Well Spiro, That might work. I can only really speak from my experience around here where the soil is clay and therefore offers more resistance to water than does cement, particularly cement block.
It seems to me that the major misunderstanding people have is that cement is a barrier to water. I suppose it is something of a filter all right. Now what I have read and seen about patching cracks is that you under cut the crack with a masonry chisel so it is wider inside than the surface. You brush as much debris out of the crack as you can then force hydraulic cement into the crack, it expands as it cures. The main purpose of this though is for structural integrity. Certainly for a time at least it will retard seepage. Now having dug down the outside and disturbed the soil you will have improved the drainage for a while at least and that will encourage more water against the building after you back fill. You will in effect be encouraging more water pressure against your wall where you have patched. A water proof membrane will certainly help, I wouldn't dig or otherwise get under the footings though. If the wall and footing is cracking it is almost certainly because the footing has settled into the ground a little. Think of it, it doesn't take much to open a widening crack. Imagine a 4 by 8 sheet of plywood standing against a wall next to another. Then raise one corner even just the thickness of a nail. By the top of the sheets you will have opened up a substantial gap. You don't therefore want to disturb the soil under the footing any more than absolutely necessary. In my estimation and that is just really an opinion, you would be better off allowing the membrane to run out over the floor of the excavation. Now here where I live we would excavate the full diameter of the building to the footing and lay weeping tile and back fill with aggregate. Commonly people paint the walls on the outside with tar but that is beginning to lose popularity in favour of other membrane types of water proofing below ground level or even special insulation. In the end I expect you will have to excavate all around the basement to install a weeping system but I wonder if there is a suitable location there for a sump and pump. Another possibility would be to fill the crack, apply a membrane but do not disturb the soil under the foundation. When you back fill, tamp it reasonably, slope the ground away from the building a little then maybe lay something like cement patio slabs to form a walk slightly sloped away from the building. You could then trench along the outside edge of this walk way maybe a foot, lay in weeping tile and fill with gravel to carry water well away from the building and thus away from the foundation and basement wall. IT can't get in if it doesn't get close. What is standard building procedure where you live? Do people put weeping systems into storm sewers? Hope this is somehow helpful. ----- Original Message ----- From: Spiro To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 9:47 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] flood work Hi I know we've talked about this before. But I want to double check my plans here. My basement is a foundation, a layer of clay charcoal and gravel over that, with leveled concrete over that. So it is a finish floor and a foundation with layer in between. The first foundation crack is 9 feet from the front, and the second is 7 feet north of that. North is downhill on this property. The house is 50 feet long. I do not really want to run a french drain 43 feet. But here is what we are thinking of doing. Please, Dale, or any knowing folk, tear this apart if it is way off. Tinker with it where needed. Two cracks start about 3 feet above ground. They go to the foundation which is 6feet deep. The finish floor is 4 ft from ground level. There is 2 ft from finish floor to foundation. We have put a 2x1 size whole in the finish floor. We've cleared 2x1 of the between material to see the crack in the foundation and where water is actually entering. We've cleared material till we were removing dry matera\ial. We need to run 7 feet north to the next crack. We were thinking of digging a trench 9ft along the side of the house. Down to beneath the foundation to see where it is wet. What is frost line in Pennsylvania? we were going to pour that watery sealing cement into the crack till it either was pouring into the excavated area inside, or till it sealed the crack to ground level outside. we were going to vapor barrier the wall and as this particular vapor barrier is also used for rubber roof, torch it to the cementedwall. From there cement from where the barrier is tucked under the foundationto just about frost line. I wanted to cement patch the mineral surface of the barrier with a stuco manner to the cement of the house, around it's edges. WI wanted to put clay atop the level of the cement at the bottom of the trench. I thought that if the clay was sloped away from the house that it would be of assistance. The water cement sealer will be poured into the crack till it again is seen in the basement's inside trench or till it seals. The rest of the crack will be sealed then. Inside we will cement the crack along the foundation, We willl have to fill the space between foundation and finish cement floor. Then the area between cinderblock outside wall and finish floor mist be sealed. Then the finish floor can be finished, leveled, and I can put vinyl tile back down again and lay the rug over that as it was. Please go through bit by bit if you will. Thanks [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
