Originally Posted By: Mark Anderson
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hey Will.
Joe asked a good question, which if i knew the answer would save me the following long response  .....and is the basement finished, can you see the bsmt walls where water in on floor? If you can see the walls is there a crack, even a lil bity hairline crack....or around knee high & chest high, any lil round dampsih area visible,rod hole`s? If you can see the wall, are there any water marks anywhere, up high on a poured wall would indicate an entryway near ground level or higher on the outside. The 'what ya think' is not always that easy, unfortunately.
OR, without taking drywall-paneling down,You could also run a hose/water-test on a dry day & when floor is dry. Take the hose and run it near full blast at ground level, pointed toward the house. Let it run 'without' the water hitting any bricks etc above ground level and let it run at least 1 hour, especially since there is a sidewalk in play on the outside. If ANY water enters then there is an opening(s) IN the bsmt wall and will need to be fixed...correctly. If NO water enters after 1 hour then run the hose above ground against the bricks/siding/windows etc...1 small area at a time.
If you still see NO water enter after running the hose at full balst from ground down First, and then running it agaisnt the side of the home from ground level UP then the problem will be either a crack--hole in the basement floor OR water is being forced up along the inside isolation/cold joint due to clog under the floor near-along that south wall and they`ll prolly need a sump pump(s) to control the water level under the bsmt floor before it can accumulate `n rise up along the I-joint or floor crack.
I prefer taking part of paneling-drywall down to actually view the wall. Because if ya do the water-test and water enters while running it from gorund level down then sure, that tells us that there is a problem with the basement wall but Doesnt Tell us whether the entryway is a crack, rod hole etc. And by that i mean, if its a crack imo it needs to be waterproofed correctly Outside, if they rather go `head `n try an injection, not me. If its a rod hole or 2 then those can be packed-sealed from the inside, no big deal. If there is drywall/paneling i`d recomend taking at least 4-8' off to eyeball the wall in that area. FOLLOW??
Back to the 3 choices 1) water infiltration where sidwalk meets wall-house? There will NEED to be an entryway--a Direct opening(s) into the house, where the sidewalk meets the house, brickledge not sealed etc, taking paneling down you`d see if there were water stains up high on poured wall. Water infiltration at wall/slab intersection or known as isolation--cold joint?? yup, like i said already always possible to have water come up along the INSIDE I-joint= clog,problem under floor in THAT area, snake main 2 ways, if that doesnt get it then will need sump(s).
Still 1 ....could also be opening(s) along OUTSIDE I-joint, where wall `n footing meet, only way to fix/waterproofed correctly is from Outside. Inside drain tile method ONLY diverts water that is...Still entering, under the floor, doesnt waterproof anything.
2) Yup, could be crack, hole under tiles, if so...again snake through main FIRST. If that doesnt solve problem then sump(s) will be needed to control water level under the bsmt floor. If plumber knows what he`s doing then snaking quite often will free clog. And yup....another clog may develope in future and would need to be snaked again. So depending how often this water is showing up will then determine if snaking every now `n then or sump(s) will be best.
3) D tile cracked-clogged under floor already hit on, and could result in water coming up along the Inside I joint. 'Outside tile' has ZERO-NIL to do with this problem, some will certainly state otherwise. Now..i just read last sentence..lol, 'moisture appearance NOT correlated to rainfall, shtt.
Do they have sprinkler system?? Water line near that area?
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The Real reasons basements leak