by then.
5) Upon lifting the carpet and pad today, I was able to determine that
the apparent origin of the water is the local high point in the floor.
My carpenter's level says so, and pouring a bit of water on the floor
underneath shows that it all flows away from that point. Water poured
nearby will not flow up to that point.
6) The old floor is 40+-year-old asbestos tile, bonded down like
nobody's business.
7) No sign of water from the ceiling. The dining room is above the
guest room.
8) Our basement flooded (as did many people's) after torrential rains
in May 2000. I put in new drywall and made sure to have vapour
barriers, sealed joints between walls and floor, and venting of the air
space behind the drywall to fight condensation build-up behind the
walls, just in case. So I can easily check behind the walls. Dry, dry,
dry.
9) During the 2000 floods, our main problem was a crack in the concrete
in another area of the basement where a wall had been taken out,
probably by the original owners in the 60's. Hydrostatic pressure was
pushing water through the crack like a tiny geyser. We had the crack
repaired. We also had the downspouts rerouted to run out to the lawn,
at least 12 feet from the foundation, instead of into the weeping tile
system, which is 47 years old.
10) We're in the midst of the hottest and dryest summer on record here.

My theories a

A) Our kids are malicious liars.
B) The water came through the foundation walls, flowed uphill, dried
itself off the walls and the carpet through which it came, then flowed
back out from its rallying point.
C) We have hydrostatics troubling us again despite near-drought
conditions.

I am perplexed. What am I overlooking? What fundamental thing do I just
not understand?

Thanks for ANY ideas!

Do you have a cat?

Seriously, how much water are you talking about.

One thing you can do is to tape down plastic to the floor in a few areas and
see how much mositure shows up over night.


wrote in message
oups.com...
There are over 12,000 hits on basement water in alt.home.repair. But I
couldn't find anything that quite matched up with what I'm facing.
We've had water appear in the basement guest room twice now. Once one
year ago, once last week. And I seem to have ruled out all possible
sources...so I must be overlooking something.

When the water appeared a year ago, it was so strange that we figured
one of our teens must have tried to empty the dehumidifier and spilled
it, though they swore they hadn't. But now the same thing has happened
and the dehumidifier isn't in that room.

FACTS:

1) The house is a raised bungalow, so the basement floor is only about
five feet below ground level. The guest room is in the corner of the
house opposite the main basement drain. It's also far away from the
city water line and any other water lines that we know of.
2) The water appeared centred about 4 feet from either wall, so wasn't
in a corner nor smack in the middle of the room. One of the
aforementioned walls is exterior, southeast side, the other is interior
and load-bearing.
3) On the other side of the interior wall is an unfinished work room
where we can check ceiling joists and see bare concrete block. Bone dry
in there.
4) After a couple of days (we found the water on Tuesday) the water had
spread in a circular pattern. We had a fan and the dehumidifier in
there by then.
5) Upon lifting the carpet and pad today, I was able to determine that
the apparent origin of the water is the local high point in the floor.
My carpenter's level says so, and pouring a bit of water on the floor
underneath shows that it all flows away from that point. Water poured
nearby will not flow up to that point.
6) The old floor is 40+-year-old asbestos tile, bonded down like
nobody's business.
7) No sign of water from the ceiling. The dining room is above the
guest room.
8) Our basement flooded (as did many people's) after torrential rains
in May 2000. I put in new drywall and made sure to have vapour
barriers, sealed joints between walls and floor, and venting of the air
space behind the drywall to fight condensation build-up behind the
walls, just in case. So I can easily check behind the walls. Dry, dry,
dry.
9) During the 2000 floods, our main problem was a crack in the concrete
in another area of the basement where a wall had been taken out,
probably by the original owners in the 60's. Hydrostatic pressure was
pushing water through the crack like a tiny geyser. We had the crack
repaired. We also had the downspouts rerouted to run out to the lawn,
at least 12 feet from the foundation, instead of into the weeping tile
system, which is 47 years old.
10) We're in the midst of the hottest and dryest summer on record here.

My theories a

A) Our kids are malicious liars.
B) The water came through the foundation walls, flowed uphill, dried
itself off the walls and the carpet through which it came, then flowed
back out from its rallying point.
C) We have hydrostatics troubling us again despite near-drought
conditions.

I am perplexed. What am I overlooking? What fundamental thing do I just
not understand?

Thanks for ANY ideas!

wrote:

10) We're in the midst of the hottest and dryest summer on record here.


Is it possible that either you or the neighbors are watering the lawn a
lot more to compensate for the drought? The water might come from
there, somehow.

Perhaps you could use a die on the lawn to track the water source

wrote in message
My theories a

A) Our kids are malicious liars.
B) The water came through the foundation walls, flowed uphill, dried
itself off the walls and the carpet through which it came, then flowed
back out from its rallying point.
C) We have hydrostatics troubling us again despite near-drought
conditions.

I am perplexed. What am I overlooking? What fundamental thing do I just
not understand?

D) Alien space ship fueling site.

Does sound strange. Any pipes running under the floor? Do you have hot
water heat? If so, did the installer cut corners years ago and run a pipe
under the floor?

Drains running under it?

wrote:

I suggest that you may have more of a natural ground water problem than
you think.

First step is to test to try and determine where the water is really
coming from.

Go to the area where you had the problem. Tape about a foot square of
plastic or foil onto the floor. Come back in 24 hours (morning would be
good) and take a look. Is there moisture on the top or under the foil or
plastic? On top, means it is the humidity you need to work on. Under means
it is coming up from under the floor.

Ground water can be funny and may be very close to the surface on one
spot and a couple of feet away it may be much lower.

That high spot makes me wonder. I have not seen it, but I wonder it
might be the result of natural water pressure at that point? Drilling a
hole there might help you tell, but it also could start a bigger problem
than you have now.


There are over 12,000 hits on basement water in alt.home.repair. But I
couldn't find anything that quite matched up with what I'm facing.
We've had water appear in the basement guest room twice now. Once one
year ago, once last week. And I seem to have ruled out all possible
sources...so I must be overlooking something.

When the water appeared a year ago, it was so strange that we figured
one of our teens must have tried to empty the dehumidifier and spilled
it, though they swore they hadn't. But now the same thing has happened
and the dehumidifier isn't in that room.

FACTS:

1) The house is a raised bungalow, so the basement floor is only about
five feet below ground level. The guest room is in the corner of the
house opposite the main basement drain. It's also far away from the
city water line and any other water lines that we know of.
2) The water appeared centred about 4 feet from either wall, so wasn't
in a corner nor smack in the middle of the room. One of the
aforementioned walls is exterior, southeast side, the other is
interior and load-bearing.
3) On the other side of the interior wall is an unfinished work room
where we can check ceiling joists and see bare concrete block. Bone
dry in there.
4) After a couple of days (we found the water on Tuesday) the water
had spread in a circular pattern. We had a fan and the dehumidifier in
there by then.
5) Upon lifting the carpet and pad today, I was able to determine that
the apparent origin of the water is the local high point in the floor.
My carpenter's level says so, and pouring a bit of water on the floor
underneath shows that it all flows away from that point. Water poured
nearby will not flow up to that point.
6) The old floor is 40+-year-old asbestos tile, bonded down like
nobody's business.
7) No sign of water from the ceiling. The dining room is above the
guest room.
8) Our basement flooded (as did many people's) after torrential rains
in May 2000. I put in new drywall and made sure to have vapour
barriers, sealed joints between walls and floor, and venting of the
air space behind the drywall to fight condensation build-up behind the
walls, just in case. So I can easily check behind the walls. Dry, dry,
dry.
9) During the 2000 floods, our main problem was a crack in the
concrete in another area of the basement where a wall had been taken
out, probably by the original owners in the 60's. Hydrostatic
pressure was pushing water through the crack like a tiny geyser. We
had the crack repaired. We also had the downspouts rerouted to run
out to the lawn, at least 12 feet from the foundation, instead of
into the weeping tile system, which is 47 years old.
10) We're in the midst of the hottest and dryest summer on record
here.

My theories a

A) Our kids are malicious liars.
B) The water came through the foundation walls, flowed uphill, dried
itself off the walls and the carpet through which it came, then flowed
back out from its rallying point.
C) We have hydrostatics troubling us again despite near-drought
conditions.

I am perplexed. What am I overlooking? What fundamental thing do I
just not understand?

Thanks for ANY ideas!

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit

wrote:
There are over 12,000 hits on basement water in alt.home.repair. But I
couldn't find anything that quite matched up with what I'm facing.
We've had water appear in the basement guest room twice now. Once one
year ago, once last week. And I seem to have ruled out all possible
sources...so I must be overlooking something.

When the water appeared a year ago, it was so strange that we figured
one of our teens must have tried to empty the dehumidifier and spilled
it, though they swore they hadn't. But now the same thing has happened
and the dehumidifier isn't in that room.

FACTS:

1) The house is a raised bungalow, so the basement floor is only about
five feet below ground level. The guest room is in the corner of the
house opposite the main basement drain. It's also far away from the
city water line and any other water lines that we know of.
2) The water appeared centred about 4 feet from either wall, so wasn't
in a corner nor smack in the middle of the room. One of the
aforementioned walls is exterior, southeast side, the other is interior
and load-bearing.
3) On the other side of the interior wall is an unfinished work room
where we can check ceiling joists and see bare concrete block. Bone dry
in there.
4) After a couple of days (we found the water on Tuesday) the water had
spread in a circular pattern. We had a fan and the dehumidifier in
there by then.
5) Upon lifting the carpet and pad today, I was able to determine that
the apparent origin of the water is the local high point in the floor.
My carpenter's level says so, and pouring a bit of water on the floor
underneath shows that it all flows away from that point. Water poured
nearby will not flow up to that point.
6) The old floor is 40+-year-old asbestos tile, bonded down like
nobody's business.
7) No sign of water from the ceiling. The dining room is above the
guest room.
8) Our basement flooded (as did many people's) after torrential rains
in May 2000. I put in new drywall and made sure to have vapour
barriers, sealed joints between walls and floor, and venting of the air
space behind the drywall to fight condensation build-up behind the
walls, just in case. So I can easily check behind the walls. Dry, dry,
dry.
9) During the 2000 floods, our main problem was a crack in the concrete
in another area of the basement where a wall had been taken out,
probably by the original owners in the 60's. Hydrostatic pressure was
pushing water through the crack like a tiny geyser. We had the crack
repaired. We also had the downspouts rerouted to run out to the lawn,
at least 12 feet from the foundation, instead of into the weeping tile
system, which is 47 years old.
10) We're in the midst of the hottest and dryest summer on record here.

My theories a

A) Our kids are malicious liars.
B) The water came through the foundation walls, flowed uphill, dried
itself off the walls and the carpet through which it came, then flowed
back out from its rallying point.
C) We have hydrostatics troubling us again despite near-drought
conditions.

I am perplexed. What am I overlooking? What fundamental thing do I just
not understand?

Thanks for ANY ideas!



You fixed hydrostatic pressure by patching the floor??? no seriously?

You could have a roof leak, especially considering its a bungalow. We
had a roof leak that showed up in the basement in a colonial.

Is your carpet covering on of your floor drains? The foundation drain
connected one perhaps?

You can always stake out the basement

--
Respectfully,


CL Gilbert

clipped

I am perplexed. What am I overlooking? What fundamental thing do I just
not understand?

Thanks for ANY ideas!


I must have misunderstood something. The wet spot on carpet is high
point of the room? Stain or mineral deposit on wet area, signifying
long-term moisture? Now that the carpet is up, lay newspaper down over
entire floor and check it daily for moisture. Is their a ceiling
fixture in the room above wet spot - a leak upstairs that could traverse
a pipe, beam or wire and drip out through fixture?

Norminn wrote:
clipped

I am perplexed. What am I overlooking? What fundamental thing do I just
not understand?

Thanks for ANY ideas!


I must have misunderstood something. The wet spot on carpet is high
point of the room? Stain or mineral deposit on wet area, signifying
long-term moisture? Now that the carpet is up, lay newspaper down over
entire floor and check it daily for moisture. Is their a ceiling
fixture in the room above wet spot - a leak upstairs that could traverse
a pipe, beam or wire and drip out through fixture?

The fixture is a few feet to the side, in the dead centre of the room.
No stain or deposit to signify long-term moisture. Yes, it's at least
the local high point and it feels, as I walk along, like the high point
of the room overall, but I don't have all the carpet up yet to be sure.

Several of you have recommended checking for moisture buildup while the
carpet is up. I will do that. Which do you all figure is the more
effective test: plastic taped down over the suspicious spot, or
newspaper over the whole room?

Thanks to all for the suggestions.

I am perplexed. What am I overlooking? What fundamental thing do I just
not understand?

Thanks for ANY ideas!




Set up a video camera to record overnight..

see where the water comes from.

Mark

I should probably answer some of the other questions here, all
together:

No cat. One dog. Several litres of liquid at least. The liquid doesn't
smell like urine, though, just water.

We and everybody have been watering less because of the water shortage.
Our neighbours on that side have been gone for weeks and we're doing
limited watering for them.

No pipes under the floor that we know of. We have forced air heat. No
drains in the area.

"Fixing hydrostatics" ... LOL. Well, I didn't really fix the
hydrostatics....just the problem of it coming up through the crack :-)
.. I figured all I could really do was convince the water that it wanted
to go somewhere else. "Roof leak"....I'll look into it. A couple of our
shingles needed replacing, which I did today, and they are over that
room. But leaking all the way past the main floor and down to the
basement?

No drains nearby, unless the builder put a second one in (the drain we
know about is in the laundry room, other end of the house) and then
some handyman covered it over with tile.

I bet it is the roof leak. When my wife was in college, she was in the
first story of her 2 story apartment house. Her roof leak. I had a
flashing problem in the current house. The water went thru the wall down to
the basement without any damage to the wall. I could hear it dripping
though.


wrote in message
oups.com...
I should probably answer some of the other questions here, all
together:

No cat. One dog. Several litres of liquid at least. The liquid doesn't
smell like urine, though, just water.

We and everybody have been watering less because of the water shortage.
Our neighbours on that side have been gone for weeks and we're doing
limited watering for them.

No pipes under the floor that we know of. We have forced air heat. No
drains in the area.

"Fixing hydrostatics" ... LOL. Well, I didn't really fix the
hydrostatics....just the problem of it coming up through the crack :-)
. I figured all I could really do was convince the water that it wanted
to go somewhere else. "Roof leak"....I'll look into it. A couple of our
shingles needed replacing, which I did today, and they are over that
room. But leaking all the way past the main floor and down to the
basement?

No drains nearby, unless the builder put a second one in (the drain we
know about is in the laundry room, other end of the house) and then
some handyman covered it over with tile.

did you check for a cold spot in the floor, where water vapour which is in
the air, is condensating?

wrote in message
oups.com...
There are over 12,000 hits on basement water in alt.home.repair. But I
couldn't find anything that quite matched up with what I'm facing.
We've had water appear in the basement guest room twice now. Once one
year ago, once last week. And I seem to have ruled out all possible
sources...so I must be overlooking something.

When the water appeared a year ago, it was so strange that we figured
one of our teens must have tried to empty the dehumidifier and spilled
it, though they swore they hadn't. But now the same thing has happened
and the dehumidifier isn't in that room.

FACTS:

1) The house is a raised bungalow, so the basement floor is only about
five feet below ground level. The guest room is in the corner of the
house opposite the main basement drain. It's also far away from the
city water line and any other water lines that we know of.
2) The water appeared centred about 4 feet from either wall, so wasn't
in a corner nor smack in the middle of the room. One of the
aforementioned walls is exterior, southeast side, the other is interior
and load-bearing.
3) On the other side of the interior wall is an unfinished work room
where we can check ceiling joists and see bare concrete block. Bone dry
in there.
4) After a couple of days (we found the water on Tuesday) the water had
spread in a circular pattern. We had a fan and the dehumidifier in
there by then.
5) Upon lifting the carpet and pad today, I was able to determine that
the apparent origin of the water is the local high point in the floor.
My carpenter's level says so, and pouring a bit of water on the floor
underneath shows that it all flows away from that point. Water poured
nearby will not flow up to that point.
6) The old floor is 40+-year-old asbestos tile, bonded down like
nobody's business.
7) No sign of water from the ceiling. The dining room is above the
guest room.
8) Our basement flooded (as did many people's) after torrential rains
in May 2000. I put in new drywall and made sure to have vapour
barriers, sealed joints between walls and floor, and venting of the air
space behind the drywall to fight condensation build-up behind the
walls, just in case. So I can easily check behind the walls. Dry, dry,
dry.
9) During the 2000 floods, our main problem was a crack in the concrete
in another area of the basement where a wall had been taken out,
probably by the original owners in the 60's. Hydrostatic pressure was
pushing water through the crack like a tiny geyser. We had the crack
repaired. We also had the downspouts rerouted to run out to the lawn,
at least 12 feet from the foundation, instead of into the weeping tile
system, which is 47 years old.
10) We're in the midst of the hottest and dryest summer on record here.

My theories a

A) Our kids are malicious liars.
B) The water came through the foundation walls, flowed uphill, dried
itself off the walls and the carpet through which it came, then flowed
back out from its rallying point.
C) We have hydrostatics troubling us again despite near-drought
conditions.

I am perplexed. What am I overlooking? What fundamental thing do I just
not understand?

Thanks for ANY ideas!

wrote:

Thinking about this a little more I have two ideas.

I think the comment about the roof like may be correct. They tend to
show up in some unexpected places.

I would also wonder if there was a cold water pipe or an A/C duct or
pipe above that area. Keep in mind that you don't always see discoloration.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit

Joseph Meehan wrote:
wrote:

Thinking about this a little more I have two ideas.

I think the comment about the roof like may be correct. They tend to
show up in some unexpected places.

If somehow the water is running in from a wall and pooling there, then
it may be. Maybe the wicking action of the pad is stronger at the
collection point, thus causing water to effectively flow uphill.


I would also wonder if there was a cold water pipe or an A/C duct or
pipe above that area. Keep in mind that you don't always see discoloration.


Wouldn't the ceiling, which is acoustic roll-on, be wet or softened
there? It's only a 7'6" ceiling so I can reach it with my fingers. I
don't feel anything there.

The condensation idea mentioned by Jan may also have merit. It has been
warm and humid, though with almost no rain (until a couple of days
ago). We have been using our air conditioner a lot this summer.
Although last summer we hardly used it at all....

What if I can't find the source of this once-a-year-or-less problem? Do
I just put a vapour barrier down beneath new pad and re-lay the carpet?
Is there some other remediation measure I can take that will allay the
symptoms if not completely prevent the problem? Is there a different
floor I could put down?

Thanks so much for your ideas, everyone.

wrote:
Joseph Meehan wrote:

wrote:

Thinking about this a little more I have two ideas.

I think the comment about the roof like may be correct. They tend to
show up in some unexpected places.


If somehow the water is running in from a wall and pooling there, then
it may be. Maybe the wicking action of the pad is stronger at the
collection point, thus causing water to effectively flow uphill.

That would qualify, probably, as the sci-fi feat of the century ) I
suppose some quirk of absorption could cause something like that, plus a
small, invisible geyser coming through the floor ) Jeesh, I've never
had water collect on top of a rise.

Something else just came to mind. Teenagers in the house? Mebbe they
had an accident of some sort, had to clean it up, and couldn/t tell mom
and dad about it ) Check the roof, though, and keep an eye on the
kids )

Norminn wrote:

---SNIP---

Something else just came to mind. Teenagers in the house? Mebbe they
had an accident of some sort, had to clean it up, and couldn/t tell mom
and dad about it ) Check the roof, though, and keep an eye on the
kids )

Same accident twice, one year apart? Ummm....they are teenagers, so I
probably shouldn't put anything past them.

Also, there may be aquifers in this area. Maybe we're lucky enough to
have one right underneath the house that every once in a while wants to
remind us that it's there....

wrote:
I should probably answer some of the other questions here, all
together:

No cat. One dog. Several litres of liquid at least. The liquid doesn't
smell like urine, though, just water.

We and everybody have been watering less because of the water shortage.
Our neighbours on that side have been gone for weeks and we're doing
limited watering for them.

No pipes under the floor that we know of. We have forced air heat. No
drains in the area.

"Fixing hydrostatics" ... LOL. Well, I didn't really fix the
hydrostatics....just the problem of it coming up through the crack :-)
. I figured all I could really do was convince the water that it wanted
to go somewhere else. "Roof leak"....I'll look into it. A couple of our
shingles needed replacing, which I did today, and they are over that
room. But leaking all the way past the main floor and down to the
basement?


Yes, I had a leak do just that. And early roof leaks can be tricky.
They can require rain to fall in a certain direction for enough water to
reach the basement to be present. Next rain, whenever that is , check
for it. But you may not see it due to directional issues.


No drains nearby, unless the builder put a second one in (the drain we
know about is in the laundry room, other end of the house) and then
some handyman covered it over with tile.


Thats how my last basement was. We lived in the city so we had a full
city setup. Sewer feeding floor drain was in the washroom. We had a
2nd floor drain that fed into the foundation drainage system which feed
into a storm sewer I suppose. If that is clogged then you may only see
a few days after a rain.

Time for a stake out. Get a camcorder.


--
Respectfully,


CL Gilbert

jan siepelstad wrote:
did you check for a cold spot in the floor, where water vapour which is in
the air, is condensating?

The floor doesn't seem colder there than anywhere else, but....

Up until just a day or two before we discovered the wet spot, it had
been very warm and humid, almost without a break, for several weeks.
Does it sound possible that the humidity in the air penetrated through
the carpet and the pad, contacted the tile-on-concrete floor, and
condensed out? In this scenario the fact that it's at a high spot would
be irrelevant; the main issue would be that it's a cold spot. No one
was in that room for several days before the discovery, maybe even a
week.

Hydrostatic pressure is also still a prime suspect, but jeez, it was so
dry here all summer! Could condensation have happened as described
above despite the barriers of the carpet and pad?

Also...if it is hydrostatics, is there some kind of sealant or barrier
I can use to block the water...without having it come up someplace even
less convenient?

On 20 Aug 2005 12:16:21 -0700, wrote:
There are over 12,000 hits on basement water in alt.home.repair. But I
couldn't find anything that quite matched up with what I'm facing.
We've had water appear in the basement guest room twice now. Once one
year ago, once last week. And I seem to have ruled out all possible
sources...so I must be overlooking something.

I had a mysterious wet spot in my basement, as well, a while back.
A very noticable amount of water, about 6 feet from the nearest wall,
but the surrounding floor/walls/ceiling were bone dry. No cracks,
no seepage, and so on. It drove me nuts.

I found the source one day when I went down into the basement
one morning - water had accumulated in a window well, and once
it got deep enough, it jetted across the room through the edge of
the window for just a moment. The path of the stream dried out within
an hour, while the area with the puddle stayed wet for a day. If I
hadn't gone down to the basement at exactly the right moment, I'd
probably have thought it was aliens, too. ;-)

- Rich

user wrote:
I had a mysterious wet spot in my basement, as well, a while back.
A very noticable amount of water, about 6 feet from the nearest wall,
but the surrounding floor/walls/ceiling were bone dry. No cracks,
no seepage, and so on. It drove me nuts.

I found the source one day when I went down into the basement
one morning - water had accumulated in a window well, and once
it got deep enough, it jetted across the room through the edge of
the window for just a moment. The path of the stream dried out within
an hour, while the area with the puddle stayed wet for a day. If I
hadn't gone down to the basement at exactly the right moment, I'd
probably have thought it was aliens, too. ;-)

- Rich

LOL! That's amazing, Rich! (And I'm not laughing AT you, I'm
laughing...TOWARD you ;-] ).

Our basement windows are actually about 4"-6" above grade, not in
window wells, so we probably aren't victims of capricious spitting
windows.

CL (dnoyeB) Gilbert wrote:


No drains nearby, unless the builder put a second one in (the drain we
know about is in the laundry room, other end of the house) and then
some handyman covered it over with tile.


Thats how my last basement was. We lived in the city so we had a full
city setup. Sewer feeding floor drain was in the washroom. We had a
2nd floor drain that fed into the foundation drainage system which feed
into a storm sewer I suppose. If that is clogged then you may only see
a few days after a rain.

Time for a stake out. Get a camcorder.


All you folks have been extremely helpful and given me a lot to
consider. I'm going to monitor for water welling up or condensing out
for the next several days. (We finally had a big storm Friday, which
might speed things along.)

Next step after that, I think, will be to pull up the tiles in that
spot and check for evidence of a covered drain. Can I use a propane
torch to soften the tiles to remove them? They're asbestos, I'm
certain, and they are bonded TIGHTLY.

Also, would one of these new subfloors that have the pimpled plastic
barrier underneath work if this is just an occasional problem? We were
planning on remodeling much of the basement this fall and winter
anyway. We could put this kind of subfloor in everywhere so that any
water build-up would work its way between the plastic pips downhill to
the laundry room drain. Does anyone know what this stuff is called?
There's one kind - I think it's black - that comes bonded to squares of
subfloor, and another kind in orange rolls where you put separate ply
subfloor over it.

Or, is there a vapour barrier or treatment that will definitely work if
it is seepage up from the floor?

Update: after 36 hours the suspense was killing me, so I checked under
the plastic sheeting I had taped down around the prime trouble spot. No
moisture, not the slightest hint. Absolutely, totally dry. Not cold
either, just cool to the touch like any tile floor.

Hmmmmm.......

wrote in message
oups.com...
Update: after 36 hours the suspense was killing me, so I checked under
the plastic sheeting I had taped down around the prime trouble spot. No
moisture, not the slightest hint. Absolutely, totally dry. Not cold
either, just cool to the touch like any tile floor.

Hmmmmm.......

Thanks for the update. Any rain in the forecast?

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:

Thanks for the update. Any rain in the forecast?

Not really. Nor has there been much at all, all summer. Last Friday we
had our entire allotment for August fall in about 3 hours. But that was
three days after we discovered the water. There had been "almost" no
rain prior to that.

("Almost" is relative. This is Toronto, not Tucson.)