Hi Dale,
The temps aren't much warmer here. 30's and 40's. It's just not warming up
enough. Now I do like my snow but all in all, I'm glad that I'm not snowed in.
It's not really a strong slope at all very gentle actually, but what I'm
wondering about if this same water accumulation is causing the back up in my
commodes at the same time and the rain is coming down. Some how I think the
high water I think is causing both problems. By the way, what's the best
surface sealant for this kind of project and what's the procedure to apply it.
I'm going to have to pull up the carpet and all that kind of thing and right
now it seems like a miserable project. Is there also any particular cleaning
that I need to do to the floor before I apply the sealant?.
Thanks again to all of you for your responses and help. I'll keep you posted on
this situation.
Warm regards,
Mycell
----- Original Message -----
From: Dale Leavens
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 10:24 PM
Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Help--my floor is leaking upwards!
Hello Mycell,
Robert has described one potentially pretty good solution. I would add that
you might extend the drain down hill as far away as you can from the building
if that is an option and dig and install a dry well. These can be variably
sophisticated but mostly you dig a hole and fill it with crushed rock with a
sort of barrel with holes in it like a colander into which the drain is
inserted. You could add a weeping bed I suppose but this should not be
necessary. the holey barrel has a relief float arrangement at the top to allow
water to escape should the well fill beyond capacity, being down hill from the
problem the excess should continue to drain away.
I wonder though if the problem is of rain driving against the building and
migrating through. Ceramic tile is normally impermeable to water so except for
the grout it seems unlikely to me that the water is rising up through the tile.
After all, one often tiles showers and bathroom floors to keep the water from
draining through to surfaces below and behind the tiles.
You say the building is made of concrete block. I once rented office space in
a strip mall with a concrete block wall. When wind drove rain against that wall
a certain amount would migrate through into the cavities of the block and run
down inside collecting at the bottom slowly filling up the blocks. This
hydraulic pressure and osmotic pressure being as the inside of the building was
dry and warm ultimately brought the water through the block wall mostly ad the
bottom of the wall.I have seen this too in basements where the bottom of the
wall leaked water across the floor and drilling small holes in the bottom of
the block drained them releasing a surprising amount of water. Each
compartment, usually three in a concrete block will collect water.
Now if the brickwork is a veneer and the water is getting behind it the
problem may be more difficult to solve but if the brick is properly installed
there should be venting at the bottom of the brick wall where it rests at the
base. Every so many bricks should have venting. Look to see that these are free
from blockage, they are there exactly to drain any moisture which gets behind
the bricks and if clear should keep water from collecting against the cement
block and migrating through.
If the cement block is directly exposed to the outside then scrubbing it a
little to clean it then applying a good quality waterproof paint of suitable
colour on the outside to keep wind from driving rain through the surface of the
blocks and into the cavities should stop it from collecting in there and making
it's way out either through the inside of the block or at the junction where
the block rests on the foundation where it can wander across the edges of your
floor.
Because we can't really see the walls involved it is hard to know, it might
even be that the upper part is wood cladding and this is not well enough
flashed to carry rain running down the wood from getting in behind the brick
and repairing the flashing might be the solution.
Hope these ideas are helpful in determining the source and solution to your
water infiltration problems.
Now that the snow has arrived here in Ernest, Janet and I might be convinced
to come for a visit and personal inspection and maybe even a little restoration
work. <GRIN>
----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Kennedy
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 6:24 AM
Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Help--my floor is leaking upwards!
Well first we'll all send our appreciation and pray for the best for your son.
As for your water problem, you can probably look through the archives and
find a bunch on this topic. We've run it around many times.
The immediate suggestion would be to pick up a wet dry shop vac while they'll
be on sale this season. I've used them many times in a flooding situation and
the stronger ones will pull the water from carpet and help in drying it from
pulling a vacuum on the carpet itself.
As for outside, there are lots of places you can start.
Do you have gutters? Are they clean? Is there a downspout on that corner? If
there is a downspout, make sure it is able to empty without restriction to the
flow. If draining is free flowing, you may want to extend the end several feet
from the house.
It sounds like the house is built on a concrete pad so you don't have the
problem of cement blocks filling and leaking into the house below ground level.
There are various things that can be applied to cement block to water proof
it, but that is only a bandade over the problem. The problem is the need to
drain water away from the house before it can build up and soak through.
What you will need to do first is look at the ground itself on the corners
where the water comes into the house. The lay of the land needs to be higher at
the house and then slope away. If the ground is less than level it will collect
water there.
My first thoughts would be to dig a shallow trench around the outside and lay
drain tile. Drain tile is just 4 inch or larger plastic pipe with holes about
half way around the pipe. The holes need to face up so water can get in the
pipe and be carried away.
Shallow trench as in 8 to 12 inches. You would make a trench that has a
gentle slope like a quarter inch per foot, fill the bottom with a couple inches
of gravel, lay drain tile on the gravel and then fill the rest of the trench
with gravel so the drain tile is covered. Then you can use the remaining dirt
to cover the gravel and form a slope away from the house for the water to run
off.
Lots of us have done projects like this and my way is to wrap the drain tile
with a fabric before putting in the ground. The fabric works as a type of
filter keeping dirt and sand from washing into the tile and clogging it.
Of course the tile has to continue away from the house for a ways before
emptying out or you'll just move the problem somewhere else along the side of
the house. So you'll also have to decide where the lowest point is, and put in
a T or elbow to run more pipe away from the house.
Here is an idea to get you started and I'm sure more will follow. Good luck
----- Original Message -----
From: Mycell Armington
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 11:03 PM
Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Help--my floor is leaking upwards!
Hello All,
I joined this list several months ago and have just been lurking and reading
and learning. A lot of the things I don't know about personally and I probably
will never use, but I thought it would be good just to have a source to go to
when needing home repair questions answered. Well, I have a problem and I need
your counsel, please read this out and lend me your multitude of counsel.
First of all I'll try and explain my subject line. I live in a home that was
built in 1962. It was added on to at one end by closing in the car
port-/garage. Well that's another problem for another day. My immediate problem
is when it rains in massive quantities like for 2 or 3 days and I mean heavy
rain 10 inches or more in a 12 to 24 hour time frame the concrete foundation
gets wet and this is only in certain areas of the house that water soaks up
through ceramic tile. It's happened in the same places 3 times this year and
totally saturated my carpets that are on top of the tiling. The room that this
phenomenon is occurring in is my bedroom and it's only happening in two corners
those corners are on the outside of the house and they are on the same side.
The house is made of concrete block and brick and some wood siding.
Sorry to belabor the description but the better I describe the better you may
be able to help me.
I am a single mother of adult children who are scattered over different parts
of the world. My son is a United States Marine and is currently preparing to go
to Iraq so he can't really do anything.
I've asked a few people and they're saying there may be a sealant that can be
painted on or poured on. Please help because I'm truly tired of calling for
help to move heavy furniture around and pulling up nasty stinky carpet and
padding and then running box fans directly through the carpet to get it to dry
to prevent it from mildew and mold. I had someone the last time to cut the
padding in sections and I ran the padding through the dryer. I didn't think of
that one someone else did. Please, please , lend me your wisdom, counsel and
advice. It took about 30 hours the last time to finally get things back
together.
Warm regards and much thanks in advance for any workable solutions.
Mycell Armington in Tallahassee Florida.
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