Wet Weather Spring 1

[Wetman]

Still seeking some information and assistance regarding what has been described to us as a "wet weather spring." We are getting moisture stains in the middle of carpets in our rooms. Upon rolling back the carpets and pads, all that has been noticed are cracks that appear to be and have been described as "drying cracks." Can hydrostatic pressure in a "plastic soil" coupled with significant accumulation of underground runoff be enough to force moisture through those "drying cracks?" How can you explore without digging up the entire yard to determine if this "wet weather spring" is the source of the water damage when there is not a consistent runoff pattern in successive storms?

 

[Ron]

The cracks you see are drying shrinkage cracks in the concrete. If you have a clayey subgrade, you will slowly gain water in the clayey soil and it will increase the amount of moisture that ultimately can get into your house, mostly through the cracks. It sounds as if the gain is slight, since you have no significant latent moisture when you pull the carpet back, just dampness.

You can do a couple of things to mitigate. Seal the cracks with a pourable sealer. To make things easier, you can buy an acrylic adhesive such as is used for anchor bolt setting (both Hilti and Simpson Strongtie has such adhesives) and they can be used to conveniently fill and seal a crack such as this. Then you can apply a concrete sealer or even a moisture reactive paint such as Dri-Lock. This should stop most of your issue.