I have an 1820’s farmhouse in upstate New York. The previous owner expanded the original footprint. When he expanded he decided to increase headroom in the basement by digging down approximately 2.5ft. Nice idea but those old timers knew exactly where the water table was! Now I have a nice pool in an adjacent part of the original basement, which is bone dry with slate floor, that is constantly filling with water.
1) should I try to Dry Lock the cinder block walls?
2) deal with the sump pump running all the time?
3) put a diving board in?
4) back fill with #1 stone, top with sand and tamp, and pour concrete to the original basement floor height?
5) any other suggestions
I’m in the wine business so having a little room with stone floors could be okay for wine storage.
The best response is sure to get a bottle of vino for helping me to unrattle this puzzle.
thanks,
RR
Replies
Consider frog ranching. A fill in for when your waiting on the wine to work.
Being in the French wine business frog ranching could work. Nothing like a plate of those little legs to get you singing...I consider them french chicken wings.
Or add a line of "Natural Spring Water"
There are a lot of threads here on BT about wet basements. And virtually every one of them has posts in it saying that you need to start with water control OUTSIDE the house.
The ground should slope away. Downspouts should be run as far away from the house as possible. Gutters need to be kept clean.
After that, you probably need to put in footing drains and a sump. Or run the drains to daylight, if possible.
Putting drylock paint on the inside of the walls will do very little or nothing.
Good luck with it...
It sounds crazy but all of that is done...I think I have a relatively high water table and the previous owner went about 2 foot deep. The rest of the house is BONE dry except for his little folly. I'm really leaning towards filling the thing in with stone and essentially "undoing" what he took away.I guess I am curious if there is something else to consider?If mother nature wants the basement then I will just give it back!Thanks for the replies,
RRps - the wine is still up for grabs.
ps - the wine is still up for grabs.
In that case, how about draining the area to daylight and topping with a new slab? Membrane to keep the bottom of the concrete dry(er). If you've got a spring in there you need a place for it to go.
I prefer amarone. Which ain't French and I have no idea of the equivalent. For the uninitiated, that's a valpolicella grape left on the vine to dry out a bit. Concentrates the flavor, and the bill.
From your thread title I thought you wanted a basement pool. I'm building one. Humidity's the main issue. After keeping water in the pool.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
Bertani Amarone 1979. Wonderful and pricey.
Bertani Amarone 1979. Wonderful and pricey.
You bringing a couple of bottles when you come for dinner? Looks like I'm not gettin' any here.
Our old cellar had 2 cases of '76, not Bertani. Don't remember whose but it was bottled near Torino, odd for a DOC Veneto. Was shocked when the liquor store owner offered them to me for $36. That's per case. I mean, how bad could it be? We did the responsible thing, open a bottle/yr until they peaked. And never shared a single one. Happy memories. We used to buy a lot of wine from that guy. PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
Bertani huh? I have to admit I am a bit partial to Allegrini. There amarone tends to be a less rich, extracted style and a bit more minerality. Though honestly I have difficulty trying to figure out what to eat it with, those wines are so rich after a few glasses I am done.I am actually leaving for France in the am for three weeks to do my yearly buying. In regards to the basement. I believe the "new basement" is actually below the water table which is fairly high in my area. I have a pond on the property that is actually 6 ft. higher than the front yard! So indeed the previous owner dug to deep by aproximately 2.5 ft. My thought is to fill her in with stone and such to the original basement level and then build a small basin for a sump pump just in case the unexpected happens. Though if you look at the original basement it is dry as toast.thanks again...Who was it again that gets the bottle of CDP 2001 from Charbonniere?
>>Who was it again that gets the bottle of CDP 2001 from CharbonniereWell if I knew that was the vino in question I would have made an attempt to answer<g>.Once while touring the Loire valley I was treated to a personal tour of Domaine Huet in Vouvray by Gaston Huet. Had a nice Le Mont Sec.
You won't get rid of your problem by covering it up and ignoring it. The forces that water can place in the new floor will be extreme, maybe enough to ruin the floor that you "cap" the existing floor with. The water has to be evacuated from the structure i.e. sump pumps. If it were my problem I would dig connected trenches in the problem area filled with socked perforated drain pipe. Back fill with crushed rock and then pour a new floor on top. Don't forget to battery back-up your sumps, and to take it one step further add trickle chargers to each set-up to make sure that the batteries are always fully charged.
Thanks for the input.I'm not sure if I made it clear that the water only rises to a few inches below the "old" floor and NO higher. My reference to the old timers knowing the height of the water table was in regards to that. The previous owner made the mistake of digging to deep and created in essence a pool for the water to run into...path of least resistance. My idea was to fill with stone to the same level as the 180 yr old floor that is dry and always has been and THEN cap with concrete or not.Does that make sense?My philosophy is why fight mother nature, I will give her back 2.5 feet.thanks again, as you can see this has perplexed more than one of my builder friends!
I understood your reference to the water table, and agree that the only real solution is to fill 'er back up, unless you like the idea of needing a (probably high capacity) pump running non-stop, with a major flood any time the pump or power fails.
Don
If it were my basement, I'd sure hate to give up all that headroom. But you also need a way to deal with the water effectively. So how about a compromise? Put about 6" of clean rock in the low area. Within that 6" of rock, put in a perimiter drain. Run that drain to daylight if possible, or put in a sump pump. Than put down 6 mil plastic over the gravel and pour a new slab on top of that. That should solve your water problem, but still leave you with plenty of headroom. And it should be cheaper than filling the whole area up with rock.
What does an actor know about politics?" [Ronald Reagan, criticizing Ed Asner for opposing American foreign policy]
Thanks, that is the direction I think I am going. I will add a foot or so of stone and run a drain to a sump pump well and then add another foot.
Does that mean I get the bottle of vino ???(-:
I'm proud to say that I bought a thermometer when it was at 32 degrees, and I sold it when it reached 90.
If he really is at the water table level, then that pretty much by definition means he can't run a line to daylight - there wouldn't be any surface lower than the top of the water table.
So, the compromise can work as long as the flow doesn't overwhelm the sump pump. He'll also need to keep anything that doesn't like water off the floor. I don't know many people with sump pumps who haven't had it flood at least once.
I'm just really glad that I've got a nice dry basement. (except for summer humidity).
Don
"If he really is at the water table level...there wouldn't be any surface lower than the top of the water table."
I think that when he said he was below the water table he was just speculating.
If he really WAS below the water table, the thing would never dry out. And this flooding appears to be only during rainy periods. (Unless I remember incorrectly)
Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later win a little more.
I don't think he mentioned that it was just in rainy weather.
I'm still glad my basement is dry and I don't have to deal with these issues.
Oooh! I just had a stroke of genius! He should put in one of them thar "floating" hardwood floors! Presto - problem solved :)
Don
I think you should leave the water tear off the roof keep the wine and invite us all over for a hell of a pool party
Well could you fill it in with stone install a sump pump and put in a pwf sub floor and if there is a situation after you could just lift the subfloor and not waste money on concrete
rjraine:
I think that I'd do the stone, then run some perf pipe to a sump pit. The pipe & pump are to accomodate that occasional "wet spring" and should be laid above the height of the standing water. That way the water won't be able to come back up into the repaired area.Then I'd go ahead and pour a slab with some wire in it. Wire in the slab is ALWAYS a good thing but in this case it's particularly important because of the potential for hydraulic pressure under the slab trying to lift the slab.
Good Luck, BILL