Bradly Lewis Home Maintenance INC   503-481-8872

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Water in Your Basement

I get quite a few calls every year from people who have water in their basement.

There are a few important rules to understand why basements flood.

1. Gravity pulls water towards the center of the earth
2. Water takes the path of least resistance
3. Water below came from gravity pulled water above or
4. Water comes from pressurized pipes.

There are several reasons that basement walls may allow water inside. Water damage in basements is usually caused by one or more of the following:

1. Landscape features that funnel water towards the basement wall
2. Overflowing gutters
3. Disconnected downspout
4. Clogged underground drain
5. Natural water springs
6. Broken water supply pipe
7. Broken drain pipe

Overflowing Gutters - Most Probable Cause of Water in Basement

Gutters may overflow for several reasons. When they do, they usually pour water over their edge within a couple feet of the foundation. This saturates the ground and makes the saturated ground settle. As the ground moves, it may change the physical stress on a foundation and cause it to crack. This may allow water to enter, or it may force water through the concrete through "hydrostatic pressure". The solution is to clean the gutters and do preventative maintenance on the gutters to reduce the likely-hood of it happening again.

1. Plugged downspouts. The downspouts are the mostly vertical metal pipe that carries water from the gutter down to the drain. Too many gutters have downspout openings (where the downspouts attach to the gutter) that are too small and plug too quickly. This can be solved by removing the plugging debris at the top of the downspout. Another option is to install a downspout strainer to keep the downspout from plugging. Yet another option is to install an "oversized" downspout that will not plug.
2. Clogged downspouts. The downspout is angled too sharply and shallow to allow debris to pass down the downspouts. The solution is to unclog the downspout and to install a downspout strainer or replace the downspout with less sharp and shallow angles.
3. Improper gutter slope. If the gutter don't have the proper slope for water to flow towards the downspout, then the water may overflow in lower areas before it even has a chance or reaching the downspout(s). This may also happen on porches when the porch foundation settles and changes the slope of the roof line to which the gutters are attached.

Rotten Drains

Sometimes the iron pipes on older houses rots through. This may introduce a significant amount of water underneath a concrete basement floor. This may cause the basement to flood and the concrete floor to rot. Also the dirt may settle underneath the basement floor and cause large cracks.

This (formerly leaking) pipe that has been replaced caused the homeowner to believe that the basement was flooding from the driveway nearby and the backyard nearby. It was really a rusty pipe that had rotted through, leaking and flooding the basement and rotting the concrete. A good indicator of basement water caused by water fixtures is to run each fixture (bath, shower, toilet etc) one at a time and check for water accumulation after each to see if the drain pipe from the fixture adds to water in the basement.

Clogged Drains

Drains are the pipes that the water flows into from the downspout. They carry water away from the building.

When the drains clog, the water backs up and may gush out of the opening where the downspout meets the drain. This water then soaks into the ground by your foundation and then through hydrostatic pressure, forces it's way through the porous concrete. The solution is to fix,replace or find an alternate drain for the water to get away from the foundation.

Reasons Drains Clog

1. Filled with sediment. If your drains are old, they may have filled with sediment. It's possible that they can be cleaned out by a drain unplugging service. If you know of a great drain unplugging service provider, please contact me through this website so that I can refer people to them.
2. Collapsed drains. Older houses in and around Portland Oregon may have metal drains that have long since rusted through and collapsed. These cannot be augered out. It may appear that they have filled with dirt, but actually the pipe wall has collapsed and you'ld just be augering through your yard when the auger tip strays from the collapsed pipe. Some homes have drain pipes made of clay.

Settling of Soil

Drains are installed to carry the water away from the house. The downspouts empty into these drains. The downspout usually fits into the drain a few inches. When houses are on a sloped lot, the ground may settle and shift away or alongside the house. Since the drain is in the ground, it moves relatives to the dirt, but the downspout stays attached to the house. Sometimes, when there is enough shifting, the downspout and the drain can be misaligned. The solution is to put in an elbow or extend the downspout to reach the drain. This is a service that I provide.