[gardeners] Re: Rain & pumps
bsk (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 1 Aug 2000 15:44:45 -0500
Penny I was just wondering, Do you think the water is being channeled to your
basement area by roots? My hubby is always leery of putting things with good size
roots close enough to the house that they may cause problems with cracking the
foundation or causing water problems. Sounds like you have loads of vegetation I hope
some day you don't find you have something that needs to be removed away from the
house, that would be a terrible job!
We had a terrible time with water in the cellar and one of the spots we found
was from the root of a lilac bush about 5 or 10 feet away. We finally figured it out,
pulled out the big root and stomped it down. It eventually filled the hole up with
dirt and quit leaking there.
As far as pumping water out we are using a water pump like you would use for a
water pond to pump water where we want it in the bird house. I believe it was a
little Giant brand. We don't have flooding but we use that instead of a $100+
medicator for the birdhouse to put medicated water from the sink into the water
lines. Works great and cheap too!
Something else our builder told us and what we have learned through some rough
times in a house with a basement was that we always made sure the dirt outside the
house was below the spot where the basement wall met up with the first floor of the
house so the water wouldn't get caught up in the flashing and run all around the
subflooring sneaking in wherever it chose too! It took a lot of digging on my
husbands part to figure that one and out and get that dirt level down so it wouldn't
have creek going through the garage! Water leaks are such a pain and SOoooooo hard to
figure out. Usually when you finally do it is some stupid little thing like a floppy
root that causes it or something you have checked a million times before.
I wish you lots of luck!
Okie zone 7a
aka " Ranchmama "
***************************************
----- Original Message -----
From: "penny x stamm" <pennyx1@Juno.com>
> The problem water comes from the stair well right outside the workshop door,
> which is 8" below floor level, usually plenty of leeway. However,
> the water rushes thru underneath that concrete, and gushes up,
> after several of these deluges, to flood over the sill.
> At the same time, water is finding its way into the basement in two
> locations on INSIDE walls, with two floors of house above them!
> Obviously, it must be running along some joists (if that's what it's
> called) and finding some opening in the building blocks which
> fashion the cellar all the way up the walls.