r/basement

I am moving into a rental with my 3 year old and 1 year old within the next week. This is what the basement stairs currently look like- obviously very not child safe (or safe in general). Any tips on what I can do to make them safer? I will have foam tiles or carpet at the bottom and plan to get some kind of carpet stair treads, but I’m worried about how there’s nothing to prevent my kids from just falling right over the edge of the stairs. Any ideas are appreciated!

Hi guys, I need your feedback on my install. I paid a company to install a sump pump and interior drainage trench - 60ft total length. It only took them 2.5 hours (3 guys), which seemed extremely quick, which has me concerned.

My concerns/questions:

1. Is this trench wide and deep enough? You can see the top of my footer ( I moved the pea gravel to show the pipe). My research shows this might not be deep or wide enough, but I'd like your input.

2. Is pea gravel acceptable to use? The contract states to use #57 drainage stone, which they didn't. They just reused The pea gravel all around the pipe. The pea gravel was already in place in my crawl space.

3. How critical are weep holes in the mortar joint? They were supposed to drill more, but I believe they saw my block already had weep holes so they didn't add any. Should I push for more to be added, especially on the mortar joints?

4. I'm concerned about the pitch of the whole pipe, but I don't have any good photos yet of how the pipe looks like entering the sump pump to compare to the height you see in the photos, which would be at the ends of the pipe runs (highest points)

Thanks.

Headline kind of says it all. My anxiety and OCD are in overdrive as I try to fix things to stop this moisture intrusion. Nothing seems to be working and my mind is going to all the worst case scenarios.

When I use the level, there’s only this very small gap in 2-3 places. That bottom left block seems to stick out slightly….bowing or just a construction imperfection?

I've posted in the past about my recently purchased home built in 1935 with a partially recently finished basement. Adding to bedrooms and full bathroom facing street side with 2 egress windows. It was renovated by a local well known company but maybe that should've been a red flag but regardless after inspections and structural engineer report we bought. After snow melt and recent rain we had intrusion and upon further investigation I pulled off peeling paint in unfinished wall and found spalling concrete/ parge coating where water had come through. The entire unfinished wall shown is where water entered especially between where there is a cmu wall dividing the utility room and under the staircase where it literally drips water after heavier rain around abandoned gas pipe. Now I've had a few foundation contractors come and give their opinions and solutions. Most suggested interior drainage with vapor barrier covering wall to drain into sump. I wanted to have the exterior re excavated but due to proximity of neighbor many have said it is not feasible. One of the last photos shows how the seller did it and had someone apply sealant that is obviously failing. So from here im not exactly sure what to do. We did re do downspouts to drain separately from discharge pipe from existing sump that was not draining properly due to poor installation. Unclogged gutter as well but due to the gravel and patio area having tricky grading we still get some water intrusion during heavy rain. Any advice on what my plan of attack should be just don't want to move forward with a expensive solution that could come back to bite me again later in the foreseeable future. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

Have a small amount of seepage in these two corners of the basement specifically. Opposite corners are dry, as is the rest of the basement. Trying to figure out if this is a small issue that could be sealed from the inside, or if larger intervention is needed. For context, downspouts are about 6 feet away out from the house and soil is graded away already. Dehumidifier always running down there. Thanks!

I’m trying to get an idea how much a 580 sqft basement will cost. I would do it myself but honestly I won’t have the time.

I want foam board insulation, framing and drywall. No bathroom or rooms. It will just be an open space. The flooring, painting and trim/moulding I can do myself. Anyone has an idea how much that would be?

https://imgur.com/a/kIK9tFc

Hi all I’m located in ma. I just had a drain tile and sump pump installed yesterday. I’m going to be finishing my basement and it has always been humid and damp. Water would run through certain openings in the mortar during bad rain storms and cause puddles but otherwise just the walls would be damp.

I was expecting water to come draining out of the weep holes but this wasn’t the case and the sump pit is dry. Is this normal? Also the floors seem to be more damp. Is this from the concrete curing?

Hello! My wife and I toured a beautiful home built in 2016 today. Was within our budget, and we both liked it. Something I didn’t like were the multiple vertical cracks in the foundation. I’ve included a picture as to what they looked like, and I’ve seen poured walls, they all have 1 or 2 of these. This one however, had 6 by my quick count, may have been more. No bulging in the walls, no cracking on the drywall upstairs, etc. floors were all even. All of them were located within the joint. I don’t want to buy a future money pit, would you avoid a house with that many cracks?

I live in Omaha, Nebraska in 1970s house built with block foundation. I have unfortunately had some water damage in my basement. I started to pull some of the wet material out and noticed significant mold growth. I ended up hiring a remediation company to come out and they removed about 65 feet of drywall/shiplap plus some LVP flooring. They suggested water has to have been leaking in the corner where I noticed the damage for quite some time but it only appears to be entering in this one section.

It has not been wet since they removed everything but it also has not rained much at all yet. It rained last week and we ended up with a small amount of dampness. The picture here is after running the hose for about 5 minutes against the foundation wall and this what I ended up with after about two hours. It appears to be filling the blocks and leaking at the cold joint?

I’ve had four foundation companies come out. All four suggested interior drain tiles and a sump pump. Quotes ranged from $13,000 for a full interior system, down to $4,500 for about 30 feet of drain tile and a sump pit + pump. I attached one of the diagrams for the middle of the road system that would include a sump pit + 68 feet of drain tile. One of the companies told me if it was him he just wouldn’t finish this corner of the basement…? lol another said excavating is the proper way but it would run into the $20k range.

I had a stone mason come out today and suggest excavating the foundation in the exterior and doing a waterproof membrane. His quote came in the cheapest at about $3,250 to excavate, put up the rubber membrane, backfill, and tuck any mortar that needs addressed.

Seems like everyone has an opinion about why/why not to do something and I’m honestly just lost. Everyone except the stone mason seemed like they are just trying to sell me something. So basement people of Reddit, what would you do?

What to use to seal these cracks? Had drainage issues from clogged gutters /needing to regrade after we get these sealed as much as we can. Needed carbon fiber straps in basement from wall bowing we believe that what caused the Cracks

Im planning to run a gas pipe through and I’m wondering if that would affect the joists structural integrity since there’s already a lot going on.

I’m thinking I could shoot for the region to the far left of the wires so that it’s spaced out. Any advice if that’s okay?

Sorry for the late update but it's been a bit of a saga happening around here.

I ended up putting in a french drain along the side of the house, draining into a dry sump in the backyard since the lot is too flat to have the pipe end above ground. I used non-woven geotextile fabric to make a burrito with 3/4 drainage rock and the perf pipe as the filling, and put some extra rock on top. Then shaped the ground so water flows to above the french drain and away from the house. We've had a bit of rain, and it looks like just shaping the ground causes a lot of the water to flow away from the main problem area.

No matter how deep I dug the pit the soil was still pretty clay heavy, so I ended up digging a pretty decent hole. I lined it with non-woven fabric as well, filled with 2 yards of 1-2" drainage rock, covered with the fabric, and put maybe 8-10 inches of topsoil over it.

As for eavestroughs, my neighbour (whose roof is sloped toward my house and is the source of most of the water) is basically ignoring me, so I think I may have to either install them on their house at my cost, or escalate things with local bylaw. I can't find any specific local rules about drainage, but I did find some provincial rules. I'm also going to install them on my place.

Luckily there was minimal damage to the interior of the basement. The baseboards were wet so I removed them, and there was a bit of moisture in two small areas in the drywall underneath where the baseboards were, and a tiny bit of surface mold starting there, but nothing in the rest of the wall. I set up a dehumidifier for a week and treated the spots with mold killer. After the dehumidifier was gone, there were no more signs of moisture, and I had a home inspector come and inspect the space. Everything still looks good, but I'm going to wait a while before installing new baseboards.

I hope this is my last update about this, but thanks for all the input and suggestions from everyone.

Why on gods green earth would anyone ever do this to a ceiling? It looks like hundreds of massive spit balls. Was this something common? House was built in 1962. Not sure what year the basement was finished. Scraping them off made a huge mess 😵‍💫

Hey all! We recently had some rain in our area and I noticed the concrete near an old basement floor drain looked a little damp. I’ve honestly never looked inside the drain before, but after the rain there was water sitting about halfway down the pipe.

It’s been dry the past few days, so I checked it again and now the water is gone, but there seems to be a decent amount of sediment/sand/small rocks/mineral buildup inside the drain.

The house is older and the drain appears to be cast iron. I'm still unclear why its damp around that area unless water started coming up from the drain?

My plan was to pour a little water down there and maybe use a shop vac to suck out some of the debris, but before I do that I wanted to ask: is this relatively normal for an older basement drain, or could this indicate a bigger issue?

For context:

• No foul smells coming from the drain
• No backups or standing water in the basement
• This has never really been an issue before
• We did recently have basement waterproofing/french drain work done nearby, so I’m not sure if that disturbed some sediment

I’ll try to add pictures in the comments. Appreciate any advice.

Edits: Pics here- https://imgur.com/a/k6It4io

Purchased the home in February. Was removing a shelf that was connected to the basement wall in the corner. Tore it out and found it like this. The back of the shelf was rotted, but it has since dried out. There are a few other places on this part of the basement that have water intrusion, but not this bad. Mold test was clear and there’s no musty smell.

The neighbors informed me that years ago there was a flood cause by a neighbor two streets up that threw his lawn clipping into the city owned drain. It formed a dam and eventually burst and sent the water flowing down. I’m guessing during the flooding the water was absorbed through the wood and was dried out eventually.

The wall is not damp, nor has there been any actual water spotted in the basement. It has also rained the past two days. I have had two dehumidifiers running since February. The yard slopes away from the house. I’m going to clear out my gutters and ensure the downspouts are clean as well. I have a feeling they’re causing the issue. I have not witnessed any water pooling outside by the house either.

Today I had a basement remediation company come out and quote me 20k for adding water guards, a sump pump, wallie lining, and a built in dehumidifier. He never mentioned the gutters once. I’m feeling like all of this is overkill/he’s trying to maximize sales. I’m guessing ensuring the gutters are draining farther away would do the trick. If not I can reassess at a later date/cracks appear/basement floods.

Is there anything I am overlooking or should be aware of? Thanks for any assistance!

The smooth looking concrete is what 85% of my basement floor looks like. The pockmarked sections (like in the 2nd photo) have water seeping thru after heavy snowmelt or major rain.

I have an interior drain system and sump *less than 3 months old. Prior to it being installed in never noticed water seeping thru these sections (not located near any walls).

This March was also in the top 3 wettest in recorded history for my area. The interior drain helped with any water seepage where the foundation meets the basement floor and the sump pump kicks on every other day or so... but it doesn't seem to have helped these sections of the floor *there are 3 of them that look *wrong*. Is this ground water coming up or a failure of the interior drain system that I just installed.

Getting water in basement so I thought there might be a crack next to the wall so I ripped out drywall and insulation on both sides and didn’t see anything. Should I keep going or is it something else?