water in basement

[bignhfamily]

I regularly work with a contractor that specializes exclusively with the problems of wet basements. He has been in business for better than 20 years. He guarantees his work for life.
The system he most commonly uses is an interior design. They go through you basement floor and place perforated pipe along side your footings. Ground water travels through this to a catch basin and then pumped out of the house. If water is also coming in the foundation walls they use a special heavy mil water vapor is applied and tied into the perforated pipe. Cracks in the floor are treated with epoxies.
This type of system is generally less expensive and more effective than exterior systems. The exception to this is if the basement is already finished. Of course if your flooded basement is finished you are already going to need to cut out and replace drywall, insulation, flooring, etc so you can have the system installed while this is going on.
When the system is installed in an unfinished basement you can then finish with out fear of reoccurring water damage. The system has a battery back up that will keep most pumps operating for a day or two. Obviously with out the pump running flooding would still be an issue but the back up battery will keep you safe until you can get a generator hooked up.

[krisk590]

This year the water is running up my gravity drain,along with coming through the walls. I put a pump in the gravity drain and it is taking most of the water out of the basement. We just plug it in a few times in the course of a day. I always get water in the basement but nothing like this year.
Good luck.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Sounds like the end of your pipe froze. Get a gallon of RV antifreeze and dump it in there. That should thaw the end of your pipe.

[boonelsewhere]

nmlm, you are a wise Maine man, i will get line to buy your book on living in Maine woodland.

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

Sounds like the end of your pipe froze. Get a gallon of RV antifreeze and dump it in there. That should thaw the end of your pipe.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

People tell me I should write a book. Some people wonder about it when I recommend they place their home or camp on a diagonal from the road. The home ends up being parallel with the terrain, gravity drains, the front is toward the best view, the driveway is more level and they get better sun in the winter. Many people think there is some law that says homes must be absolutely parallel with the road. Nope. Driveways don't have to be perpendicular with the road either. Go ahead and angle it in the direction where you enter and depart 90% of the time. It's OK.

BTW, RV antifreeze is non-toxic. You shouldn't drink it, but unlike automotive antifreeze it won't kill your septic system and it won't kill your dog.