Recently had water coming my basement after 18 years with no leaks.
The water is coming in from the NE corner of my house which is near the top of a hill and the entire hillside is basically sand and gravel. I dug down in the window well to the weeper (8′) thinking I would find a collapsed weeper. The fill was mostly sand until the last foot where it is 3/4″ gravel. The sand is saturated with water. No filter fabric anywhere, but the gravel the was perfectly clean. I cut into the weeper and it is also clean and dry. I shot a camera in either direction to confirm. No water at the base of the weeper and no cracks in the foundation that can be seen. I finished the basement about 5 years ago and it had no cracks anywhere that could be seen from the inside. The water seems to be coming from the edge of the slab/wall connection which indicates hydrostatic pressure, but none could be found at the base of the weeper. Only up higher in the sand course is there water. I’m baffled.
The only thing I could think of is that the weeper was overwelmed by water coming from my neighbours house which is about 3′ higher than mine and 20′ away. There were indications that water came from this direction due to the mud in the window well and to the side of it. The ground was partially frozen at the time and the water would not have time to sink in. But I keep asking myself, would not the weeper have moved the water into the sump pit? Why did it come in instead? How can I prevent this from happening again?
I am planning to dig from this window well to the another window well around the corner (about 15′) of the house and seal the foundation with blueseal and Platon. Then replace the weeper with a new updated one with the sock on it and backfill with at least 5′ of 3/4″ gravel. But perhaps I am doing this all in vain? Perhaps none of this will help.
Any thoughts?
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The ground froze, so surface water could not make it to the foundation drain. Instead it pooled maybe 2 feet down and found a small crack in the basement wall to leak through. Then it ran down the inside of the basement wall until it hit the bottom and came out.