I have a slow and persistent leak near my bulkhead that I’m trying to resolve. I’d seen small efflorescence stains for years but had mostly ignored them. Then about 6 months ago someone fixing my water heater put a hand on the wall and fell through - the sheet rock was completely destroyed from water. I’ve since had a bunch of people out to see how to fix this and 3 have said they have no idea what was happening and didn’t even try give a quote, and all the others have said something different.
TLDR: concrete on both sides of stairs near the opening is quite wet per a moisture meter. The rim joist above the stairs is quite wet on both sides, but perfectly dry in the middle of the opening. The sheet rock is soaking wet on the left side going down the stairs near the stairs, but on the inside of the basement it’s bone dry. Foundation has a black covering alongside it which has kept the basement Sheetrock dry. Nobody has noticed anything outside of the bulkhead that would explain water getting in and there is no sitting water, it always drains well away from building. There is a very small trickle of water that gets in at the top of the stairs and slowly rolls down, but it’s very far from the rim joist.
Anybody have ideas? My current thinking is to try coating the stairs with crystalline and see if that stops things. Backup idea is to dig out alongside the outside of the stairs, but that would be somewhat invasive and hard to access given the location (deck is on one side).
Conflicting opinions so far:
Experienced carpenter - thought siding looked good and that it might be condensation build up from half finished basement hitting the cold air from the bulkhead. Suggested putting in a door. A moisture meter later showed very wet concrete on both side of the stairs so this doesn’t seem super likely
Basement company suggested ripping out the entire bulkhead steps and replacing with a pre-fab. That was $$$$ and everyone else has said stairs are okay.
Basement leak company suggested coating all of the concrete with xypex (crystalline) to keep water out. They would scrape off the poorly installed coating on the stair walls first. Thought everything else looked okay.
Mason - a father/son very experienced mason duo thought it was ground water seeping in. Didn’t really have a solution, but suggested maybe draining ground water into the drain at bottom of steps which moves to a sump pump
Basement leak company - thought the concrete and stairs was fine and it was the windows above leaking, although no damage is visible to any of the wood siding and it doesn’t explain why the middle of the rim joist above the stairs is dry and only ends are wet. Thought there was no way water was wicking up from below the ground to the rim joist above.
Home inspector - contractor by trade, very experienced. Was also stumped. Didn’t think it was the windows because it’d be more visible if so. Although didn’t see how water could wick up that far. Suggested maybe digging out alongside the outside of the bulkhead stairs to investigate and/or seal and then backfill.
The basin in the floor at the bottom of the stairs is 100% dry and in general the basement has never had water in almost ten years. There is a sump pump at the other side of the basement that is pretty active, but seems to work well.