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Water Coming In to Basement

Posted on 7/11/26 at 6:27 am
Posted by BhamBlazeDog
Birmingham
Member since Aug 2018
3857 posts
Posted on 7/11/26 at 6:27 am
I’ve got a little alcove in my basement that’s right underneath my front steps that lead to my front door. About a week ago I noticed some moisture there and I had an old bookshelf in the alcove. Well yesterday I removed the bookshelf and the whole bottom was rotted out from water.

I flexsealed all of the spots where the wall met the floor and sprayed a mold and mildew killer primer on top. I then painted the floor and side walls with Kilz white mold and mildew prevention primer. Thought I fixed the problem and then I walk down this morning and there is a small amount of standing water.

Anyone got an ideas for a diy fix here? Really don’t want to have to call a basement waterproofing company if I don’t have to. It’s not a ton of water, but it’s there.
Posted by UptownJoeBrown
Baton Rouge
Member since Jul 2024
11175 posts
Posted on 7/11/26 at 10:18 am to
We don’t have basements in Louisiana so we don’t have a lot of experience in this area.

Just didn’t want you to think you were being ignored.
Posted by CartmansMom
Member since Jun 2026
81 posts
Posted on 7/11/26 at 10:21 am to
The one time flexseal didn't work....lol.

You need to call a professional and get this taken care of from the exterior or the home, not interior
Posted by dblwall
Member since Jul 2017
1847 posts
Posted on 7/11/26 at 12:08 pm to
Did you notice the water after a rain? Did you water grass / plants in that area? Did it just start happening?
Posted by 98eagle
Member since Sep 2020
3204 posts
Posted on 7/11/26 at 7:46 pm to
Can you figure out what is going on outside as the source of water? We bought a house four years ago that had water leaking in the basement on two walls. One I determined was the water main leaking just a couple of feet from the house. At the water meter 400' away from the home entrance I determined there was a significant leak somewhere losing 1 gallon every 7 minutes. The ground was sandy limestone and draining the water where I couldn't find the leak bubbling above ground through the wooded area to our house. I hired American Leak Detector and they determined the leak was just outside the entrance into the basement wall. That was a pretty easy fix.

The other wall with a basement leak was due to crunched underground 4" thin wall PVC pipes connected to the gutter downspouts and diverting rain water about 40' away from the house to a dry creek bed. When it rained hard, I could see water bubbling out of 3 gutter downspouts and down the foundation wall. I put a snake camera into the 4" PVC pipes where they emptied out in the yard into the creek bed. I could see where the thin wall PVC pipes were flattened and causing the problem. That was a lot harder to fix. I dug down to all of that crushed pipe and uncovered the crushed pipes for a good portion of the overall trench length and just decided to replace all of the pipes all the way to the gutter downspouts. I had to temporarily relocate quite a few nice bushes and move them back after I replaced all of the pipes with 4" PVC pipes, but with schedule 40 instead of the thin wall PVC.

At our previous house, we had a small leak into our basement where the ground was fairly flat. I checked out the ground at the house near the leak and noticed several chipmunk holes, a sunken area and the ground at the house pulling away slightly from the wall. I dug the ground up around the chipmunk holes and sunken area and then packed in dirt and tamped it down good. Then I put about 20' of some clay up against the house to about a couple of feet away and around the perimeter of that area near the leak and sloped it away from the house. That stopped the leak. Later, for good measure, I put some hydraulic cement in the basement floor joint and painted Dry Lok on the inside wall.

Not saying you have issues like I did, but perhaps you can identify the source of the water and fix it outside. If the basement leak is on a wall where the outside ground slopes into the house, you might need to install a French Drain.
This post was edited on 7/11/26 at 8:24 pm
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