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Help, my basement wall is leaking


smokin5s

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I have a slow drip coming from where my main water line comes into the house in the basement. It looks like there was some sort of concrete putty originally spackled in there, but it's wearing away and now there's an indentation about 2 inches deep around where the water line came into the house and it's leaking all over my basement. I have a bucket under there to hopefully catch the water and not ruin anything else in there. What is that concrete spackle shit they used and if I get it and spackle it back in, will that fix the issue or should the builder have done something else in the first place to prevent this?
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first check and see if you have a main water pipe leak outside. (if you have an outside meter pit)

-turn off your basement water valve (should be close to leak)

-check outside meter pit to see if water is moving through the meter.

 

If no leak the best thing to do it seal it off from the outside correctly(sleeve), doing it from the inside is a band-aid fix and will most likely result in more costly future repair.

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Is there a downspout/ rain gutter nearby that could be leaking water close to that area where the water comes in the house? If so, it would be a good idea to channel that away from the house for the time being. The water could also be coming from the actual water line leaking, this is possible, but not as likely as the gutter/ downspout one. The water line coming in to the house is usually poly plastic, and most of the time is sleeved with PVC. Hydraulic cement , which sounds like what has been used, works until is stops adhering to the slippery plastic pipe.

 

Without digging up the outside and sealing with a silicone based sealer, removing the inside cement and sealing with silicone would be your best bet, unfortunately it needs to be dry to hold. Elastosil sealants are what I would attempt to use in this situation, as a civilian silicone sealant may not hold.

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the problem is, we have a ton of snow outside and the water line is underground so what it sounds like I'd have to pay an excavator to dig up the outside.

 

So is everyone saying that this is a water line issue and not the wall? Does that mean my dry basement warranty won't cover the repair? The water meter is in the middle of the yard covered by snow so I have no idea where the meter is buried until some of the snow goes away or I just walk around the yard kicking up snow hoping to get lucky.

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OK, so an update on this. last spring, my sump pump 3 inch buried pipe got clogged with mud and stuff. I put a temporary fix of the pipe above ground and planned on replacing the buried pipe over the summer. But then I got sick and chemo and everything took up all summer and the pipe was still out there. I never glued the pipes together because it was a temporary thing but it's turned out to not be so temporary. Well that pipe blew apart and the sump was pouring water right where the water line is and saturating the ground. I put together the pipe again and got water away from the foundation and the drip stopped within about 5-10 minutes. I'm wondering if it just looked for the easiest way in and that's why it was doing that and that the patch might actually be my better solution. Especially with everything freezing around us. thoughts?
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If it's not leaking right now, and doesn't start back up, wait until spring and dig it up. You should be able to see how deep it is from inside.

I'm not sure about your physical abilities (chemo?), But regardless of the issue, that will have to be dug. If it were a waterline problem, it'd still have to be dug for repair/replacement, so it'll only save you money.

Digging sucks but it doesn't even have to be done in the same day! I'm not sure why everyone is always so quick to say "call the professionals and spend the money. If you want to save and don't mind the work to do so, then save that money.

 

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

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If it's not leaking right now, and doesn't start back up, wait until spring and dig it up. You should be able to see how deep it is from inside.

I'm not sure about your physical abilities (chemo?), But regardless of the issue, that will have to be dug. If it were a waterline problem, it'd still have to be dug for repair/replacement, so it'll only save you money.

Digging sucks but it doesn't even have to be done in the same day! I'm not sure why everyone is always so quick to say "call the professionals and spend the money. If you want to save and don't mind the work to do so, then save that money.

 

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

This has to be done by someone with a special plumbing license. Most of which won't do the work if you dug it yourself. These fuckers bring in an excavater and have everything done in about 4 hours.

 

If you really want to dig up a 15 foot line, 4-6 feet deep, be my guest.

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This has to be done by someone with a special plumbing license. Most of which won't do the work if you dug it yourself. These fuckers bring in an excavater and have everything done in about 4 hours.

 

If you really want to dig up a 15 foot line, 4-6 feet deep, be my guest.

That's only if the water line needs repaired. I did it at my house, dug it up and called freedom plumbing for the repair. $200. Better than the $1,500 quote.

 

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

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This has to be done by someone with a special plumbing license. Most of which won't do the work if you dug it yourself. These fuckers bring in an excavater and have everything done in about 4 hours.

 

If you really want to dig up a 15 foot line, 4-6 feet deep, be my guest.

 

 

^^ this. cost of home ownership IMO. besides, get a reputable place to fix it and cover it for any potential future issues. that's worth the extra money.

Edited by TTQ B4U
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^^ this. cost of home ownership IMO. besides, get a reputable place to fix it and cover it for any potential future issues. that's worth the extra money.

 

The interior is nice but it looks way too sparse. I don't like the flat looking dashboard. I much prefer the way the center stack in the current B8.5 flows into the console and shifter area.

 

Huh?

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^^ this. cost of home ownership IMO. besides, get a reputable place to fix it and cover it for any potential future issues. that's worth the extra money.

 

this situation, as with many others, comes down to the same concept; you're not paying someone for some insanely specialized level of knowledge or work that takes years upon years to be able to do; you're paying them so you have someone to call and yell at when the fix doesn't work.

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Not to dig up the line, but the wall penetration. Seal it from outside.

 

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that's what they did last time and that obviously didn't work out too well... 5 years after the house is build it's leaking

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that's what they did last time and that obviously didn't work out too well... 5 years after the house is build it's leaking

 

It's not usually due to a building defect, it's ground settling that causes a bend and it messes up the sleeve, usually breaking the PVC and the sealant.

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The pipe is Coper not PVC.... so far that ground setting has busted the main drain, cause me to have to have the septic reset, drain re-done, electric dug up and re-ran (just finished that a month ago) and now this.... I've owned several houses of the course of my life and I have never had issues like this from the ground settling.
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