Leaky Basement Reno

In the late spring of this year we had a few heavy rains that started to create problems for us at home. We woke up to find a large pool of water in our basement on more than one occasion. Luckily it came in through the laundry room where the flooring is vinyl linoleum over cement, and not in the adjacent room with carpet.

Nonetheless it was not a pleasant thing to walk into, my nightmare in fact. It happened a few times but part of the problem was that it kept happening late at night when we were sleeping or during the day when we were at work, so we couldn't figure out where it was coming in. Then one night it started pouring while we were watching TV and I was able to get up and see the exact cause of the issue. Water was pouring out over our eavesdrop and gutter and pooling at the bottom of our outdoor staircase. It was also pouring out torrentially right next to the side of the house. I stood in the laundry room at the end of the wall and noticed a loud gushing sound of water, like a waterfall behind the walls. Soon afterwards I noticed water coming in through the baseboard near the floor. It pooled there and the snaked its way deeper into the room itself to pool in another location.

It seemed that we had finally found the location of the problem.

The next day I went about opening up the wall to get a better idea of what was happening behind it.

Ripping down the gyprock was a real pain in the ass actually. It wasn't just drywall, but more like cement board.

Right away I could see that there was an issue in one particular spot. All of the insulation was soaked and squished down to nothing in just the one area.

And then...

What the actual fuck!?!

Holes!

You can imagine my surprise to find three, thumb sized holes, drilled into the foundation wall. That's not normal.

I literally stood there for like and hour trying to understand what they were there for. I actually still don't know their purpose. My wife searched online for an explanation and the only thing that we can think is that the previous owner drilled them there to relieve any pressure that may build up if the water pools on the outside of the foundation - perhaps it's better to give the water a place to go rather than have it create its own path through the cement? But even still, how is the water pouring into the inner wall with no place to go other than the basement floor any sort of solution?

I can only speculate that the previous owner had some sort of solution in place, like a pipe or bucket there to catch the water. Perhaps they knew that it would look bad when trying to sell the home so they boarded it all up then wall papered the wall and then waited until winter when the ground was frozen to sell the house... I'm not sure what other reason there would be?

Okay, now for the gutters.

The eavesdrop was completely plugged with leaves and needles from the trees overhead. I had to take them apart, clean them out and replace them with new material. It wasn't a hard job.

The downpipe was already extended out away from the house by the previous owner to reduce the chance of water around the foundation.

That will actually solve most of the issue in itself I think. The main problem was the plugged drain pipe. It hasnt rained really heavy since I've fixed the issue so the fix hasn't been put to the test at this point.

In theory though, if the water does not overwhelm the gutters and pour over the side then it wont pool near the house foundation and go back in through the holes in the wall.

Nonetheless I couldn't leave those holes as they are. I needed to do something just in case the rain was too much for the gutters.

My father in law suggested running pipes from the holes and into a drain. I was really against the idea at first thinking that we needed a professional to come up with a better solution that would likely involve a membrain for the water to run down and a trench in the floor to run to a sump pump. That would cost somewhere between 5 and 15 thousand dollars! So the more I thought about it the more I was willing to give the drain pipes a go since it would only cost 1-2 hundred.

I used Ipex plumbing pipe and Sharkbite fittings. In hindsight I should have saved myself some money (maybe $50) and just used a crimping tool. I am familiar with Sharkbite and have never used a crimper so I went with the easier conveinient route that costs a little more money.

I ran a pipe to each of the holes and then brought it to a floor drain in the furnace room.

We have decided to leave the room unfinished and the wall open for a year or so to see if the solution works and if so, we will complete the room at that point. We had planned to renovate the room in the future anyway so the whole thing has only really delayed the project and made it just a little more expensive and time consuming down the road. If it works though the pipe fix will save us $1000's of dollars that a professional solution would cost so fingers crossed that it works out!

What do you think? Any suggestions or advice? Let me know in the comments.

Well thats it for now. Until next time, thanks for stopping by.