So this place had some cracks on the basement floor, but it didn’t look like too much to be concerned with. I figured it was caused by settling and the inspector we got was no help (more on that dumbass at a later time).

Then it rained… a lot. Surprise, water was coming up through the cracks into the basement. Not a lot, but it just kind of bubbles up when there is a lot of rain outside. I didn’t know that was even possible. I mean I’ve heard of leaks through windows and the sides, but cracks in the floor? Thinking about it (and obviously looking at it) now, I suppose it makes sense that water can get all the way under a house and rise up through cracks. It’s just not anything I’ve personally seen before.

Anyway, hindsight being 20/20, the water damage on the homemade support beam someone made should have been a nice giveaway that there were water problems. Lesson learned.

That beam is a whole story in itself. It looks like someone chopped down a small tree out back and put it there in 40’s or 50’s. As the first picture shows, the water through the cracks have slowly taken its toll on it. That pathetic excuse for floor support needs to be taken down (or just kicked over, since it’s loose) and replaced with a steel post or some sort of screw jack. I looked into it already and found out that the local Home store has them for about 40 bucks and up (depending on sizes). This guy says it’s pretty easy to install extra floor support and fix a sagging floor. We’ll see.

Back to the leaky floor. Last month, I bought a small can of some cancer causing stuff called DRYLOK FAST PLUG at the Home store for about 4 bucks and put it on the cracks when I first noticed small leaks. That’s why the cracks look covered in the first image above.

The stuff is a powder that you mix with water to make like a cement, and there really is a big cancer hazard warning on the back of the label. It’s supposed to plug cracks and stop water leaks. I thought the amount I put on was enough, but obviously not because it rained again this week and water came right through in some spots. Since it seemed to prevent water from coming up in a few other spots, I went back and bought a 10 gallon can for about 12 bucks. When the water stops leaking through and the floor dries up a litle more, I’m going to try patching it again. This time with a much more generous amount.

Hopefully that’ll stop the leaks until I can hire someone to come in and lay a new layer of concrete over the entire basement floor to even the whole thing out.

January 19th 2005 Update:
The wet cracks dried up over the weekend so I put more of the DRYLOK stuff on them. Since it’s about 5 degrees below 0, it’ll probably be a while before it rains to see if the second application actually worked.

I hate wet basements.

I think the basement will be the bane of my existance for a while and also cost the most. Joy.

July 20th 2005 Update: Well the leaks seem to be plugged up for the most part. There is still a little bit of water coming in here and there, but I haven’t been mopping up any puddles in months. There are still issues with the damp basement, but for the most part, these cracks in particular have been sealed up. Drylok is a good product. I recommend it to anyone who needs fast drying/water stopping hydraulic cement.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 15th, 2005 at 10:16 pm and is filed under Interior, Projects (completed). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.