Water seepage in basement garage

8 years ago

Hello there,

I recently bought a house in Washington DC. My garage, which is in the basement, appears to have water seeping in through it's two brick walls (marked #1 and 2 in the attached photo). Several gallons of water seeps in through wall #1 daily and some through wall #2 (just enough that the floor along it gets damp).

Most of this water finds its way into the sump (marked with blue arrow) while some collects inside and outside the garage.

A contractor proposed the following solution - dig along both walls and create trenches to guide water into the sump. He also proposed digging a few feet along wall #1 and waterproofing it with tar. To do all this work, he estimated 2-3 days of work for 2 people.

Do you think this solution will work and does his estimate sound reasonable? Each of these walls is about 20 feet long.

Thanks so much in advance!

Featured Answer

Bruce in Northern Virginia

8 years ago

I'm in Alexandria, and the last few weeks are the most rain I've seen during the 5+ years I've lived in my house. Water found its way into areas that had never been damp before.

In additional to sealing the wall, one relatively simple solution is to dig down outside of both walls and install heavy plastic sheeting at an angle under the ground cover so that it directs water away from the wall about 3-4 feet. The point is to get the water to run out away from the walls instead of being right up against them.

Also make sure that all the downspouts outlets are sealed well so that they carry water about 6 feet away from the wall before exiting. I had one downspout that was leaking where the flexible plastic pipe was connected to the metal downspout, so it was coming out right at the foundation instead of running down the pipe and away from the house.

Bruce

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Comments (7)

User
8 years ago
It would be a better idea to add a water proofing membrane, not just tar. Otherwise, that procedure is a good way to solve the problem.
cooldyood thanked User
cooldyood
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks @HandyMac! Does his estimate of 2 people x 2-3 days sound reasonable?
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klem1
8 years ago
That house has been there a long time. There was some means in place to handle water all these years,what happed to that? Likely French drains along foundation. Preventing water ponding at foundation is better than sealing wall in attempt to waterproof wall.
cooldyood
Original Author
8 years ago
Called the sellers, they said they didn't have this problem. That sounds strange.. How can I know if there's water ponding at foundation?
klem1
8 years ago
I'm not sure you can tell what's going on but you might look while it's raining heavy to see if and how water run's away from house. While you are at it,make sure downspouts aren't stopped up to cause overflowing gutters. Outside that,it will require a professional to prob along foundation to see if they find buried drains.
User
8 years ago
Not for the entire length of both walls.