Had the Mother Of All Storms come through here last night. This following a similar storm that had come through very early yesterday morning. Between the two of them, they dumped a lot of rain on us. Plus the ground was already pretty well saturated. Our irrigation system has hardly run this month.

Went downstairs last night to check on the water softener, dehumidifier, and a fan we run down there to keep the air moving, because the power had gone out for a bit.

Found this



Used the carpet cleaning machine to suck up the water. Went back down this morning: Still wet. And maybe even wetter under the book shelves that were up against that wall to the right, so I unloaded and moved 'em.



Just as I suspected.

When I bought the home it came with a certificate noting there'd been a crack in that wall water-proofed. I guess it isn't, anymore

Some of that paneling damage was there, I presumed from prior to the crack being mitigated, but, you can see how it's freshly wet.

Over thirty-one years in the home. This is the first time this has ever happened. So now I have to decide whether to let it ride, assuming this was a once-in-Lord-knows-how-many-years event, or tear that paneling off and have somebody come in and fix the problem.

Meanwhile: This happened to a neighbor:



Very sad. Was a beautiful tree. But, you can see, from the ends of those limbs, it was only a matter of time. Luckily they missed his shop, just to the left of those branches.

We got hammered in Ohio last night, also. Trees down and flooding. I'm sitting at work now with the Internet working but no phones or printers.

quote:

Over thirty-one years in the home. This is the first time this has ever happened. So now I have to decide whether to let it ride, assuming this was a once-in-Lord-knows-how-many-years event, or tear that paneling off and have somebody come in and fix the problem.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Fix the problem. You do not want mold.

From my experience with my parent's place, fix the problem. It won't get any cheaper.

Sucks, but, probably need to fix the problem of the wall crack and look into some kind of method to divert any water from that wall in the future away from the home.

That was a huge tree but agree it was a matter of time, rotting from inside out...

How’s the sump pump?
And the drain tile around the basement’s perimeter?
Also, since you mentioned the power being out, what backup do you have to keep the sump pump running?
Any signs of iron ochre in your sump pit?

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
How’s the sump pump?

The sump pump is fine, but, odd thing: Other than one inlet being a bit damp on the bottom, no water came into it.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
And the drain tile around the basement’s perimeter?

How could I possibly know that?

Used to be, before we had gutters and downspouts put up, and I fixed some ground surface pitch problems, water would come gushing into that sump well when it rained hard. Now we only get rainwater in it when it really, really rains hard for a good long bit.

But, this time, not

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Also, since you mentioned the power being out, what backup do you have to keep the sump pump running?

Don't. Don't feel we need it. We rarely get much water into it anymore.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Any signs of iron ochre in your sump pit?

I don't know what iron ocre looks like.

ETA: Looked it up. Nope.


Re: Fixing the problem: Yeah, of course I should. And I might. It will be a PITA.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
And the drain tile around the basement’s perimeter?

How could I possibly know that?

Used to be, before we had gutters and downspouts put up, and I fixed some ground surface pitch problems, water would come gushing into that sump well when it rained hard. Now we only get rainwater in it when it really, really rains hard for a good long bit.

But, this time, not

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Also, since you mentioned the power being out, what backup do you have to keep the sump pump running?

Don't. Don't feel we need it. We rarely get much water into it anymore.

Iron ochre can clog the drain tiles. If you have it, you’ll see it in the sump pit. Otherwise, you can rent a borescope for sewer lines to see if anything else is going on.

I asked about the backup for the sump pump because with the power being out, an overflowing sump pit could be a source for water in your basement. When it happened to me, it took me four hours to get the pump hooked up to a generator because I didn’t have a plan in the first place.

Interesting that you didn’t have water in the sump pit this time, but did have water in your basement.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Interesting that you didn’t have water in the sump pit this time, but did have water in your basement.

Well, if this crack is like the two cracks we already had remediated ourselves, it runs all the way from the bottom of the wall to the top. And this crack would be about dead center of a raised garden along the front of the home.

All I see is wood in my smoker....

I do not have a basement. Water table is too high. A good part of my youth was working with my Dad to fix a leaky basement wall. It was not pleasant and was never ending. I would first get an estimate unless you like this kind of work.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
I would first get an estimate unless you like this kind of work.

Oh, I'm not gonna try to remediate the crack, myself. The PITA part is having to take down some wall/ceiling molding and two sections of wood paneling to get to it.

We'll have the same pro's we had remediate the other two cracks take care of this one, too.

Before-and-after of one of the two they already did for us:



As you can see from the photo above: The PO tried, unsuccessfully, to fix this one, himself.



I checked the floor under and around this one, yesterday. Not a hint of moisture.

Yeah: It's ugly. I told them appearance wasn't important, being as the thing was going to be covered by rigid foam insulation and wallboard, anyway.

Most tell me any water entering a home needs to be addressed from the outside. Route water away from the house foundation and water proof from the outside.

quote:

Originally posted by bryan11:
Most tell me any water entering a home needs to be addressed from the outside.

That is best: Yes.

quote:

Originally posted by bryan11:
Route water away from the house foundation and water proof from the outside.

As I wrote, previously: Already did work on the outside to fix some issues where the ground was pitching towards the home, rather than away from it. Then we had gutters installed with downspouts that kick out three feet or better from the side of the home.

I'm not sure what's going on with the drain tile system. It used to work, as evidenced by the amount of water that used to flow into the sump well from both inlets. I've even occasionally seen fairly significant flow into the sump well since doing the above improvements.

Not this time, though.

Short of digging up the entire perimeter of the home, which we'd understandably be loath to do, there's not much we can do about that.

There's only so much water control can do, anyway. The ground was already saturated from a similar storm about twelve hours prior. Then comes this prolonged, heavy downpour, blowing in very hard from the northwest. The water incursion was on the north wall, where I know there's a crack that had previously been mitigated.

Rent a drain camera or hire someone who has one to take a look.

No need to dig up the entire perimeter.

It sounds like you're doing all the right things, ensigmatic. Houses in my neighborhood had issues with water, so we did the same you mentioned changing the grade around the house so all drains away. On two sides I put down six feet of heavy black plastic with rock over it so any rain would be routed away. As a bonus that's less to mow or trim.

Also in S.E. Michigan and we had a big maple tree struck by lighting Thursday night/Friday morning. Big tree but only took down two branches. We were luckier than most in our area.
Rod

This may have contributed to the problem...



The photo doesn't do it justice. It was a rather large hole, hidden from view by a bush and, as luck would have it, about one or two feet from where the water incursion appears to have taken place.

I figure that made for a nice funnel.

This isn't the first time animals have tried to dig under the house, but, probably to most sincere effort we've seen.

Filled-in the hole and tamped it well with the tamper. Scraped back the mulch all along the front, put down 2 ft. wide chicken wire and staked it down, poured a couple bags of topsoil all along the wall and thoroughly tamped it down (to improve the pitch), put the mulch back.

I'm still probably going to call our basement wall crack mitigation guys, though.

Heck does that in Michigan? Wolverine? Down here it would be a gopher tortoise. But ya, that looks like a good bet as your water source.