Basement Water Intrusion
Basement Water Intrusion
(OP)
Hey all,
This question is actually for me and my house where I’m trying to resolve some water intrusion issues in my basement due to high groundwater. On one side of the house I have an addition supported by brick columns that do not go down as far as the basement footing. I have already diverted the surface water away from the house and that helped but I still have water intrusion through the cinder block walls when the groundwater raises.
I would love to excavate under the addition and apply a waterproofing membrane but there is a whole host of safety issues associated with this and I’m looking for an alternate solution. I’m considering only having the voids within the block walls pressure grouted but I don’t know much about it. I’ve also read about pumping a bentonite slurry though the wall onto the Wall/Soil interface but I would prefer not to put any additional lateral pressure on the wall when the bentonite reacts with the water.
Any ideas?
This question is actually for me and my house where I’m trying to resolve some water intrusion issues in my basement due to high groundwater. On one side of the house I have an addition supported by brick columns that do not go down as far as the basement footing. I have already diverted the surface water away from the house and that helped but I still have water intrusion through the cinder block walls when the groundwater raises.
I would love to excavate under the addition and apply a waterproofing membrane but there is a whole host of safety issues associated with this and I’m looking for an alternate solution. I’m considering only having the voids within the block walls pressure grouted but I don’t know much about it. I’ve also read about pumping a bentonite slurry though the wall onto the Wall/Soil interface but I would prefer not to put any additional lateral pressure on the wall when the bentonite reacts with the water.
Any ideas?





RE: Basement Water Intrusion
Brian|PA EIT|Civil-Highway Engineer
Consulting Southcentral PA
PSU 2009|BS Civil
RE: Basement Water Intrusion
RE: Basement Water Intrusion
Grouting the wall might work; it'll be a pain in the @$$ with having to fill every cell. You could try soil grouting; might want to repost the question in the foundation engineering forum.
RE: Basement Water Intrusion
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
RE: Basement Water Intrusion
My Thought was that if I pressure grout the walls and I install the exterior perimeter drains at the other three sides of the house the water would pass to the perimeter drains on the sides of the house rather than through the house or at least reducing the hydrostatic pressure to a point where the leakage is no longer a problem.
I will post this on the foundation forum and give the Dirt guys a crack at it.
Thanks for all our responses.