Grading! Contractors love to sell everything but regrading the dirt around the property could be the cheapest and best way to prevent water from coming in. Typically in Ohio we have sump pumps in the basement. They're not wonderful but they work.
Better yet, don't build a basement and use the extra funds for an extra room on the house. Had a work colleague who built a house with developer and the options were to have a basement or extra room on the house. He opted to have the basement thinking it would be usefull. When I was over at his place visiting, I heard a noise and asked, he said it was the sump pump in the basement. I didn't know there was a basement, and asked how it's been with a basement, thinking it's a nice large space to have things. He groaned that a he wished he had chosen the extra room option instead of the basement when building the house. Says he never uses the basement for much, just storage and making sure the sump pump works so no flooding, plus the mildew smell is a nuisance House was only 10 years old. That advice stuck with me. Haven't owned a house except for one that had a crawl space.. I had to deal with the sump pump in a cob web infested space crouching down for hours redoing all the dirt trenches and grading so the sump pump would have drainage towards it because the boulder never thought to grade the dirt towards the sump pump that was directly underneath my master bedroom that would got off in the middle of the night.. I vowed to only get houses on concrete foundations with one ground floor, no second story, so much more useful space to have.
There are some areas where a concrete slab isn't a great option, but they are probably the most maintenance-free. It's good to keep water away from all foundation types, and especially if there's frost.@@marcusdamberger
@@marcusdambergerthis is exactly what I was thinking watching this video. Grading! You can solve the issue by not letting the water get to the foundation walls.
It's a house, things happen. I found the HVAC crossover insulated pipe to tie the halves of the house together had a huge hole in it so only half of the house was getting heat. It's a manufacturered home so that's how they do things. I bought a new 12" hose, then I found both of the 90 degree swivel pipes that hooked the pipe into the furnace and the other side of the house were rusted out so I replaced those too. I had to reattach the outlet pipe to the furnace again then I alumin taped everything up etc, spent two days under the house. It was around 200 bucks in parts and I brought tools from work as we do a lot of hooking furnaces back up after tuckpointing and repairing the brick work. Probably would have been thousands of dollars if I had to pay a HVAC tech to do it. Everything still works 12 years later and I have other projects that need to happen but not super critical and it was dirt cheap and move in ready except for the unknown heat issues. Good luck, you are going to win eventually 👍
If your water table is above the level of your floor then there's not a whole lot you can do. Otherwise you really need to make sure any surface runoff is gotten away from your foundation. Concrete walls will always leak if there's sufficient water on one side and not on the other
We had our entire foundation coated with a rubber membrane on the outside and added a sump pump in the bottom of a 55 gallon drum embedded in the basement floor in our old house.
New oversize gutters with downspouts that take the water underground away from the house at least 10 feet at all corners has made a big difference for me too
@@thecman26 this was done in the 70s. Perforated pipe was sunk a foot under the floor all the way around the foundation and emptied into the barrel. We were just above the flood plain. Never had another flood after that.
When I was 12 we moved into a house in Temperance, Michigan. It had a crawl space, and when we moved in around Halloween 1978, the crawlspace appeared dry. Fast forward to February 1979, and I am a 6' 110 pound boy (yes...) in the crawlspace with at least one inch of water. During January it was right up to the bottom of the boards! Monroe county, Michigan. In any case, in March, we had to have a sump pump installed. Since I was so slender, my dad had me go down there and dig the hole out for the sump pump, literally by hand as if I was at the beach digging a hole! This was one of the most disgusting things I have ever done. even if was actually little different from digging a hole with my hands at the beach. I was covered with lime and mud and there were mice down there, not just Feivel but also dead mouse bodies everywhere! I came out of the crawlspace after installing that sump pump well and my dad made me a steak dinner. He did that pretty often anyway, so I'm pretty sure that he didn't want to go down there due to claustrophobia or his innate hatred of snakes or rats. It sucked down there! It was gloomy and it stank, but obviously I was 1300 times larger than anything else that I would encounter down there (mice), so I wasn't so much scared as I was simply depressed. I hate crawlspaces to this day!
I feel your basement pain, JR. I lived in metro St. Louis for a bit over ten years, and our house was originally built in the 80s. We had all the same stuff: botched "escape windows" that might work for a gnome at best, textured concrete walls, a haphazard finish job on the basement itself, and much of the same cracking/leaking issues too. We never had the resources to look into the massive foundation leveling job you went through, but the crack repair warranty paid for itself 5x over, since we were in a game of whack-a-mole with resealing previous crack repairs. Honestly, I've concluded that every house in MO/KS that got finished basements in the 70s/80s were cursed from the start. O_O
@@markstevens1729 luckily I’m a water damage tech. These guys were pros… had big dehumidifiers and all. The grow was in the shop so no drywall there all osb for the walls.
Almost always it's the way the yard touches the house. Get some clay-based dirt and make a berm around the house. $700. Almost always you can divert the water from the house.
In the kitchen before moving the island measure for the Frigidare professional built in twin column combo. Doors swing out further than your basic normal fridge. Big house deserves the “KING” column fridge/freezer combo! Also consider room for a 48”+ range door swing.
The variety and quantity of Mt. Dew products is excellent. Would visit. I LOL'd at the Renewal by Anderson at the end. Window price just went up by $100,000 if you use them. They sell at gated 6-speed Lambo prices.
John, egress is not so much for you to get out, put for the firemen to gain entry while wearing their SCBA gear. Remember that they are not going to open a window like you normally would. They break the glass and go in that way, that is what your clear opening area is. I was a door and window sales specialist for 15 years so I'm quote familiar with the egress codes. There are typically 2 sizes. Either 5 sq.ft clear opening or 5.7 sq.ft. clear opening.
@eamon1648 In our Pella training certification classes we took every year, that is what they told us. Egress or ingress it basically was the clear glass opening of the window. Because firemen will use the Halligan tool to get entry in through a window. They will not stop and check to see if your double hung window is unlocked.
I have had several buildings in very wet parts of the world. You already know the house has water in the basement and even if the outside water problem eventually gets fixed you still have water under the basement floor causing high humidity. The one thing that every house with a basement needs is a "dry well" near the footer, either inside or out. Unless you live on the banks of a river they only have to be two feet below the floor of the basement. Dig it thirty inches deep and put six inches of gravel at the bottom. Install a sump pump with a line out the sewer. After the foundation is sealed you will still need a low spot for a leaking roof or pipe break to drain away. My last three houses and one shop have had them and I don't regret installing any of them. Cheap and easy insurance.
Thanks for the update John. I know you're frustrated with the expense and seeming lack of progress, but having a level floor and eventually fixing the leak issues (and the increased square footage) is huge. You'll get there, don't fret!
New construction here in Florida mostly has bedrooms with no lights. Just a switch and a box in the ceiling. Outlets have at least one that powers on from the switch.
I went through something similar in my old home, fixed a lot of bad DIY and water issues and so on. better those issues addressed now than later on when you have everything finished and are moved in.
Homes built from the 60s onwards moved away from ceiling lights in non utilitarian rooms. This was a suburban status symbol thing as lamps were all the rage. Ceiling lights were a fall back to inner city no frills living.
Thanks for the house update JR, I guess I see now why you were the high bidder at the auction, IMO you still got a great deal on this place it's just going to take time (and a lot of money) to get it the way you want it. And $11K for windows isn't bad, I got a quote last year for $27K for the windows in my house, mind you I'm looking at fiberglass because the next time they'll be replaced is after I'm dead 😅 I'd take a look at Houston Window Experts videos on RU-vid they're really informative.
I'm sure it's been said but perimeter drain system and foundation sealing? I've been doing this for a 30 years and the #1 correction starts from the outside the more you try to repair from the inside it doesn't attack future moisture & humidity problems.
JR do some research on Pex. There is a big storm brewing. The stuff is starting to break down internally especially if you live in a highly chlorinated city.
The house i just moved into last year doesn't have a sump pump in the basement. The rear gutter dumped right because an egress well and would lead to mild flooding in that room. I was honestly surprised that just putting a 12' extension on the gutter was enough to keep the house dry.
I wouldn’t have done what you did first but the fact the jacked the house up and attached it to bedrock is worth it. But the only way to stop the water is to dig out the whole outside foundation to footer and waterproof and fill in with gravel and French drain and add gutters. You should also change out that god awful breaker box rats nest in the basement to a 220
Have you looked at window well covers to keep the water out until the new windows are put in? Or do you think some of it is ground water from outside of the well too...
Same foundation company did 7 piers under my Andover house basement, end of February. I think they underestimated the time/labor a bit finishing in the dark on a Friday night. They left me with one helluva a mess of dirt piles etc. Hope the foundation support is better than their finish work.
I have a similar issue and I live on the top of a hill. But there’s an underground stream on the street just above mine so I’m gonna install a French drain as soon as I rent a backhoe. Good luck.
I realize you bought this house at auction but didn't they still have to disclose problems with the house ?? I'm sure the leaking basement didn't just start when you bought it !!
What did the contractor do about the water? Basement water problems are because of WATER.... you have to get the water AWAY from your foundation. So... you have to dig around your foundation ... tear out the old drainage system... install a new drainage system and waterproof the outside of the foundation walls.
This is why when we moved back to ICT in 2020 we bought a house without a basement (of course we're on the northwest of town, not in the middle of the tornado magnet that is Andover).
Ah, home reno projects are a mess for 90% of the time and looking renovated for 10% of the time. You are getting there and seem to be doing things right!
The house reminds me of the movie The Money Pit with Tom Hanks. One thing after another. Seriously, I hope all the big spending to correct problems is behind you.
Gotta say that if you have water leaking in the basement it would probably be good tear out all the dry wall and stuff. Mold us a terrible problem that can wick up to the 1st floor. Don't sleep on this!
Most basement water incursion is caused by rainwater not be directed away from the house. Gutters, downspouts, and shoring up soil near the foundation and that the water has somewhere to go - away from the house. The cracks and settling are also factors, as could be a high water table. Seems like you're tracking it down but look around the outside to see where the rainwater goes. It neeeds to flow away from your house!
He is but it he's going the wrong way about it. You can never keep water from coming in the basement. Water will always follow the least path of resistance. It doesn't matter how good the grading and gutter downspouts are. Sure it can mimize the water but the best way to fix it is to have a vapor barrier installed on the inside of the walls and a drain tile that sits on the interior footing (not in the dirt!) and have that water drain into a sump pump. Then obviously pump the water away from the house.
Thanks for the house update. When I asked about it last month, one of your over zealous followers nearly had a fit....it seemed to him that my asking about it was treading into forbidden territory. I guess now he's in a corner somewhere sulking.
Moral to this story: Don't buy a house with a basement! My house in Florida even had seepage! Ended up digging around the base of the house and painting a black tar to seal the foundation! Another thing!~!! Very important!!! Never pay any contractor till the job is "satisfaction" is achieved!
The old dark 80's home design - is crazy how dark those old homes were with no lights, dark wood trim, dark carpeting... Lights, fresh drywall/paint, fresh flooring goes a loong way in livability for sure
That kind of water wastage is egregious, even if the dollar amount is small. Please consider replacing the valves for all of the toilets with new quarter-turn ones and turn off the bad toilet when not in use. Just an idea, you do you.
