Garage Foundation Issue

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kirstengantt

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Charlotte, NC
I am stumped!

I have owned a townhome in South Carolina for one year now and we have this continuing issue with the concrete in our garage (see photos below: top was taken 6/25/2019; bottom was taken 3/11/2020). The concrete in this area is constantly damp. It never dries and is always wet to the touch; however, it does seem more damp during certain times of year.

We are pretty sure that hydrostatic pressure is not the issue, because this corner of the garage is connected to our neighbor's garage (it is a townhome). Our neighbor does not have any leak or water source behind this wall. Above the wet concrete is our hot water heater; however, no water is leaking onto the ground. We have laid plastic wrap on top of the wet concrete and it seems that the moisture is coming from underneath. To the right of the wet concrete/ hot water heater is the door to our home. There is no moisture in our house on the wall or floor adjacent to this area, thank goodness! To the left of the wet concrete is a carbon water filter that the previous homeowner installed. I called the company that installed it, and they did not dig into the ground or walls. All of the pipes for the water filter are external and are not leaking.

We have contacted our home repair company (this house was built in 2017) and they thought it was hydrostatic pressure. We have also had 3 different foundation repair companies come out and they cannot figure out what the source of this moisture is!

Does anyone know what may be causing this issue or how to repair it? Thank you!!

2019-6-25 Garage Slab.jpg 2020-3-11 (1).jpg
 
Really strange pictures!
Why would there be what looks like bare ground and what looks like grass inside of a garage?
Why would anyone set what looks like a bench sitting in what looks like mud?
Sure looks like this was not even close to how it should have been done.
 
My first instinct is hydrostatic pressure, but you say your neighbor does not have this problem. and I don't think it would be that localized.
It also looks like that spot might have been opened up, which may indicate that the previous owners had the same problem, or that someone involved is not telling the whole story (in an attempt to avoid blame?)
I think I would dry it with a fan blowing on it for a few days. Then you can turn the fan off and see where the trouble begins.
 
looks like a water heater or something above it on that stand and the drip tube hanging down. Is the water coming out of that tube when you are not looking?

There also as mentioned been some repair done to that area. :dunno:
 
Thank you all for your replies! The "grass" is actually a rug lol. My husband and I just purchased a fan and some DampRid to try to dry up the area. We will definitely try to dry the area up and then see where the moisture starts again.

There is no moisture coming from above or from the hot water heater, because we have checked that. But we agree that it looks like some work has been done in that area to the concrete, because it doesn't match the concrete in the other areas of the garage (see wider picture).

When we contacted our Home Warranty company in October 2019, they thought the issue was hydrostatic pressure, so they opened up a small portion of the wall behind the hot water heater. You can see from the previous pictures where the wall was opened up and patched. In that wall were three blue pipes and one cut red pipe (as you can see from the below pictures). There was also some moisture in the crevice of the wall. The Home Warranty company filled it up with a concrete sealer (bc they thought it was hydrostatic pressure) and then patched the wall up. That was nearly a year ago, and it did not solve the problem.
 

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pinhole in one of those red / blue pipes (that is PEX pipe), maybe ??? it might be good idea to hire a plumbing company that specializes in finding leaks, they have special equipment to find leaks....(one is SOUND detection, it has various probes to stick down in ground, or that set on concrete or drywall surface, and it amplifies the sound so leak can be heard / found...)
 
Any idea where those pipes lead or come from? That's the prime suspect for obvious reasons. Is that hole still there? Standing water in the hole could rise and fall for a number of reasons, but you would need to see it to know what it is doing.
 
The hole was filled with concrete sealer by the home warranty company, because they thought the problem was hydrostatic pressure. (In this picture I highlighted the area of the wall where the pipes are).
 

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It could still be hydrostatic pressure. It's the nature of the beast that it will find the weakest spot and squeeze it's way out. Once the hole was filled the pressure releases somewhere else....even the crack between the patch and the old concrete. Ideally, you want that pressure to release outside the the perimeter of the house.
 
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