New house- basement leaking

Wife and I moved in November and once the ground froze the first big rain we got water in the basement. Looking around the outside I realized the ground sloped toward the house on the 2 sides it was leaking so the next above freezing day I did some landscaping and created a slope away from the house.

What I am amazed with and really can't understand is why the sellers did what they did to the front. They had the gutters going into the ground and when I investigated I found they'd routed the front downspout TOWARD the foundation and along the side of the house, instead of away from it. Not only did they have it routed along the foundation, it was corrugated plastic pipe, like something you'd use to help irrigate the yard. They also had gravel/stone up against the house, about 2 feet deep all along the foundation.

I'm actually surprised we didn't have more water than we did, this seems like a completely retarded system. Can anybody help explain why they might have done this?

 

Well, up north the stone up against the house is pretty common, to help keep water away from the foundation... Maybe they were from the south, where watering your foundation can actually be necessary? They didn't realize that up north it's not good?

 

Is it a weeping tile set up?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weeping_tile

 

Sounds like a improperly installed french drain.

 

Yes sir, the main reason is expenses, money is the bottom line. First you should of looked at this sings before, Lets tell you my situation. I am looking at a new home in Wake county N. C. I want at least two or more acreage to accommodate my horses. I am asking you, if this lot has 5 acre, why the house seats only 50 feet from my next door neighbor? You know, I asked. The answer was as simple as day, the constructor used the same trench to bring in utilities for both of these houses. Do you believe it?
The house has more then plenty of land, but my neighbor can look in my master from his front yard. The same with your house my friend, they dug for foundation and
accomplice everything they wish to hide, buried, and with minimum effort. That explains why the rain drain is buried next to the foundation. Money.

 

Yea gutters should be piped away from house. If the lot is flat and the soil conditions make storm water pool, catch basin to collect then piped to a dry well or city drains. Easily fixed, just get ready for a labor intensive weekend

 

Betting there's a perforated pipe under that gravel and sand to take the water away from the foundation. I had one installed at my place when I lived in NH. Every year I had to pull the grate at where the water dumps out to clean out the crap, or the water would have backed up into my basement.

 

Reading that wiki page makes me think the previous owners maybe tried for that setup, the problem was the perforated pipe and gravel where above the level of the foundation. It basically created an ideal situation for water to directly flow to the foundation. It's going to be a while now before I can do much with it, we have 4 inches of snow and another 8 on the way.

Have any of you had an experience with Thoroseal? I'm going to treat the inside walls with it after fixing any cracks I find.

 

Drain rock and perforated pipe agaisnt the foundation is normal , top of perforated pipe should be at or below bottom of basement slab however foundation drains and rainwater leaders should be seperate pipes and rainwater leaders should be in solid pipe unless they are in a leaching field

 

So they had the right idea but wrong implementation. The stone layer ended while still above the slab and the perforated pipe was up near the top, just below ground level. I think what was happening was the water from the gutters was getting funneled into the pipe, which then ran down through the stone and pooled when it got to the dirt underneath, which was still above the level of the slab.

 

When we bought our home in Maryland we had basement water trouble. We solved it by 1) grading away from the house and 2) extending the downspouts away from the foundation. Our trouble was compounded because the basement has a sump pump, and all that water was cycling through the sump. Ignore the previous owner's failure and route the water away.

 

It works well, but that won't stop the water. but I'd re-grade the area in question and direct the conductor pipes away from the foundation in the spring.

Got an exterior pic of the suspect area?

 

With several above freezing days I've been able to build up the ground around the foundation so it's sloping well away from the house and the last few rains it has stopped leaking through the sides but there is still seepage from the floor itself. Any ideas what to do about that?

 

Do you have a sump pump in your basement ?

 

No pump. The floor isn't standing water, it's just dark spots in one general area. I think my next move is to get a load of soil delivered and continue grading around the house, it's better than it was but could still use improvement.

 

If there is no pump , unless the perimeter drains that should be down at slab height can gravity feed out somewhere , the hydrostatic pressure of the standing water surrounding the foundation walls and under the slab will force the water into the living space , plus as the interior portion of the concrete will generally be warmer and drier , it will act to wick the moisture to the interior

 

I had to hire a contractor to dig along the front of the foundation (where my seepage was coming in from) down below the foundation. He then dug around the side of the house into the back yard to get lower than the trench along the front of the house. He laid corrugated perforated piping all the way back. Backfilled it with gravel, a fabric membrane, then sand to top it off. Around the side - just rock and soil and reseeded. Worked like a charm. I stuck an old timing gear on the end to keep out the critters. Every rain storm would cause the pipe to gush water out. I was amazed how much water came out from rain storms, and the basement stayed dry.

 

Yep , all that water has to go somewhere

 

So not much I can do myself about it then, sounds like I need to get used to a little moisture down there because I'm guessing the price of a contractor would be pretty high.

 

You could get your drains scoped , then you would know if it drains out somewhere , it could be plugged

EDIT : that would require an access to your drains by way of a clean out or stand up pipe , not sure if you have such a thing