Leaking basement in rental house

17 years ago

Help! We moved into a house that has a small leak in the basement. We were assured that it wasn't a problem and the owner had drains put in around the house last fall. We never had this much water on the floor last year! It seems to be coming up from under the floor. Not leaking from the wall or anything. They have people coming out to clean our gutters/roof tomorrow, but I am skeptical that this will help. Right now, I have about 6-10 towels/bath mats on the floor where the water is coming in (right under the dryer, ugh). I have to go down there about every hour and put these soaking wet towels on the spin cycle and then in the dryer. I am worried about what I'll have to deal with in the morning. Ugh. We have a shop vac that we use periodically when there is more than the towels can soak up. I am at my wits end with changing these towels. Is there anything else that can soak up all this water? It isn't at a point where it is standing water and it is in one fairly small area of the basement, but if left unattended there would be a significant amount of water. I am debating on going out and buying a bunch of sylica cat litter and putting it in some old pillowcases to help soak up this mess. Is this a bad idea?? Any advice is appreciated!

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Comments (5)

rdaystrom
17 years ago
An improperly constructed and sealed basement is a swimming pool waiting to happen. In your situation I doubt your leak will ever be fixed. It's virtually impossible without fixing it from the outside with extensive engineering. Others will come on and say oh I used this or that and it worked....yea and I can patch a car tire with bubble gum. Forget it it will leak every time you get a significant amount of rain.
dmullen
17 years ago
Is there a sump pump in the basement? If not, it sounds like one might help.
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canguy
17 years ago
Because it is localized, it may be a broken drain. The water would push up through the concrete as it has no place else to go. I would break up the concrete around the problem area to determine the source.
lilydude
17 years ago
Do your downspouts dump water right at the foundation? If so, you need to move that water away from the house, preferrably in a downhill direction, with some buried plastic pipe. You can temporarily run the pipe above ground. If that doesn't work, you probably need a sump pump, which means cutting a hole in the concrete floor. The sump pump will drop the ground water level to below the floor level, and your leak will go away.

Since you don't own this house, this project probably needs to be done by the landlord. Same with the sump pump. You can buy a cheap portable pump that will pull shallow water, maybe 1/2" deep, and pump it through a garden hose to the outside. That may be more depth than you are willing to put up with.

Is anything going to be damaged if you let the water accumulate? Maybe you can just live with it. It will probably only happen in times of heavy rainfall. On the other hand, winter is just beginning. The fact that you are already having problems is not a good sign. You may need to have a nice friendly chat with your landlord.
bushleague
17 years ago
Is the landlord/property manager aware of this problem? Unless there is a broken pipe in the slab, the water is coming from underneath as stated above. The best thing you can do is get the drain pipes away from the foundation, even with an extension. Is the house on a grade or the edge of the Columbia river?