When your basement is surrounded by water-saturated soil--this water being forced toward the basement by hydrostatic pressure--you do need to think in terms of waterproofing methods for the foundation walls. In this case, think of the basement as a semi-watertight container resting within a large, wet sponge (the surrounding earth) that never quite dries out.
Other times, your wet basement repair methods are easier, though not quite so obvious.
The 4 Simple Wet Basement Repair Methods
- Sump Pump: Does your basement have a sump pump? Many homeowners are not even aware of the fact that their basement might have a sump pump, since it turns on and off automatically. Because sump pumps are plugged into GFCI outlets, those outlets can occasionally trip off or its circuit breaker may trip. Or the sump pump may simply fail.
- Water Forced Downward: This is one of those obvious-but-not-obvious wet basement repair methods. Look outside, around the foundation walls, to see if water is being actively forced alongside the foundation walls. This may be in the form of gutters that are lacking downspouts or downspouts run straight downward (not diverting away from the foundation).
- Leaking Pipes: It's natural to think that water in your basement is coming from groundwater. But sometimes exterior pipes have burst, allowing water to flow down the foundation walls. This happens in winter, when pipes are prone to freezing.
- Check Window Wells: Windows are another place where water may enter, though it's not always so obvious. One reason for this is that, over time, homeowners (previous homeowners; not you, of course!) may move away graded soil around the windows to allow more light into the basement. This graded soil was originally there for a reason: to move water away from the foundation.
