Notaplumber1
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All,
My first post here, and hope it's a worthy one.
We have a leak in the east wall near the NE corner of a partially finished cinder block basement that is as systematic and orderly as it is bizarre and inexplicable. In short, it leaks during three months of the year, it leaks with complete predictability and repeatability like clockwork, it never happens any other time of the year, and it happens both when it rains heavily outside and when water is run in the house, and it leaks in exactly the same way from the exact same place, regardless of these conditions. Here are the details as best I can arrange them.
For starters, this basement has always been unbelievably dry. We've had flood conditions in the area and at worst a tiny bit of moisture visible on the edges of the floor, and even then, not in this corner. Fantastic drainage. There is no sump system to my knowledge, other than that used by the basement bathroom.
All that dry history changed last year when our neighbor emptied their in-ground pool for the year. This pool is about 125+ feet NE of our house. It has been there for decades, and never an issue. It is always been drained via submersible sump onto a separate street and out into the city sewer system. Zero water in either yard. But lat year, within a week of its draining, I began noticing water in the corner of the basement closest the pool.
Here's where it gets weird.
The water only appeared (a) when it rained heavily and (b) when we used large amounts of water in the house. And it all came out at the same area of the basement wall.
In the basement, the main drain (cast iron) is set along the outside wall beginning on the east side, then wrapping around the north wall and finally exiting through the western wall at the NW corner. Half the house (the main bathroom, kitchen sink, dishwasher, washing machine) dumps into the front end of the main drain, while the other half (upstairs and basement bathrooms) feed in at the back end, right before the trap and the exit to the city system. The downstairs bathroom uses a sump.
In its course the main drain is supported on a couple of buttresses/pillars that are part of the wall. On the eastern wall, at the base of the buttress closest the NE corner of the house facing the pool, about three or so inches up from the floor, water came out of all three sides, like three little springs of water. The walls are painted, and in most of the leaking areas it is like there are little pinholes in the paint where the water is coming out. The paint is not bubbled in those places, but it is bubbled in some other places where water is coming out. So no real consistency there.
It also trickled out of the wall (also about three inches above the floor) about a foot away from the buttress, toward the NE corner. There the paint is bubbled and pulled away from the wall.
When it rained heavily or when water was used in the house, you could simply mark the time and wait five minutes for the first signs of water. Slow at first, just a kind of drip, then more and more into a little stream. The water would increase and then settle into a decent flow, then gradually taper off. More water amounted to stronger flow and longer time until it gave out, usually an hour or so later.
So if we flushed a toilet, there might be a little water. If we took a shower there would definitely be some water. If we ran the dishwasher, we saw a good bit of water. If we did a load of laundry, lots of water.
Each week, the problem got worse, so that any event of water usage in the house produced more water in the basement than it had before.
What is strange is that while water flushed into the front end of the drain caused the leak (as did heavy rains), water flushed into the back end of the drain via the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms caused no leakage whatsoever.
Then, we went out of town for a week at Christmas. When we returned, it was like the problem never happened. Never saw another drop of water in the basement after that. Massively heavy rains and flood warnings in the spring, loads and loads of laundry, all of the same things as before, but completely dry, without even a hint of moisture.
Until this September when our neighbor emptied the pool. And now it's all back the same as before.
I thought for a time that maybe there might be a leak in the main drain pipe where it rested on the buttress, and perhaps there might be a backup in the system so a bit of back pressure caused the leak, which then trickled down through the buttress and out.
But not so. I jacked up the pipe off the buttress, slid a piece of paper between it and the buttress, ran water, and nothing. Could plainly hear water dumping merrily through the main pipe, but no leaks in it. Checked all around with light and a mirror and that piece of paper, and perfectly sound and dry. Indeed, the entire main pipe in the basement is dry from end to end, no water anywhere. Yet water is still coming out of that buttress and the wall beside it. And always in the same few places.
Out of curiosity I plugged each of the pinholes in the paint with my fingers, just to see if the water would find some other way out, but it didn't. So long as I kept my fingers over the pinholes, the water stopped.
So there it is. I'm going crazy trying even to imagine what this could be. I could imagine some kind of leak in the line from the washing machine as it goes over the basement wall and down into the main drain, and this leak might be allowing water to get down into the cinder block, wander ten or so feet north to that buttress and then decide to come out there. But that would not explain all the other lines in the house that never cross over the wall, all of which dump into the main drain, and all of which cause that buttress to leak, despite the fact that the main drain is not leaking anywhere.
The only constant is the emptying of that pool. This year, the very day it was emptied I saw water in the basement. Not a drop of water in nine months (including when the pool was filled this spring/summer), and it's been wet down there every day since, getting worse by the week, exactly like last year.
I'm stumped. Any advice would be most appreciated. I'll be happy to clarify where needed.
My thanks!
My first post here, and hope it's a worthy one.
We have a leak in the east wall near the NE corner of a partially finished cinder block basement that is as systematic and orderly as it is bizarre and inexplicable. In short, it leaks during three months of the year, it leaks with complete predictability and repeatability like clockwork, it never happens any other time of the year, and it happens both when it rains heavily outside and when water is run in the house, and it leaks in exactly the same way from the exact same place, regardless of these conditions. Here are the details as best I can arrange them.
For starters, this basement has always been unbelievably dry. We've had flood conditions in the area and at worst a tiny bit of moisture visible on the edges of the floor, and even then, not in this corner. Fantastic drainage. There is no sump system to my knowledge, other than that used by the basement bathroom.
All that dry history changed last year when our neighbor emptied their in-ground pool for the year. This pool is about 125+ feet NE of our house. It has been there for decades, and never an issue. It is always been drained via submersible sump onto a separate street and out into the city sewer system. Zero water in either yard. But lat year, within a week of its draining, I began noticing water in the corner of the basement closest the pool.
Here's where it gets weird.
The water only appeared (a) when it rained heavily and (b) when we used large amounts of water in the house. And it all came out at the same area of the basement wall.
In the basement, the main drain (cast iron) is set along the outside wall beginning on the east side, then wrapping around the north wall and finally exiting through the western wall at the NW corner. Half the house (the main bathroom, kitchen sink, dishwasher, washing machine) dumps into the front end of the main drain, while the other half (upstairs and basement bathrooms) feed in at the back end, right before the trap and the exit to the city system. The downstairs bathroom uses a sump.
In its course the main drain is supported on a couple of buttresses/pillars that are part of the wall. On the eastern wall, at the base of the buttress closest the NE corner of the house facing the pool, about three or so inches up from the floor, water came out of all three sides, like three little springs of water. The walls are painted, and in most of the leaking areas it is like there are little pinholes in the paint where the water is coming out. The paint is not bubbled in those places, but it is bubbled in some other places where water is coming out. So no real consistency there.
It also trickled out of the wall (also about three inches above the floor) about a foot away from the buttress, toward the NE corner. There the paint is bubbled and pulled away from the wall.
When it rained heavily or when water was used in the house, you could simply mark the time and wait five minutes for the first signs of water. Slow at first, just a kind of drip, then more and more into a little stream. The water would increase and then settle into a decent flow, then gradually taper off. More water amounted to stronger flow and longer time until it gave out, usually an hour or so later.
So if we flushed a toilet, there might be a little water. If we took a shower there would definitely be some water. If we ran the dishwasher, we saw a good bit of water. If we did a load of laundry, lots of water.
Each week, the problem got worse, so that any event of water usage in the house produced more water in the basement than it had before.
What is strange is that while water flushed into the front end of the drain caused the leak (as did heavy rains), water flushed into the back end of the drain via the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms caused no leakage whatsoever.
Then, we went out of town for a week at Christmas. When we returned, it was like the problem never happened. Never saw another drop of water in the basement after that. Massively heavy rains and flood warnings in the spring, loads and loads of laundry, all of the same things as before, but completely dry, without even a hint of moisture.
Until this September when our neighbor emptied the pool. And now it's all back the same as before.
I thought for a time that maybe there might be a leak in the main drain pipe where it rested on the buttress, and perhaps there might be a backup in the system so a bit of back pressure caused the leak, which then trickled down through the buttress and out.
But not so. I jacked up the pipe off the buttress, slid a piece of paper between it and the buttress, ran water, and nothing. Could plainly hear water dumping merrily through the main pipe, but no leaks in it. Checked all around with light and a mirror and that piece of paper, and perfectly sound and dry. Indeed, the entire main pipe in the basement is dry from end to end, no water anywhere. Yet water is still coming out of that buttress and the wall beside it. And always in the same few places.
Out of curiosity I plugged each of the pinholes in the paint with my fingers, just to see if the water would find some other way out, but it didn't. So long as I kept my fingers over the pinholes, the water stopped.
So there it is. I'm going crazy trying even to imagine what this could be. I could imagine some kind of leak in the line from the washing machine as it goes over the basement wall and down into the main drain, and this leak might be allowing water to get down into the cinder block, wander ten or so feet north to that buttress and then decide to come out there. But that would not explain all the other lines in the house that never cross over the wall, all of which dump into the main drain, and all of which cause that buttress to leak, despite the fact that the main drain is not leaking anywhere.
The only constant is the emptying of that pool. This year, the very day it was emptied I saw water in the basement. Not a drop of water in nine months (including when the pool was filled this spring/summer), and it's been wet down there every day since, getting worse by the week, exactly like last year.
I'm stumped. Any advice would be most appreciated. I'll be happy to clarify where needed.
My thanks!