I have a question about the basement article, okay a couple. My house sits on a concrete block foundation. After a heavy rain you see dampness forming at the base of the foundation wall, but no running water.
What about the drains in the floor? My basement floor slopes quite steeply around them. Would you do the foam, then the plywood layers and then floor leveling compound?(no carpet) I would assume I would need to leave access to the drains?
Is this a common practice, or should it be a common practice. When reading this article it seems to make sense. Or are their pitfalls/drawbacks with this technique versus other ways.
Thanks
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Bump
"Live Free,
not Die"
If your block walls have never been painted, paint them with Drylok masonry paint...it will help keep the moisture at bay. My basement walls actually leaked water badly, so I went to the trouble of patching small holes with hydraulic cement, and then busted up the interior side of the floor perimeter and installed a perforated, pipe, embedded in a gravel layer...this pipe was sloped enough so to drain into a sump pump that I also installed....my basement is now "high and dry".
What I did was a lot of work, but I needed to replace my entire basement floor anyway...so I did...but in your case...coat the walls with Drylok or even use B-Bond.
Also, make sure you check exterior perimeter and try to fix any thing that may be causing water to run against or build up against your foundation wall ( ie.. downspouts that let water drain straight down against walls...terrain sloped wrong way so to let water run toward foundation instead of away from) This action will save you a lot of grief.
As for floor being sloped drastically toward basement drain...if you have no intention of using such drain...plug it off, ( make sure you have a viable drain clean-out somewhere in case you ever need to run a snake or something) then pour concrete floor leveler in said area. The leveler will do what it says; it will fill in the low spots...then proceed from there in any fashion you like.
Davo