Just another soggy Sunday
Spring is here and April showers are a little early. Which is fine with me. Because I enjoy warm rain in the spring. It is squishy and clear and drippy and clean.
I was stripping the built-in cabinet and listening to the house in the quiet when I heard a *plonk, plonk, plonk* I mean, *drip drip drip*...this is a sound I know. But plonk? It was like hitting one note on a xylophone...or a....
pipe?
Of course, I grabbed our "ever ready" camera and went in search of the source. Outside of the front window, the gutter had pulled down at one end. This sent rainwater over the side of the gutter instead of down the drainpipe and away from the foundation. I suspect the ice damn over the winter that lay on the edge of the roof and dripped heavy icicles off of the gutter. But, who knows?
This is not supposed to happen. It is supposed to go down the drainpipe and the seam is not supposed to leak either.
The whole object being that water, once in the drainpipe, gets directed AWAY from the foundation. AWAY being very good where houses meet water in the ground. (Unless you live on a houseboat, which we do not.) "X" marks the spot where the water SHOULD be. But is not.
This can only mean one thing. A really hesitant, fear-clutched-up-in-your-chest trip to the basement. Where...
...ah. Okay. Time for a mop. And a box of tissues. And some long distance phone calls seeking advice.
(It's where the City of Chicago water line comes into the house through the foundation.)
It's also time for some algebra. We will postulate the following equation based upon our experiences thus far in almost 10 months.
(3 things done positively to the house) + (1 thing that the house undoes itself) = a weekend's work.
In other words, for every 3 fixes, a new repair is needed. Know this now! Going in! It will be on the final exam.
(3)
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Comments
I would think the water in the basement is seepage caused by the bad gutter. Repair the gutter, seal the outside of the hole where the pipe comes through & you'll probably be alright. One more thing, the wood is rotten by the bad gutter. You can see in your picture where some one has replaced at least one board... POPS"30"
Posted by: POPS | March 30, 2004 12:39 PM
You probably do not want to hear this but looking at the picture the drain is working and at least this is keeping the drain from getting to low and smelling up the house :) Always look for the bright side and keep smiling. The whole group of your fans are behind you. Bad week, time for a break, plant some flowers for the spring rains to help grow.
Posted by: Ginny | March 30, 2004 12:44 PM
My basement used to have a periodic leak around the cold-water entrance. I expect that someone attempted to fix it at one point too, but their's was temporary.
I dug down along the foundation (had to call the dig hotline before hand), cleaned out all the old common mortar sealing around the cold-water intrusion, then patched with hydraulic cement. After that dried and cured for a week, I spread a thin coat of marine epoxy over the whole service (kind of a seal-coat of sorts), let that cure, and then used flexible marine sealant around joint of the water pipe to the hydraulic cement. It took a couple weeks, was dirty and tough to dig along the foundation like that, but we haven't had a leak there since. We also went about applying foundation sealant, matting, and reinforced sheeting along that corner of the house and regraded the yard to keep water clear. Luckily, our foundation drains are still ok, so we didn't need anything more.
Cheers,
Tim
Posted by: Tim C. | April 2, 2004 11:35 AM