Moisture issue in basement! what can i do? (Pittsburgh: house, roofing)

[lust4life2]

There is a wall in the basement that's showing moisture intrusion - bubbling paint on the wall.

My realtor says it's pretty common in the older sandstone foundations and unfortunately there isn't much we can do. The house is 113 years old. Is this true? If so, do people just live with it?

Should I talk to basement waterproofing guys, or would this be a waste of time?

Thoughts? Thanks!

[Hopes]

You can waste a lot of money and time with waterproofing. There's really no such thing when it comes to sandstone basements because sandstone is porous. It's all about grading your property, digging up your foundation and putting in four feet of gravel around the house, installing French drains, etc. Even then, you can get water. Sometimes, despite all your efforts, it comes up when the water table rises too.

Do people live with it? Hell, yeah! I've got a little creek that goes through my basement sometimes. It comes in at the north somehow, forms a little trickle creek, crosses the entire basement and goes down the drain at the south end. The concrete floor even has an eroded creek bed. It has been like this since the beginning of time. Hubby has been here 35 years, I've been here 20 years. Before that, it was owned by hubby's relatives since it was built in the early 1900s. We dug up the entire foundation and filled it with gravel. We installed a French drain. The only thing we can't change is the grading because there is a serious hill in the yard on the north side. Hey, I've got my very own Frank Lloyd Wright here!

Making sure the gutters are properly in place, not pulled away and are draining properly into the storm sewer is super important. The water is much less when that's appropriately I order, but there's still water.

As long as you're not getting mold or mildew, it's really not a big deal. Keep air circulation down there in the summer via opening the window vents when it's humid You can also use a dehumidifier, but we don't need to do that because we've never had a mold or mildew problem at all.

What you see has always been there. It's not new. Your foundation isn't going anywhere. It has stood for 100 years. It will stand for 100 more. The owners should have never painted the sandstone. There's nothing you can do about that at this point. Don't plan on it looking pretty for long. Sandstone is soft and breaks down into sandy particles naturally. Your paint will start breaking away as the years go on. Just deal with it. Don't repaint it. It's a losing battle and not good for the foundation. Your rock needs to breath. As the paint chips away, consider it a good thing.

[Craziaskowboi]

I recommend lining your entire basement and all your furniture with plastic.

[Clint.]

I don't know how common it is. It's worth trying to learn more about the wall and what is going on. I'd avoid any internal "fixes" like coating the inside with waterproof paint or anything like that. Some of those old walls were expected to let some moisture pass through without causing any problems and were a few feet thick. So, if someone coated the interior with waterproofer years ago to try and fix something it could actually be plugging up the water that would otherwise pass through without issue, which could then compromise the walls. I don't think you could go wrong with removing the paint and letting that water out.

I'd then check around the foundation to see if there is an excessive amount of water somehow draining down toward your foundation. Are the gutter downspouts connected to a drainage system? Do they drain straight into the ground? Absent seeing the downspout discharge the water directly on to the ground I'm not sure how to tell if they are draining into the storm water system or plugged up. Maybe check and see if there are water spots near the downspouts. Or, have the drains scoped.

If there isn't an abnormal amount of rain runoff (or an underground spring?) flowing toward your house and instead what you are seeing is just trace moisture accumulating over years and perhaps dammed up by waterproofing I don't think you have much to be concerned about. If the building was built that long ago and is still in pretty decent shape the foundation is probably pretty solid and built to withstand normal moisture. I'd be more concerned with fissures and physical changes that may indicate stress, but even then considering the age of the house and other factors - like how thick the walls are, if there are changes in its physical appearance, e.g., bowing, then it's probably not a big deal.

That's just my non-professional opinion based on my own experiences piece together over the years. It never hurts to find a reliable and informed professional to inspect and give you custom and sound advice.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Clint.

I don't know how common it is. It's worth trying to learn more about the wall and what is going on. I'd avoid any internal "fixes" like coating the inside with waterproof paint or anything like that. Some of those old walls were expected to let some moisture pass through without causing any problems and were a few feet thick. So, if someone coated the interior with waterproofer years ago to try and fix something it could actually be plugging up the water that would otherwise pass through without issue, which could then compromise the walls. I don't think you could go wrong with removing the paint and letting that water out.

I totally agree with this. Just scrape off the paint LIGHTLY with a wire brush wherever you see bubbling. (Wear a mask when you do it!)

There's no need to remove the paint throughout the entire basement. It will eventually flake away anyway as the sandstone "dusts" off naturally. To put it into perspective, just imagine painting sand---that's how this paint will adhere to these basement walls over time. I know this first hand because someone painted our basement a long time ago. Instead of the normal sand you clean up, we had the joy of cleaning up sand and paint chips throughout the years.

This doesn't sound like something that was done to waterproof. It sound new, like the owners simply painted the basement to make it look good for resale. They probably did it because it was painted years ago, like ours was, and they felt it looked bad having seriously chipped paint everywhere.

Originally Posted by Clint.

It never hurts to find a reliable and informed professional to inspect and give you custom and sound advice.

Absolutely. But not a waterproofing professional. Their job is to sell waterproofing that might not be good for a sandstone foundation.

[Goodjules]

Originally Posted by Hopes

You can waste a lot of money and time with waterproofing. There's really no such thing when it comes to sandstone basements because sandstone is porous. It's all about grading your property, digging up your foundation and putting in four feet of gravel around the house, installing French drains, etc. Even then, you can get water. Sometimes, despite all your efforts, it comes up when the water table rises too.

Do people live with it? Hell, yeah! I've got a little creek that goes through my basement sometimes. It comes in at the north somehow, forms a little trickle creek, crosses the entire basement and goes down the drain at the south end. The concrete floor even has an eroded creek bed. It has been like this since the beginning of time. Hubby has been here 35 years, I've been here 20 years. Before that, it was owned by hubby's relatives since it was built in the early 1900s. We dug up the entire foundation and filled it with gravel. We installed a French drain. The only thing we can't change is the grading because there is a serious hill in the yard on the north side. Hey, I've got my very own Frank Lloyd Wright here!

Making sure the gutters are properly in place, not pulled away and are draining properly into the storm sewer is super important. The water is much less when that's appropriately I order, but there's still water.

As long as you're not getting mold or mildew, it's really not a big deal. Keep air circulation down there in the summer via opening the window vents when it's humid You can also use a dehumidifier, but we don't need to do that because we've never had a mold or mildew problem at all.

What you see has always been there. It's not new. Your foundation isn't going anywhere. It has stood for 100 years. It will stand for 100 more. The owners should have never painted the sandstone. There's nothing you can do about that at this point. Don't plan on it looking pretty for long. Sandstone is soft and breaks down into sandy particles naturally. Your paint will start breaking away as the years go on. Just deal with it. Don't repaint it. It's a losing battle and not good for the foundation. Your rock needs to breath. As the paint chips away, consider it a good thing.

What she said.

[Goodjules]

Originally Posted by Clint.

I don't know how common it is. It's worth trying to learn more about the wall and what is going on. I'd avoid any internal "fixes" like coating the inside with waterproof paint or anything like that. Some of those old walls were expected to let some moisture pass through without causing any problems and were a few feet thick. So, if someone coated the interior with waterproofer years ago to try and fix something it could actually be plugging up the water that would otherwise pass through without issue, which could then compromise the walls. I don't think you could go wrong with removing the paint and letting that water out.

I'd then check around the foundation to see if there is an excessive amount of water somehow draining down toward your foundation. Are the gutter downspouts connected to a drainage system? Do they drain straight into the ground? Absent seeing the downspout discharge the water directly on to the ground I'm not sure how to tell if they are draining into the storm water system or plugged up. Maybe check and see if there are water spots near the downspouts. Or, have the drains scoped.

If there isn't an abnormal amount of rain runoff (or an underground spring?) flowing toward your house and instead what you are seeing is just trace moisture accumulating over years and perhaps dammed up by waterproofing I don't think you have much to be concerned about. If the building was built that long ago and is still in pretty decent shape the foundation is probably pretty solid and built to withstand normal moisture. I'd be more concerned with fissures and physical changes that may indicate stress, but even then considering the age of the house and other factors - like how thick the walls are, if there are changes in its physical appearance, e.g., bowing, then it's probably not a big deal.

That's just my non-professional opinion based on my own experiences piece together over the years. It never hurts to find a reliable and informed professional to inspect and give you custom and sound advice.

What he said.

[Bong477]

Getting a quality dehumidifier (I have one with a built in pump so you don't have to empty the bucket everyday) helps too.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Bong477

Getting a quality dehumidifier (I have one with a built in pump so you don't have to empty the bucket everyday) helps too.

We got one with a hose that we could run towards the drain. It died after a few months. That was years ago. We decided we didn't need one because there's no mustiness, mold or mildew. Maybe a better quality one would have lasted longer. What brand and model did you buy?

[alexernst]

In a perfect Pittsburgh you wouldn't hook downspouts into the 'storm' sewer, because in large rain events this results in sewage being dumped untreated into the rivers.