How long for water to seep through clay?

17 years ago

This is a similar question to another post I made earlier. It has finally started raining here (Tennessee) after a long drought.

I bought this house during this dry time, so I was not able to see if my attempts at redirecting water away from the house were successful. I did notice an obvious water seepage stain in one part of the basement (below a gutter downspout).

So I have now dug up a patio which allowed me to fix the gutter issue.

Now that it has rained, how long do I have to wait before I can be relatively sure that I have solved the problem. I have heard that it can take a long time for the water to make it's trip down into the basement.... so, days?

Comments (3)

formulaross
17 years ago
Clay? After a rain here, I get puddles in my clay yard (house under construction) that never soak in!
brickeyee
17 years ago
Clay is used to create a barier that water will not penetrate.
If you have more than 6 inches or so of solid clay the only penetration wil be if their are cracks in the clay from settling.
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behaviorkelton
Original Author
17 years ago
That's good to know. I have been digging in areas that are heavy clay and bringing that toward the sides of the house and packing it down with one of those heavy square tamping things.

I think I have the problem licked, I just had heard that water sometimes takes a while to show up in the basement.

Still, I'm waiting for some good steady rain so I can can go out in the yard and watch how things flow and then, later, see if the basement remains dry.