On Thu, 22 Mar 2007 19:27:35 GMT, "Donna"
wrote:


"Donna" wrote in message
news:%RhMh.14039$el3.12129@trndny01...
... my basement, I mean.
snip initial post


You guys are awesome. What a wealth of information!

Since so many of you have asked for additional info, I'll respond en mass.
The basement is fieldstone, painted with drylok. This keeps the bulk of
the basement dry (although in spots it needs to be repointed, which is
another "how do I do it" question, which I'll pose once the more pressing
problem has been solved.

The house is 80 or 90 years old. The floor is poured cement over the
original dirt floor.

Well, in that case, i have no idea how thick the cement is, especially
if the ceiling was low to begin with.

The basement is in two rooms - one finished as
above, and sculpted so that water runs to the sides of the room, and then
into a pipe exiting the house. I think this is called a French drain?
Whatever it's called, it works beautifully.

The water comes into the smaller unfinished room. It comes in through two
places 1) under the door from the garage (which is below the surface of the
floor.

The bottom of the door is below the surface of the floor? Regardless,
you might be able to channel that water away before it gets under the
door, or right after it does.

We had a double overhead garage door that let water into the garage,
at one end of the door, even though it was pretty flat everywhere (no
hill outside to cause it run in. It was just water spreading out) and
in high school I wanted to put a rubber gasket under the door, but at
the same time sort of doubted that would be enough. Or that it would
lift up the door and let water in somewhere else. So I never did
anything, but it didn't cause the problems yours is causing.

From the garage, you go down some cement stairs to the basement
door. Water pools in the stairwell when the water tables are high, and
runs under the door. I'm thinking a better door would fix this problem.
The second place water pours in is through the original house's coal chute,
which doesn't seem to ever have been sealed over. Water comes in through
a small passageway (I hate to say chimney - it looks like a cross between a
pipe and a chimney) which behind the cement wall, and opens into the
basement, at a low spot. I have been assuming that this is where the
original coal furnace lived, originally. From the outside, it's all been
turfed over, but when I was landscaping last year, i uncovered what looks
like a 3x5 by 8foot deep coal chute, filled with coal and dirt, then tarped
over, and turfed over. It's amazing that more water doesn't get in,
frankly.

Do something about these two places and maybe you wont' need the sump
pump. If you're not going to need the sump pump, don't drill a hole
in the floor to find out how thick the cement is, or water will get in
through the hole.

I hope that is enough information. It's kind of a weird set up, as you can
see.

Having read all of your thoughtful posts, it looks an awful lot like the job
of installing a well is going to be beyond my abilities. It also looks like
it might be prohibitively expensive, unless the "put a sump pump in the low
spot and run a hose out the door" idea is feasible. Is it?

I think the idea was that the low spot was low enough that the sump
pump could work while on the surface of the floor. I don't know how
deep the water has to be before the sump pump starts to pick it up.
Someoen said two inches. You could find out somewhere.

I have an image that your low spot is only 2 or 3 inches lower than
the rest of the floor and only 3 to 4 feet across. You havent' said,
so that's my image. If that is the case, the sump pump will run for 4
or 5 seconds and remove all the water around it, and then wait until
more gathers. Wouldn't that mean that parts of the rest of the floor
are also wet. Maybe they dry out faster after the rain stops, so that
part of the floor doesn't bother you.

I have the same issue when my basement "floods", which is usually only
a quarter inch or less. I use a wet dry vac and I just use the tube,
no attachment, and it will vacuum leaving less than a tenth of
millimeter, maybe even getting the water out of the pores in the
cement, and then I have to move the vacuum tube somehwere else or wait
until the water slowly gathers at the first place. I can identify a
low space in my floor too, maybe a quarter inch low at most, and
putting the hose there doesn't work any better than anywhere else
except when I'm almost done.


The solution seems to be to excavate the coal chute (But with what? I tried
to dig it out last year, and the fist-sized lumps of coal make it impossible
to do by hand. The location (in the corner of the house, flush with the
walls) makes it impossible to get a piece of earthmoving equipment in
there). I can't tell what the walls of the chute are made of -- they
could be cement, or they could be dirt. Or metal. Or some combination of
all three. Would excavating it by hand (litterally digging at it with a
trowel) a couple of feet down and pouring cement seal it off do you think?

I can't picture this area, but there is bound to be a way to dig it
out, or seal it without digging it out without earth moving equipment.
There are millions? of coal chutes that have been sealed after they
aren't used, maybe just with a piece of wood or metal plate screwed
on** and the edges caulked, but again, I have no real image of the
situation in my head.

**Or some sheet metal formed into a box cover, by folding at the
corners, sort of like wrapping paper is wrapped around a gift box.
Again, I have no image.

ARen't you losing heat through this 12 x 12 inch hole? Again, my
image of a coal chute.

I'm kind of baffled by the whole situation, which is why it has continued
for the three years since we bought the house. As always, I would love to
hear your thoughts.

Grateful thanks,

Donna