Messages and Online Forum Q&A

Re: water in basement after 25 years of dryness

From: info@builderswebsource.com
Category: Foundations and Basements
Remote Name: 63.198.181.43
Date: 18 Mar 2001
Time: 09:08 AM

Comments

Without seeing your condition first-hand, we can only speculate about the source of your trouble. However, we have some plausible ideas:

1) During the rainy season, the water table usually rises due to ground saturation. The well acts as a "reservoir" for water. But, pumping it out on a regular basis for household water use (flushing toilets, showers, cooking, laundry, etc.) probably helped to keep the water table from rising to a level where it could leak into the basement.

2) You also indicate that the leak may be in the area of the incoming water line. Chances are that the path from the water supply to the house was retrenched and filled with sand or other cushion material. Even if was simply backfilled with the existing soil, it is considered "disturbed" soil which is not compacted fully. Ground water and runoff from rain will fill available air pockets in the trench and migrate to the point of least resistance, which could be the entrance to your basement.

Furthermore, this is being compounded since you are no longer pumping water from your well and therefore, the water table may be rising to a point higher than in the past.

3) It's also possible that when the new pipe was installed, that the entry to the basement was not properly sealed and some amount of water is leaking in. Try sealing the entry with a 50-year silicone caulk or sealant.

4) Finally, do you know if you have any perimeter drainage system for your basement/foundation? If not, there is nothing to intercept the ground water before it tries to enter the basement. If you do not have a drainage system, you were simply lucky that for 25 years, your basement was dry. And we suspect that the well helped in this process.

Now that you're no longer pumping water, there is no outlet for excess groundwater and it is finding its way inside your basement.

Let us know what else you find out about your situation. We would certainly recommend contacting the company that installed your new water supply line to see what they can do about this situation.

Builders Websource

Article Tools

Builders Websource® is a corporate member of ASTM International—a non-profit engineering body dedicated in part to the standardization of building materials specifications, products, systems, and test methods for improved health, safety, and reliability of residential and commercial structures.

Copyright © 1999 - 2018 Builders Websource®, a BUILDERA™ company. All rights reserved.