Wet Basement...What to do?

[wMw]

I have a chance to buy a house (if I can sell my house in the Weirs relatively quickly). It needs a lot of work which should scare me, but I always seem to be living in a constructions zone. The one thing that does concern me is that the basement is very wet. There is a sump pump and there is no standing water, but the floor is very wet with what looks to be something whitish growing on it. Is this something that can be taken care of without costing a fortune?

The house I'm selling is practically next door to this one and also has a wet basement, but I don't find things growing there. I do run a dehumidifier all summer...maybe that's the difference.

[AC2717]

More than likely that white stuff growing is Mold, probably because they do not run a humidifier like you do, there is some more investigating here that needs to be done, First things first why is the basement wet and then go from there, maybe contact a dry basement contractor to have them troubleshoot yours, more than likely it would be the same reason next door. With that mold I would want to check the rest of the house as well especially all around the basement the floor joists for the first floor the walls int eh first floor everything. that could be extremely costly. Again, if it is the early stages of mold

[fatlazyless]

How about renting a gasoline-powered trencher from Wicks' Lumber and installing a three feet deep drainage system w/ those el cheapo 5" pvc, drain-hole, pipes(?) and gravel all around the house to drain it all away. Back in the suburbs of Boston, these were called a French drainage system for some unknown reason. Like, except for hitting lots of small rocks and the water-sewer-electric service lines....how difficult can such a task be and would it require a building permit?

[kjbathe]

I hate speculating, but wet spots on our garage floor and sometimes on our basement walls will create a white dust that I believe is calcium chloride leeching out of the concrete. I think that is harmless. But as noted earlier, if a second pair of eyes confirms mold, I'd be looking at a different house.

[dpg]

Originally Posted by kjbathe

I hate speculating, but wet spots on our garage floor and sometimes on our basement walls will create a white dust that I believe is calcium chloride leeching out of the concrete. I think that is harmless. But as noted earlier, if a second pair of eyes confirms mold, I'd be looking at a different house.

Not sure why your moving next door (or close too it) but I to would be very skeptical of this home.

[chipj29]

A wise man once said...once a wet basement always a wet basement...

[KBoater]

I lived in a house with a wet cellar. After 30 years we decided to try and fix it. We used a dry cellar specialist from Rochesterlace to “fix” it. He did trenches inside the perimeter similar to what FLL suggested. It worked but this was not cheap. Don’t remember the company name but he advised as a dry cellar fixer.
If your white stuff follows a line created by receded water it is probably bleed from the cement(if you have cement).
You can always create a swimming pool or gold fish/frog pond in the cellar

[wMw]

Wet cellars seem to be the norm in this neighborhood, but with a sump pump and a dehumidifier I haven't had much of a problem...except for when the dehumidifier died. Things did start to get a little moldy before I noticed and ran to Lowes to buy a new dehumidifier. Now I'm back to no problems.

The reason I'm considering the move is that my current house is much too much house for me both in size and costs. The house that I'd like to buy is much smaller, 2 bedrooms instead of 5. It would take some $$$ to fix it up, but once that was done it would be much less expensive for me.

It may not happen. The sellers don't wan't to wait 'til I sell and the bank won't do anything either until then.

Thanks for all your input.

[Kamper]

The most effective way to eliminate water in a celler is to seal the foundation from the outside. Sometimes though, the water comes in through the floor.

Trenching, or banking dirt against the house, will divert a lot of water and may reduce or eliminate the problem if you cant dig near the foundation. Water-blocking paints help too but are not always successful if applied on the "down-stream" side, regardless of what it says on the can. In some towns landscaping that alters the drainage needs a permit so be discreet if you want to experiment.

Good luck!

[Chris Craft]

To do this correctly you have to lower the water table around the house. This can be easy or difficult depending on a lot of things. If your house is on a slope that helps a lot as you can use gravity to drain the water away. If not you have to run a pump and pump as far away from the house as you can or create a systern (sp). You want to run a french drain outside the house just to the outside of your footings. You want to put that in stone and then put filter fabric over that then back fill. If you really want to go crazy then they make a drainage tile that you can put up against the side of the house. If you pull back the dirt for the French Drain to find that the house has not been seeled up then clean the concrete and seal it at minimum. This sounds expensive but really should not cost a huge amount. Probably can be done by a good excavator in two days. That will get rid of most of it. If you still have a problem after that then you have water pushing up from under the foundation still. The only way to get rid of that is to jack hammer out the concrete around the edge of the basement and put in a interior drain. This may or may not have to go to a sump pump (depends again on the grade around the house). If you do all that then you WILL have a dry foundation. Again depending on the size of the house could cost you in the 10-15K range.

[SAMIAM]

A realtor friend of mine,who is a very wise man,told me that if you are looking at a house with a wet basement.....run,don't walk...in the other direction.
This is a buyers market and there's lots of bargains out there.Why even consider a house with a wet basemaent?

[dpg]

Originally Posted by SAMIAM

A realtor friend of mine,who is a very wise man,told me that if you are looking at a house with a wet basement.....run,don't walk...in the other direction.
This is a buyers market and there's lots of bargains out there.Why even consider a house with a wet basemaent?

Correct, nuff said.....And that would be in any market. Two people should consider a home like this condition. One with extensive knowledge of how to fix it or one with piles of money to throw at the problem.