The concept with "below grade concrete" is it all has to be treated (the fix applied to the entire slab) for the "1" spot to get it's fix. It sounds wonky...but the cement slab business has learned this leason over the last 40 years of fixing basements/slab moisture issues out of the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and part of the 90's. In Canada, we didn't start using "moisture barriers" under the slab until 15-20 years ago. That puts you smack dab in the mid-90's before this was routinely used.

If you try to work with an "internal" fix (stuff applied INSIDE the home) you are looking at removing all the flooring, the walls, etc to get down to bare concrete (floor and walls) and then the spray/roll on application can be applied to the entire slab+foundation walls. That's where the big price tag comes in! That's just the price for the application. That doesn't include the cost of re-installing drywall, flooring or paint.

If you wish to work the "exterior" fix, then proper drainage needs to be installed. This can involve 'french drainage tiles'. This is often installed together with a sumppump. This would take care of water sitting next to the foundation.

Many homeowners will choose 1 solution, others who are extremely nervous (and can afford it) will implement ALL the strategies.

No matter what you choose, you need to be aware that each system can be overwhelmed under certain circumstances and you need to know what those circumstances are and which one's you can prepare for and which one's you will "put up with".

An exterior fix is less costly and faster to acheive. A "full fix" means you use all the strategies on offer...which is extremely expensive...but it narrows down the likelihood that the systems will fail. That means, the more "fixes" you use, the greater your chances of having a dry basement/lower level during even the worst weather.

Mind you, there is no fix for a river blowing the bank and pouring in our front door. Sorry I couldn't give more specific advice...it only explains why the $8,000 seems so steep....which I've heard is "just right". Many roll on/spray on applications range between $5,000 - $10,000 without breaking a sweat.

Have you had the issue looked at by a good, local contractor? There really are a lot of things that could be causing your issue...it may be as simple as a downspout from roof gutters that is not properly diverted, or a much larger issue.
I highly recommend having your situation assessed by a pro before you start tackling it yourself.
Good luck!

Grading away from the house is always a first step if you don't want damp in the basement but I would get a company that is expert in this problem to see what can be done for a lot less than 8 grand

I had a picture to post but it didn't pick it up for some reason. Let's see if I can do it again.....Yes, I've had 2 contractors out. I am investigating them on Angie's List, Facebook and BBB to see if people know of the contractors. There is a lot of poor work being done out there! Before I have someone disturb the dirt against the house, I want to make sure they know what they are doing. Thought I'd turn to Houzz community for advice too!

pic's - shoot - now it's sideways. UGH

picture of front of house. The problem is in that lower front corner where the double windows are.

clearly you have water there.. but what about pics from outside? If you have grade that slopes towards the house or a rain gutter that empties there, then no question that needs to be addressed. Your wall is obviously also not waterproofed from the outside however many houses don't have "waterproof" walls and still don't have water issues because the amount of water that migrates down from the outside is very small. If water is not allowed to pool, and flows away from the house you are much less likely to have these problems. A real fix can be expensive. If you are very lucky and you deal with a grading problem outside you may get away with just fixing the grade, but don't hold your breath. Ultimately the problem starts on the outside and that is where the real solution lies.

Yes and it looks like you have an eves trough that empties at that corner which saturates the ground. From the picture it is hard to tell what the grade is in that area.

Jeanie....I have a similar set up, and similar problems.
Lots of unscrupulous contractors...4-5 estimates ranging from a few hundred to several thousand!

Start with cheapest/simplest fixes.
-make sure gutters are clean and water flows to downspout.
-extend downspout further from house. Past loose back-fill, out to "virgin" soil, approx 6 ft.
-have foundation cracks professionally sealed by a company that guarantees their work. Mine were $125-$150 a piece.
-check your grading. AND your neighbor's grading. Making sure the water flows AWAY and doesn't puddle in loose back-fill.

More laborious are swales and "FrenchDrains". Its always best to move the water ABOVE ground and not use a solution that needs to be "cleaned out", travels underground, or can freeze and fail to flow.

bubba.. not sure why you would imply that just because a repair costs thousands it does not represent accurately the work involved to do the job properly. It certainly does not follow that a particular contractor is unscrupulous. No question that one should, and if you are lucky you get away with grading and ensuring water moves away from the building. However, those remedies do not address why the water is getting through the wall from the outside. While it is certainly done often… because it is cheaper, repairing the water infiltration from the inside of the house is a second rate solution compared to dealing with it from the outside.

I'm sorry, Kivi. I'm no Pro...I can only speak from my personal experience. My home and neighborhood flooded last year. We were a Fema Disaster area with homeowners evacuated by Army-type personnel carriers. Within hours, we were inundated with contractors and "water proofing services" trolling the neighborhood...like vultures on a carcass!

My experience....as a single parent and homeowner, and very naive and uniformed....was 4 or 5 or 6 (I don't recall now) different contractors/companies inspecting my home/yard and saying "This is what we must do to insure you don't get water again".

The lowest estimate was in the hundreds(foundation crack sealing), the highest was $11,000 (I believe, to dig up the interior perimeter floor and install install interior drains and to move water from outside into my sump pump).

But...I didn't have that option. My insurance covered $5,000 in damages. Barely enough to pay for permits, demo, dumpsters, and some materials and manpower.

Luckily, our neighborhood is also home to many tradesmen. And when word got out about the single elderly woman ripped off of her life savings by 2 dudes from 3 states away and the young family with water all the way up their basement stairs and into their kitchen ...OUR neighborhood tradesmen came out in full force, disconnecting peoples power, standing guard, bringing generators, saving belongings AND offering advice via word of mouth, emails, and group meetings.

My solution was to start with the simplest/least expensive solutions first...A company with a guarantee filled every foundation crack, I added longer (non-corrugated) down spout extensions, I hand regraded, I filled in low "loose" spots, and I had a plumber scope the drain tiles to make sure they were not collapsed or clogged.

We have now watched carefully during every storm....and our REAL problem is that my neighbor has her downspouts and sump pump discharging towards my house. Something NOT a single unscrupulous jerk even considered.

I don't doubt that $11,000 is a fair price to have my basement floor jack-hammered apart, IF the problem had been collapsed exterior drain tiles. But that unscrupulous jerk was just looking for a fat commission check. He didn't mention "scoping" the exterior tiles first. My neighborhood tradesman did.

So now....I've saved $11,000 I didn't have. Except for the few extra bucks I spent on the plumber and for supplies to divert that neighbors downspouts so they drain to the storm culvert and not into my basement.

I agree with everyone here. We do have a 'high' spot and the gutter will not stay 'attached' close to the house. Since I am scared of heights, I need to find someone to get up there and not just hammer the long gutter nails in, but screw it in for right now.
When I am told by a contractor that it's foundation failure', boost, boost, he's seen this plenty of time and wants to charge thousands, I have to wonder about it. Never mentioned the grade and the gutter issue to try FIRST. I just wondered (here) if anyone thought this was foundation failure.
We are lucky in the fact there are NO cracks in the blocks or between them.
I really appreciate the discussion!

bubba.. sounds like you had a terrible experience. It is really sad commentary on how your type of flooding seems to bring out the vultures as you describe. Good for you that you were mindful about how to deal with it.

Jeanie, I'm not sure what you mean by having a high spot. Your downspout can stay attached to the house, you just need to add an extension (as bubba suggested) to the bottom of it so that the water exits much further away from the foundation. You could also have the whole downspout relocated somewhere else… but make sure it does not empty beside your house again.

It is quite possible and even likely that you do not have a foundation "failure" but for some reason water is accumulating and saturating the ground outside this corner and then migrating through your wall which may not be properly waterproofed. It could be that your exterior drains were not properly done in the first place to carry away the water, it could be improperly installed drainage fill against your house.

Most importantly the goal is to get water away from the house without letting it accumulate against your house. Fixing the grading… and moving water away may in fact solve your problem, but keep in mind that there still may be an underlying weakness in how that corner of your house deals with excess water.

I'd do a Gary Sullivan inspection outside first: grade, gutters, ground. @bubbas already went over most of this, but they are the cheap fix.

It can't be seen in the picture but we do have a black drain attached leading out to the side about 8'...........Yes, we will probably do the grade, gutters and ground first. Then watch to see if we still have a weakness in the corner. Good advice all ~

Hi, RV! Ya staying out of trouble? ((Waving))

May not have a moisture barrier in the basement subflooring. Here in central Texas we don't have that problem but that would be my first guess.

Jeanie, you need to get your down spouts under ground with PVC pipe and away from the house with pop-up emitters. It creates a French drain so to speak. I like to get water at least 10' away.

As for the basement, there are lost of sealers and what not on the market. They are all bologna. You can't seal from the inside when your problem is on the outside. Waterproofing on the outside only last about 30 years. There are only two ways to correctly fix it contrary to what some basement contractors will tell you. You either dig up the outside and re-waterproof (best way) and re-grade or you dig a French drain in your floor around the perimeter and install a sump.

P.S. you most likely don't have a foundation issue. This is common with basements when they age.

@delyanks...

you said..."you need to get your down spouts under ground with PVC pipe and away from the house with pop-up emitters. It creates a French drain so to speak. I like to get water at least 10' away."

I had an unscrupulous contractor tell me that too! I don't recall his estimate, tho!

An FYI...Here in Midwest...with the snowy winters...with our oak and maple trees...the LAST thing that is appropriate is underground PVC with pop-ups!!! They are an on-going maintenance nightmare!

-Debris from the trees clog the PVC, requiring "roto-rooting" to clear!
-If it's corrugated PVC it tends to crack and break.
-chipmunks, mice, voles, moles....LOVE to nest in them.
-lawnmowers slice n dice the pop-ups.
-you still have to regrade so any water discharging from the pop-up doesn't just flow back toward your home
-But the worst....snow cover PREVENTS the pop-ups from popping up...causing snow trying to melt off the roof...to back up under the shingles, creating ice damns, and FLOODING your interior walls!

Well I've been doing them in the Mid-Atlantic with snow, freezing temp and wooded lots with no problem. Weird.

Thigh high snow takes a long time to melt. And January/February/March downpours are becoming more and more common. All the makings for catastrophe!

It's REALLY a locale/site specific problem...that requires locale/site specific knowledge...and a solid understanding of building science thrown in.

Hi, @bubbasgma! "Yet man is born unto trouble..."

When are ya coming my way? I need a new kitchen!

You might be outside my range of service.

But we have beautiful winters. You could stop and see Margo on the way.

I'm in Ohio, @Margo is in St. Louis...I...didn't think the South HAD winter....unless you live on the South Pole???

Dang your septic drain fields must fail all the time in the winter then. If your worried about freezing and freeze/thaw then add a catch basin. Its good to know NDS has had drainage wrong all this time. I'll have to forward this discussion to them.

I have used the big black corrugated black piping without holes to take the water out 20 to 25 feet into plastic containers that have a thick slotted top, not a pop-up. Have used through multiple midwest winters without problems. If the trees are close enough to the house to cause problems with the piping, they may also be causing foundation cracks.

You most likely need a waterproofing system.

This involves a sump pump, moisture barrier on walls, and a perimeter drain system.

Exterior waterproofing also works but isn’t much better and is a lot more expensive- a good exterior waterproofing product is Delta MS.

Bubba’s cheap fixes are a good starting point to see if that resolves the problem. 90% of the time, it does not, because usually it involves hydrostatic pressure from soil being wet (which is often is). This will cause moisture intrusion regardless of whether you have gutters cleaned or downspout extensions. (Although we do recommend having these done as well, even when doing a waterproofing system, as they lessen the load on the sump pump.)

Don’t listen to Bubba about contractors being unscrupulous simply because they offer a FREE estimate for what they professionally know to be the solution- some homeowners simply hate contractors for personal reasons, and hostility hinders the ability for good professional relationships. I don’t accuse my doctor or dentist of “being unscrupulous” or “selling me something” when they recommend a necessary surgery or root canal. It’s an unfair and hurtful statement.

Also, needs repeating- Bubba’s quick fixes that he’s mentioning don’t factor in hydrostatic pressure, or wetness in soil, and if these exist, they won’t solve the problem. Again, they’re important to still do, but 90% of the time they don’t actually solve the problem

I will add: This is obviously a sensitive topic for many. A lot of people don’t have many thousands of dollars to do this kind of extensive work.

A contractor warranty-ing a cheap crack-filling job is a bad business move, because most of the time it doesn’t resolve the issue (cracks originally occur due to water intrusion, not the other way around… sometimes they also occur due to soil separation but that’s a much larger problem).

I know a few contractors who went out of business because they did cheap basement crack repairs, warrantied it, they didn’t make really any money on the repair and then customers sue them to try and get a FREE sump pump system because they said quote “The contractor was negligent for not offering me a sump pump solution to begin with, he didn’t know what he was doing and he didn’t solve my problem etc etc”.

So again, it’s a complicated situation. And again, not everyone has money to pay to do things right. Just like not everyone can afford a dentist every 6 months, or afford keeping up with all their car repairs etc.

This isn’t something a homeowner should feel embarrassed about- but it’s also not appropriate to cast anger onto a contractor simply because the homeowner can’t afford the correct solution