Tips for solving water problems inside and outside the home

UTim Carter

nless you live in the desert, you probably have had to deal with water in and around your home.

Each spring, I receive more requests about wet basements and crawlspaces and soggy soil in the yard.

Recently, Sara, who lives in the Washington, D.C., area, wrote about a nor'easter a few weeks ago that caused water to leak over her basement wall.

Sara lives in a brickveneer home that's only 30 years old. She has never had a leakage problem before the storm.

The force of the wind, coupled with the weight of the water crashing against her brick walls, drove water through the brick/mortar interface much like you'd hammer a nail into a soft piece of balsa wood. That water then ran down the back of the brick and found a way inside her basement.

The builder and bricklayer who built Sara's home didn't install the proper flashings and water-containment membranes to deal with this water.

I suggested that Sara use a clear, waterrepellent sealant that should stop almost all future water from leaking into her home (visit my website for more information).

In another waterrelated issue, a man in New Jersey is building a new home and the same storm system caused his basement to flood. The builder had yet to install the sump pump and all the water that cascaded down from the roof soaked into the fluffed up soil around the foundation.

The water that poured into his basement through the sump pit was filled with silt. The floor and walls were coated with the brown film.

If the builder had installed a deep layer of straw or a layer of felt paper on top of the gravel that covered the foundation drain tile, the silt would have never made it into the basement.

It’s possible the foundation was not waterproofed and the drain tile was not installed correctly.