Drainage and Water Issues in Yard (Chicago: house, contractor, tile)

[lklaczko]

Hello,

I am writing because I am at the end of my rope and don't know what to do. I have owned my home for 7 years and with heavy rains I usually gotten some seepage into my home. My yard tends to hold water and turns into a swamp with heavy rains.

Last year I replaced all of my basement windows thinking that this would solve the problem. The windows were glass blocks, original to the house and flush to the ground (this home was built in the late 60's). It is located in NW Chicago off of Cumberland/Foster where we tend to hold water in our yards.

With the heavy rains today, I notice that I have some seepage now coming through some cracks in the wall.

In addition, I seem to have created an additional problem by installing a 4 foot escape window into my basement. I had a plumber dig a pit in the window well and install a sump pump to pull the water out of the well. He originally was hoping to access the drain tile but after digging 5 feet or so below the window well opening he did not get to any draintile, and the soil that he was pulling out was the consistency of clay. With the heavy rain today, it appears that the sump cannot keep up with the water that is coming into the window well, as I have about 3 feet of standing water in the well and it's coming into the house.

I have a call to a waterproofing company for an estimate, but I don't know what to do at this point, as I really thought the sump pump would solve the problem. Mind you this is a second sump pump that I have installed that just handles the water in the window well. I have another basement sump that handles the water from under the house.

I would appreciate any help with this. Thank you!

Lucy

[chet everett]

The obvious solution to the water in the window well is to make sure that a) there is a cover on the window well to minimize water entering from above b) have some kind of drain attached to the window well and tie that into either a perimeter drain tile (which sounds like this was tried and given up on....) or a "dry well" that collects water and holds it -- this would need to be lower and deeper than the window well OR some kind of system of subsurface drains that eventually drain out to the alley or main street. In Chicago it is harder to do this as there is typically so little you can do on your lot to address poor grading but a smart excavator can put in trenches that have the proper slope and then relevel everything. Messy but that's the best way...

It also is possible that you just have too small a sump pump that is discharging the water to close so it just works it way right back in. Extending the discharge and getting a bigger pump are easy things to test..

Window wells are not supposed to hold water like an aquarium and the pressure will ruin the seals over time. Glass could even shatter. In a heavy rain like this you could have a real horror show on your hands. Get a temporary pump ASAP. Try to use even a tarp or plywood to keep water from entering from above.

Good luck!

[Attrill]

I've had to deal with a couple problems like this, and every time I had more success by figuring ways to divert and store the water than I did with just sealing up the structure. Have you tried any of the following:

- Rain barrels. They store the first hit of a big deluge, and that can help a lot.

- Install drain pipes in the ground around your foundation (AKA French Drain). This gets the water away from the house. You can hook the rain barrels up to this to handle any overflow.

- Install a cistern underground to hold the water from the French Drain.

- Replace the top layer of clay soil with a looser soil that can absorb and hold the water.

[nikitakolata]

Feel lucky that seepage is all that you have had to deal with. Our window shattered under the pressure of all the water filling the window well like what Chet said. It resulted in nearly 3 feet of water in our basement and the water was rushing in so quickly it was scary. I would love it if we only had regular seepage...

[lklaczko]

Hello -

Thank you for your responses

Nikitakolata- I'm sorry that you had that problem. I am lucky that it did not shatter as that would have been a bigger mess.

Chet and Attrill thank you for the recommendations. I do have a window well cover over the window well. My problem was not water coming in from the top, but rather, water coming in from the bottom of the window well because i have heavy clay soil in my back yard, and the sump pump was not able to carry the water out of the window well fast enough.


After looking at my issue, not only do I have the window well to contend with, but it seems that some of the seepage is coming in from the side of my house, in part because I am diverting water from the back of my house along the side, but not far enough along the side, to the front. Also, my neighbor's house is about 6 feet away and they have a gutter that drains to the side of my house. So I have two gutters of water coming into the side of my property. I noticed that I had standing water alongside my house that was about 2" above my foundation on to the brick of the house. So the seepage is occuring along the side, in addition to not being properly diverted from the back.

Last fall we dug down to the footing of the foundation and did not reach gravel or drain tile. is it likely that the draintile and gravel are inside the footing of the foundation. Perhaps we will dig it up again and keep going up and under in order to achieve proper drainage. The other plan is to dig up a trench along side the house, about 5 feet down, coat the foundation wall with asphalt sheeting and or plastic, fill the trench with stone/gravel and drain tile.

I'm hoping that I have draintile under the house that we can tie into once we find it, since I have a sump pump in my basement.

Thanks for all of your help. I truly appreciate it!

Lucy

[chet everett]

There are specific products designed to act as an exterior system of "mini-channelS" to keep water from penetrating the foundation. It can be retrofitted. SUPERSEAL Dimpled Membrane - the best basement waterproofing method

It is messy to dig down, especially in the tight "gang ways" between city homes, but it will likely do much to solve your issues. If you can include some kind of system of underground drains to direct water from the roof gutters all the way to the alley or the front curb that will likely be well worth the effort too.

With enough skill /time / money there is almost nothing a good exactaving contractor cannot accomplish to keep your basement dry. Too few people take the time to understand that not all these guys are just "ditch diggers" -- many have loads of experience and education on how water can be redirected away from a structure!