Basement Leaks

[homealone]

This is a project I am not looking forward to taking on (well calling around to locate a contractor to do the work). The basement at my Sweeties place leaks pretty bad when it rains hard or when a bunch of snow melts.

Not to long ago when we had a couple days of hard rain there was about 3" of water sitting in the basement. It took about a week for the water to finally drain out.

I am a bit upset that he didn't have this problem taken care of when it first started, but he didn't. So this week I am going to be calling around to get this taken care of as soon as possible.

This Spring also I am going to see about getting some kind of drainage installed around the exterior of the house to help prevent it from happening ever again.

Wish me luck. I hate making these phone calls.

[houseflip101]

Drainage around the house is a good idea but watch which direction the flow goes as it might make it worse also by applying a coating of what is called dry lock to the walls helps also it might take a few coats of this but you can buy it a Lowe's in 5 gallon buckets it comes in white or gray also try using clear silicone sealer around the floor as well this might also help seal out the water also a sub pump is also a great idea

[homealone]

Well first I do believe mortor is going to be needed. Most of the mortor in the basement is orginal to the house I believe and of course it practically falls apart every time you look at it wrong.

I am looking into contractors, but haven't made a choice just yet. There are several around here, but I still need to check references on them and pricing before a choice is made.

That sounds horrible that I am going to do something like that, but I would rather do this than get ripped off. I know there are contractors out there who do their best to rip people off, and on the other hand there are contractors who will do their very best to make sure the job is done and done right.

Now as for the drainage system, that is something a professional is going to be doing as well and they should know what they are doing so that it pulls water away from the home like it should.

[realestatehound]

Unless your basement is cracked and is caving in you can get some of these companies like B-dry. They come in and put some plastic like stuff up and put a gutter in the floor and run it to a sump pump and it will pump it into your drain. This is probably a better solution than digging it up.

[homealone]

Well the basement walls are still in good condition, just the mortor between the blocks is falling out. The walls themselves are still standing strong.

I am hoping this won't turn out to be a costly ordeal, but something tells me it isn't going to be something that is easily fixed and done quickly.

There is also a small room off the basement which I have never been in. I was told it is full of moss and heaven only knows what else. This is another area of the basement which is going to need a good cleaning and repair as well.

I am just worried about hiring the wrong contractor to do all of this work. I really don't want to hire the wrong person. It's sad that a person has to worry about such things but we all do.

I have a couple more contractrors to check out, then I should be able to make the decision. I know one of the contractors I contacted about this had a very poor attitude, and rarely returns a phone call. This is one man I have already scratched off my list.