leaky basement

denmanam

Has anyone had to deal with a leaky basement?  We've had a ton of rain and some snow over the last few days and now our basement is leaking.  It's finished, and the carpet at the bottom of the stairs is soaked from wall to wall.  It's just this one area.  The rest of the basement is fine.  This is the first problem we've had like this.  Unfortunately, we have our honeymoon scheduled for next week.  If we cancel now, we're out $900 from the deposit.  I've been gathering numbers of places to call for quotes.  We're going to have our ILs stop by the house while we're gone to pick up mail and check on things.  We'll probably have them check the basement, too. 

Anyone have any experience with wet basements?

Krissimarie

you could have a crack in the foundation. It isnt a big deal (concrete always cracks eventually) you can either water tile along that side of the house, or put in a subpump. We just did water tileing, and it was pretty simple to do. The most expensive part would be to rent the backhoe if you do not have access to one (thank god we did).

srs5624

The first thing you want to do is find out what is causing the water. Is there a door or a window right by the stairs or is it just a wall?

You might have to pull the carpet up in that spot or remove some drywall so you can see what is going on under there. It's probably a good idea to do anyway so you can make sure there isn't any hidden damage (wet wall studs, drywall and carpet/padding will grow mold if not dried out/replaced).

Get a shop vac and suck all of the water out of the carpet. Get a dehumidifier to finish drying out the carpet and padding. This will help keep away mold, mildew and musty smells.

There's a chance that you may not be able to get someone out there to fix the problem by next week. Make sure your ILs have a key and ask them if they can let in any workers if it needs to be fixed right away.

 

We had a small leak in our basement, but we have peel and stick tiles down there. Turns out that there was a small spot under the patio door that wasn't caulked properly, so if it rained really hard (I'm talking flood warning type of rain) we'd get a small puddle right by the door. We just had the door and casing checked for water damage (luckily there was none), caulked it all back shut and haven't had any problems since.