Foundation walls crack and leak when water soaks into the walls and eventually begins to drain inside of your basement.
Fixing water leaks in basement walls.
By far the most common cause of basement leaks is pressure created by water in the soil surrounding the foundation that occurs in two forms.
Given the right conditions water can seep into your house through the foundation walls.
The two must combine to make the basement leak and any approach to repairing the leak must take both into account.
These leaks are seldom caused by faulty plumbing.
I m currently fixing a leak in my basement wall.
If water is leaking into your basement low on the walls or at the seams where walls meet the floor your problem is hydrostatic pressure pushing water up from the ground.
The leak wasn t present most likely when the place was new so study the outside for water puddles cracks in the stair or basement wall or if present a dirty clogged or improper bulkhead door s drainage and water run away system.
In cold climates insulating basement walls also saves energy and reduces your heating bill.
It has a great big gob of great stuff sprayed on there from the previous owner.
First check whether you have footing drains underground pipes installed when the house was built to carry water away from the foundation.
Basement walls can leak from multiple locations including through cracks around pipe penetrations in the walls or through basement windows.
Insulate exterior walls to prevent condensation.
Leaks in foundation walls are usually fixed in 1 of 2 ways.
The patching over of the crack surface with a material such as hydraulic cement is not an effective way to fix basement leaks because a patch repair approach causes ground water to be trapped within the crack in the wall.
You ll just create a potential mold problem.
Window wells are a common source of basement wall leaks because they tend to retain water if a proper drainage system wasn t installed beneath the well when the house was built.
Here are a few interior leak repair solutions that we commonly see and do not recommend.
But don t cover the walls with insulation if water is leaking in from outside.