Our home is about 13 years old, and we've been here about 3 years. The basement walls are poured concrete. We've been having a leak at the water supply penetration, which is at the front of the house, about 3.5 feet below grade. The ground immediately around the front of the house slopes away from the problem area for 8 feet or so, but the general terrain (which we can't change much) slopes toward the house.
The leak has been present at least as long as we've owned the home. The first time we had a leak, I noticed that the gutter downspouts were dumping rainwater above the problem area, so I made the downspouts run into drainage pipe, dug a trench, and ran the drain pipe into the woods. That solved most of the problem for most rains.
3 months ago, our water line broke just outside the house (3/4" PVC). So, while I dug it up to repair, I cleaned the wall and packed hydraulic cement around the pipe penetration on the outside. This seemed to solve the remainder of the problem - until Sunday.
The past 2 weeks, we've had a TON of rain. The wall penetration had about 25 gallons of water come through it in just over 24 hours. Fortunately, I had an improvised funnel mounted to the wall under the penetration feeding a 5 gallon bucket. Unfortunately, 6 gallons had come in before I discovered the leak had returned (but nothing damaged). Swapped and dumped buckets for the rest of the water.
Anyway, the wall penetration is about 3.25" in diameter, the .75" PVC goes through near the center and some hard black sealant material fills the gap. The wall thickness is probably about 8". I'm not sure what the black sealant material is and I'm not sure what the best way to seal the penetration is. I'm fine with digging up the outside.
Any advice on what to use or tips? Thank you!
The leak has been present at least as long as we've owned the home. The first time we had a leak, I noticed that the gutter downspouts were dumping rainwater above the problem area, so I made the downspouts run into drainage pipe, dug a trench, and ran the drain pipe into the woods. That solved most of the problem for most rains.
3 months ago, our water line broke just outside the house (3/4" PVC). So, while I dug it up to repair, I cleaned the wall and packed hydraulic cement around the pipe penetration on the outside. This seemed to solve the remainder of the problem - until Sunday.
The past 2 weeks, we've had a TON of rain. The wall penetration had about 25 gallons of water come through it in just over 24 hours. Fortunately, I had an improvised funnel mounted to the wall under the penetration feeding a 5 gallon bucket. Unfortunately, 6 gallons had come in before I discovered the leak had returned (but nothing damaged). Swapped and dumped buckets for the rest of the water.
Anyway, the wall penetration is about 3.25" in diameter, the .75" PVC goes through near the center and some hard black sealant material fills the gap. The wall thickness is probably about 8". I'm not sure what the black sealant material is and I'm not sure what the best way to seal the penetration is. I'm fine with digging up the outside.
Any advice on what to use or tips? Thank you!
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