Sloped Driveway / Leaky Basement

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

conger

New Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2018
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
I have a 3-4 year old driveway that holds water against the house in on area. The slabs doesn't seem to be negatively sloped, rather, there is a belly in the concrete. It happens to be near a crack in my poured basement walls that originates in a window corner. It seems the couple years of water running down this area has opened up the crack and it's now leaking. I have two problems to fix here, and a few options, and I'd really appreciate any advice:

1) For fixing the foundation wall crack, urethane injection seems to be the preferred method. Some companies want to also put a hole in the basement floor and a panel over the injected crack so when their injection fails the water will just flow into this well and I'd never notice. I'm concerned about groundwater backing up through this hole in the floor, and it seems to be cheap insurance for them to never have to do a warranty callback. Is this typical?

2) for fixing the driveway: I don't want to try any self-leveling products in the belly area because they always look bad and always eventually flake off. I had a guy look at lifting the slab, but he'd want to lift all the adjacent slabs so they match and then I'd be looking at a really big bill. Tear out an replace is another expensive option. Or, just a good caulk job? Any tips? You can see in the pic that I did try to silicone the area but only recently, and I think it was too late because the crack is allowing subsurface water in.

IMG_0030.jpg

IMG_0040.jpg
 
easy fix,,, which is preferable ? taking the cheap route & revisiting the issue down the road OR repairing the problem correctly the 1st time ?
we use hydrophyllic polyurethane for repairing leaking crks,,, polymer-modified conc o'lay mtl MAY be the correct driveway repair,,, poor grading will never be resolved unless its corrected properly
 
Thanks stadry. I hired a well reviewed foundation guy who did high pressure polyurethane injection that has a 2X expansion rate. He had a whole library of injection materials he chooses from based on the size and location of the crack. Seemed to know his stuff. We’ll see how it goes! He advised against digging a hole in the ground. Said that’s for guys who can’t stand behind their injection process. And bc I don’t have a sump the hole is likely to cause me new problems.

As for the driveway it looks like not much can be done till spring. We’re going to have a big snow melt and rain this weekend so it will be a good test. I made a water diverter out of a 2x4 and rope caulk to route water down the driveway and away from the house until I can get that corrected. Either by lifting or re-pouring and re-caulking. I’ll ask about the overlay mat’l you mentioned too.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top