Persistent leaks

17 years ago

Basement has several leaking areas. Prior owner had known cracks filled with the injection (I believe) expanding polyurethane product that came with a transferrable warranty. Two of the 5 cracks started leaking last year, and the contractor came back to "refill". Those two cracks started leaking again this spring, along with another crack that previously never leaked, but also was never previously filled.

We routed all gutters away from the house (to the street, or large dry wells), last year. We also corrected all grading so that there is a distinct slope away from the house on all sides where leaking previously occurred. Sump runs frequently.

The water is worse today than at any point in the almost 4 years of owning the house, after a fairly normal spring T-storm last night. Two small puddles and other wet areas are near the afformentioned cracks. Doesn't sound like a huge problem, but it does prevent us from converting our basement into a usable rec room area.

I am at wit's end as to how to address this problem, short of heavy equip coming in and tearing up all my new landscaping that was installed after the grading was corrected.

Any thoughts, suggestions are welcome.

Comments (3)

jasper_60103
17 years ago
I've had success on 2 houses (so far) with the injection method. First house, no problems after 9+ years. Second house going on 2 years.

Just curious, how long a warranty on injection? Also, how old is the house? Investigate if it's still under a structural warranty. Some builders offer 10-15 years and it may be transferable.
Also, I'm thinking maybe get a second opinion to diagnose whats going on. Hope this helps. -jasper
iinsic
Original Author
17 years ago
Injection warranty is still in effect, but really does me little good if the stuff isn't working. The weird thing is that the two cracks that have been addressed twice only leak at the point where the hole was made to insert the injection device. The rest of the crack does not leak. I'm thinking there is some flaw in the way this dude is applying the stuff. There are several other cracks that were done originally, however, that have not opened at all.

We had one company come over last night. They would do a masonry repair of the existing/leaking cracks, and cover them with some type of plastic channel that is run all the way below the floor. Their explanation was that if, after the masonry repair, the crack opens, any water would simply channel down to the existing drain tile system that is in place and go out through the sump pump. Clearly, this doesn't solve water from coming in, but it does keep it out of the basement. I need to do more research on this method before I commit.
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gorillabuilder
17 years ago
All that system does is form a moat... and it leads to a sump...It is fool-proof when you think of it but you are still getting water in and the basement will have alot of moisture. You must have some funky cracks. He's injecting it but he must be aiming it one direction. If we had an X ray of your wall I bet we'd see some crazy cracks feeding into that hole. He has to spin that injector around and make sure he squirts it in the right vein. Maybe if he tries again he might get lucky and finally nail it.