Block wall water problem

10 years ago

This isn't exactly a basement, but it shares enough in common...

I have a block wall garage on a poured pad. It is in need of a bit of TLC. At first I thought the tired roof was leaking onto the floor, but after tarp-ing the entire thing off to dry it out (not really as bad as it sounds, but not great either) I still noticed water on the floor of the garage. It looked to start at the west wall where the block wall meets the foundation. Now on the east wall the slab is slightly exposed, an inch or two or three above soil line. The slab on the west side I can't see above the soil ( which in my area is nearly all sand - apparently this area was the bottom of a lake at one time....).

So, I know that there are good/better/best ways to do almost every job, but - as a quick stop gap, could I use a product like Thoroseal (or an equivalent) to stop the water from this inside of the garage?

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Comments (2)

gtrshop
Original Author
10 years ago
After a week of R&R with the kids I took a look at my foundation again. I noticed a difference in the block count from the east side to the west side (actually my 8 year old daughter counter the blocks and said they were not the same on both sides). There was a lot of earth againsst the first row of blocks, so my son and I shovelled down to the floor pad and set up a temporary method of diverting the water away from the wall and pad. That evening it rained and the staining in the garage on the floor did not develop from the base of the wall.

Mystery solved. Now to just create a permanent barrier against the water returning to the poured pad/block wall junction. I might seal the inside wall for good measure, but that can wait until next year.

S~
randy427
10 years ago
Applying a non-hardening sealer to the wall on the outside from 4 inches above daylight down to the base will work a lot better than sealing it on the inside.
And while you have the dirt dug away from the wall, perforated drain piping protected by filter cloth and set a few inches below the slab can be used to channel the water away from the base of the wall.
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