# Water seeping inbetween footing and foundation..



## Handyman Jim (Apr 24, 2008)

Mitch,
I have some time on Friday morning to come over and help you dig around and try to locate source. I think Rory and his plumber on Sunday would be a big help, also.


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## neolitic (Apr 20, 2006)

Mitch, A simple check while you wait for the
cavalry.:laughing:
See if you can trace the down spout drain tiles.
See where they dump, and try to disconnect 
them, run a hose in each in turn and see if there
is any effect on the problem.
Like chicken soup, it couldn't hurt! :laughing:


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## bujaly (Dec 16, 2006)

Handyman Jim said:


> Mitch,
> I have some time on Friday morning to come over and help you dig around and try to locate source. I think Rory and his plumber on Sunday would be a big help, also.


I might taker you up on that Jim... I'll let you know tomorrow... Thanks Jim..



neolitic said:


> Mitch, A simple check while you wait for the
> cavalry.:laughing:
> See if you can trace the down spout drain tiles.
> See where they dump, and try to disconnect
> ...


Where would the drain tile exactly be..?? I thought that the drain sat on the footings? The footing is RIGHT there..


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## essrmo (May 2, 2007)

skyhook said:


> Since the dirt was above the siding, I'd say the Master Drain Plan is f****d.:sad:





rbsremodeling said:


> Its fill dirt absorbing water with inadequate drainage. Maryland is full of that crappy fill dirt. It's not really a hard fix but it will cost her couple grand, is that the back or front of the house??


Land-Locked.


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## neolitic (Apr 20, 2006)

bujaly said:


> .......
> Where would the drain tile exactly be..?? I thought that the drain sat on the footings? The footing is RIGHT there..


In your pic it looks like the downspout
is connected to a drain tile....?


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## bujaly (Dec 16, 2006)

neolitic said:


> In your pic it looks like the downspout
> is connected to a drain tile....?


That is the neighbors downspout and it runs about 30 feet out, but it has nothing to do with this problem.. I can see where you were coming from now though... 
I'm thinking now though.. I wonder if i dig to under the footing, if the water will come up from there.. If it does, that would be somewhat interesting..

DAMN!!! I CANT WAIT TO FIGURE THIS OUT!!!!!


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## neolitic (Apr 20, 2006)

Do your spouts drain "30 feet away"?


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## bujaly (Dec 16, 2006)

neolitic said:


> Do your spouts drain "30 feet away"?


No..


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## neolitic (Apr 20, 2006)

bujaly said:


> No..


A wise man once told me,
"When you hear hoof beats,
don't go looking for zebras."


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## bujaly (Dec 16, 2006)

neolitic said:


> A wise man once told me,
> "When you hear hoof beats,
> don't go looking for zebras."


Fat woman maybe???


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## neolitic (Apr 20, 2006)

bujaly said:


> Fat woman maybe???


See "Occam's Razor."


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## Handyman Jim (Apr 24, 2008)

bujaly said:


> When I was digging, i dug up what looked like a "fix" from someone.
> There was concrete exactly where the leak is and it took nothing to remove it.


Mitch,
Neolitic is right.He said to "trace the downspout drain tiles, see where they dump,try to disconnect them,run a hose".

After the blockage is cleared and the water drains out,repair the portion of the drain tiles in the hole and fill in the hole. Dig a new hole far enough away from where drain tiles are, to not cause problems.


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## OCRS (Apr 29, 2008)

Upper right hand corner.


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## wyoming 1 (May 7, 2008)

Have you ruled ot a water main leak? easy to check turn off the main inside the house and check the triangle indicator on the water meter if it is spinning you got problems.


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## Floordude (Aug 30, 2007)

That is a lot of water. Unless there is a natural spring right there, or near, it has to be a plumbing leak.

The soil being that high, has made this home below grade. What do they expect, if they are living in a basement without being designed as one.

I would advise to get all that fill dirt down to at least 3 inches below the foundation.

Keep digging towards the flow. As you say it flows enough to bleed out the cloudy sediment.


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## bujaly (Dec 16, 2006)

Sooo.. The neighbor is actually very concerned about this problem and didn't blame me or try to blow me off. Shew apparently has been calling all types of people and finally has someone coming to look at this very soon..
I will let you guys know.. I'm sure I'll be digging up a dry well here in the very near future..<img>


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## KHouse75 (May 11, 2008)

Sounds familiar! Is the house built in a low area and is it clay soil? Sounds like a ground water issue.

I live in a house built back around 2002. It's a floating slab with a foundation of brick on block on footing. When it was built, there was about a 10 year drought in the area. About 3 months after I moved in, we got about 10 years worth of rain causing constant standing water and foundation movement for 1.5 years while the builder investigated.

The soil here is mostly red clay but what I didn't know and what nobody else knew was the soil behind the house was a heavy grey clay and the soil deep under the houses was the same. All the runoff was being forces up to the surface when it hit that gray clay and was saturating the ground under my house and a few neighbors houses causing foundation movement.

Anyway, where I'm heading with this is the ground water was so high because we are in the low area in the neighborhood, the water was being forced out of the ground in the form or a spring.

What's really crazy is my house is about 3 feet up on a hill and ground water was still being forced up and out of the ground around the foundation.

There was so much water in the clay soil that when I dug a hole near the foundation to put in some drainage, clear flowing water would flow out under the footings in the same manner.

The builder installed a 6ft deep pipe drain around the houses having the problem and installed helical piers on houses that actually had foundation movement. This solved most of the problems but the pipes for the piers basically acted as wells causing water to come up through them as well. Luckily that was temporary.

The builder sued the soil engineering company that tested the lots and gave them approval to build forcing their insurance company to pay for the repairs to the houses.

That's why I don't build my houses on low property, soil is very well tested and I over engineer my foundations. Wish I was a builder back then!


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## bujaly (Dec 16, 2006)

KHouse75 said:


> Sounds familiar! Is the house built in a low area and is it clay soil? Sounds like a ground water issue.
> 
> I live in a house built back around 2002. It's a floating slab with a foundation of brick on block on footing. When it was built, there was about a 10 year drought in the area. About 3 months after I moved in, we got about 10 years worth of rain causing constant standing water and foundation movement for 1.5 years while the builder investigated.
> 
> ...


So what ended up happening? What was the final fix?


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## bujaly (Dec 16, 2006)

*POLYBUTYLENE GENTS!!!
I wasn't aware that these homes were outfitted with it gentlemen as mine does not have it.
The end unit 2 doors down has a break in their supply line and it was most likely seeping into the drain tile on the inside foundation on top of the footing and the water just found its way out...
*


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## genecarp (Mar 16, 2008)

Plastic Water Main?:blink:


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