Another lost soul with a wet basement - please advise (long story)

Specific Inspection Topics Structural Inspections
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All dramatics aside, I have a bit of a complicated situation on my hands. I am hopeful that by posting here I will be connected with someone locally who can inspect my home.

I am a homeowner in SE Michigan. One of my neighbors has a pipe that runs alongside my house by his driveway from the back of his garage out to a hole in the curb. He is directing the water off his garage and off his house all into this pipe that runs next to my house. With the historic rainfall this past summer, my basement flooded. I had a plumbing company come out and replace the sewer line under my house–this was a legitimate issue regardless of the flooding. While the basement floor was open for this repair, my dad ran water from a hose into the opening of my neighbor’s pipe by his garage. Water came flooding under my house and into the area of my basement that had been jackhammered opened for the sewer repair. (I guess you could say my dad had a hunch that something was amiss). Long story short–then and there, my dad along with my neighbor’s family, dug alongside my house and found that at the corner of my house closest to the street, there was NO connection. Essentially, the water had been coming to this part of the pipe and going straight down, never making it to the street. This caused serious erosion by my house. It’s upsetting. With my neighbor’s refusal to remove the pipe, the section that ran alongside my house was replaced with a new pipe and all the dirt was placed back over it. A couple weeks later, a heavy rainfall caused the area to collapse and I had sediment pushed up through my basement floor. I have a box full of sand that came into my house. I don’t really know how else to explain it. Since then, any time it rains, I have water come up from my floor in my basement.

At first I was advised from the plumbing company that I needed to have my drainage tiles dug up and replaced because the drainage system had been fully compromised. Then I was told that what I really needed instead was an interior drainage system because it is less expensive and the issue would occur again otherwise. My dad is very skeptical of an interior drainage system and thinks the sump pump will be running constantly. Googling led me to this site.

I don’t know what to do about my issue, interior vs exterior waterproofing. I do know that my neighbor drilled holes into his driveway and confirmed sediment has eroded from underneath the concrete there, too. It is cracked and if there were to be any work done outside my house the section of driveway would have to be removed.

Please understand that I have tried working with my neighbor and have tried to involve the city but neither are helping me with my issue. I can go into more details privately.

If you know of someone who you think can help me with my situation, please let me know. I have many pictures and can walk you through it all in person.

Thank you,

Kristhias

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IMO… Moisture proofing / Damp proofing / Water proofing will not fix your problem! Those methods are for “normal” amounts of rainwater and groundwater. Yes, they should be performed, but only after the actual problem is resolved.

It seems that you’ve been dealing with only a Plumber? Although a logical assumption, they are useless for this problem as all they know is to dig up and install pipes wracking up the $$$. Contact a reputable, qualified (and licensed) foundation contractor. He may recommend other specialists.

IMO… never install “inside” water control systems. The point it to NOT let water in to the home to begin with! You would be better off installing a higher capacity perimeter drain around the home, possibly with an exterior sump pit, but the need for those are rare. It is entirely possible your current perimeter drain has failed and is not functioning at all.

Good luck. I am sure others, hopefully from your area, will chime in to offer opinions.

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call Mark Anderson 810 346 2955

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Thanks Mr. James :wink:

K. Rozelous,

you can call me if you like, 810 346 2955, available now and am here to help. Am in S E Mich as well.

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If you do not want to call i have a few Q’s for you.

–What kind of basement walls do you have, block, poured etc?

–The water and sediment that you got in basement, did you ‘FIRST’ see it at—along the very bottom of the basement wall where it MEETS the floor OR, did you see this water/sediment come up through a floor crack that is AWAY from the basement wall?

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It is NOT that surprising to me that you/some others get/see water under your basement floor whether the floor was opened up/j-hammered or not.

Do you remember how long it took when your Pops ran that water outside and you then got/saw water inside?

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One more and i’ll let you read and answer if you like…
finding/determining/identifying your real-actual problem(s) will lead you to the one-lone fix/remedy so, that is what now needs to be answered/determined in my honest opinion.

If you already had contractors/companies out and they did NOT, have NOT correctly and honestly identified your true problem then they are weak, incompetent people who should NOT be selling anything to anyone without determining the actual problem(s)… see what i mean?

The plumber, is he talking about the interior drain tiles or exterior?

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Hi Mark! For some reason I didn’t receive e-mail notification of your replies to my post. I will give you a call tonight after work. Thanks for reaching out!

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You’ll be in good hands now.

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Overflowing Window Wells

Window wells are great, especially for letting natural light into the basement. But when they fill with water, look out! An overflowing window well can create a horrible mess. It ranks right up there with sump pump failure as far as the potential for causing damage. Drains installed during original construction often fail. can someone please respond to this?

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…somebody left the door open ](*,)

Thanks Mr. Ramm :wink:
…going by her house later today.
Apparently the neighbor installed underground piping alongside/between the 2 homes to divert water from backyard to front. ](*,)

Either some of the piping came loose or is perforated or the neighbor did a shtty job and so some of that water comes out of that piping/drain tile along the homes creating underground/subsoil crevices in the SOIL, underneath the neighbors concrete (caused slabs to settle/crack) and some water obviously leaks out on the side of K Rozelous home, into the soil/crevices.

Not sure I’m going to be to much help as neighbor apparently doesn’t want to get rid of the crap he installed/problems he caused… that needs to be done regardless of other possible problems and should be done FIRST.

–Foundation company leaves homeowner with unsettled feeling, short video
http://www.kens5.com/story/money/consumer/eyewitness-wat-to-know/2015/04/22/foundation-tunnels-level-plumbing/26202341/
…paid foundation repair company $18,000 that caused more problems… then paid plumber $6,000

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:mrgreen: Ok so went by K Rozelous home, nice young lady and Dad.

As she has described, she already fixed/repaired ONE problem and hopefully won’t have any further flooding/back up problems in Warren MI. Warren has quite a a few problems w/back ups.

The remaining problem(S) at her home is a neighbor who installed some underground piping/tile on HER–property ](,)](,)](*,)which has caused quite a bit of settling (soil) along one + side of her house and ‘could’ cause OTHER problems if the neighbor doesn’t wake up and take the junk piping out.

This piping and water could cause the soil underneath the foundation wall–footing to… settle which then can cause bigger problems.

It has already caused the neighbors driveway slabs to crack and settle and, not a little, quite a bit. One would think the neighbor would see/understand this! #-o#-o#-o#-o#-o

Most of her basement wall has paneling against it so, she ‘might’ have a crack (leaks) or maybe 1+ leaky rod holes BEHIND the paneling, especially in one area/near corner where this piping crap is outside. She does have 1++ above grade openings in same area that needs to be caulked/sealed.

Take some of the paneling down to see whether or not a crack or leaky rod holes exist. If so, fix/waterproof them.

The neighbor really should take out the piping garbage or, PAY to have it taken out. They seem nice enough but duh cheese fell off their cracker a while ago, least on this subject, jesus kristmas where did the common sense go on this planet, huh? :mrgreen:

There will be FURTHER settling of the SOIL along her property to some extent and same goes for soil underneath his driveway slabs even AFTER the piping is removed… it’ll take quite some time to ‘fill in’ any and all the underground crevices IN the soil that were caused by the neighbors blllshtt piping aka, trying to DIVERT water, god help these people and soon.

On estimate before K Rozelous (hello Art, the homeowner, if your reading this) :wink:
Another knucklehead interior basement system was previously installed (by former owner) which did NOT fix/repair/stop the water!!!..from where the hlll it’s ALWAYS been entering! Holy shtt peeps, you are indeed getting misled, lied to etc by these inside basement system az hos!!!

This poor homeowner now has to deal with, spend money on exterior waterproofing which, again… should have been done a long time ago!!!@!@!!! loooooll

Where is that supposed LIFETIME warranty on the supposed basement waterproofing system??? Come on, it’s all blshttt.

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I had a similar situation with a home that I owned many years ago…
I had a method of correction that may or may not work for you but had worked for me…
I was a first time home buyer in a community where the drainage systems were similar to what you have described.
Email me for more information…