Drainage Help- Water leaking into Garage

Hi Everyone,

I live in Tennessee and big rain storms are an often occurrence. Nearly every time we get a decent storm, the water from the outside of my home somehow manages to leak through the walls. below are two pictures:

The first one is inside the garage where the water typical comes through

the second one is the exterior wall and ground. It’s clear the slope of the ground is running straight into the house.

any ideas on how to redirect the drainage so my garage will stop mildly flooding?

 

Your picture pointed right to the problem, first thing I would do is route your roof water away from your foundation.

 

@COTundra23 i agree with the statement above. You need to hard pvc pipe that downspout further from your home.that is a lot of roof area draining into that downspout. That might not fully resolve the problem but would help greatly

 

1- improve your gutter and downspout setup to direct the water away from the side of the house.
2- install a french drain around the foundation of the house. While the side of the wall and foundation are exposed, it would be a good time to add a waterproof membrane to any masonry that is below ground level.

These are a little high on the DIY scale (primarily #2) because of the physical work involved along with getting someone out to locate and mark all underground utilities.

 

Looks like it's coming in near the panel. On the 2nd pic the power meter indicates where the panel would be. What's the grading like there? Any possible intrusion from the roots of that bush?

 

Really appreciate all of the quick feedback. As we further discuss, I realize it may be more helpful to show where the leaking is occuribg

I have drawn a red line where I believe the water to be coming in, at least that’s where it falls into the garage.

many further thoughts?

 

For the gutter, you want the downspout to go to a catch basin like in the picture. From the the catch basin, a line will go out to a low point away from the house. By having it open like this instead of straight from the downspout into a tube, if there is a blockage underground, you will be able to see there is an issue without having the water backup into the downspout potentially causing further damage. It also allows you to see that the downspout itself is not blocked.
There are many different types/styles of catch basin a that achieve the same results.

 

great observation and that is correct.
As for the grading.. it’s not great and definitely leans towards the house.

I will check for intrusions tomorrow when we have some daylight

 

dig down and look for cracks, seal them, or have a professional seal it.

You will need to figure out the source of the water and start there, but the others have suggested is also correct, get that water away with SDR35 PVC and some Ells daylight that away from the house, obviously down hill.

you can install a french drain all along the foundation, that will help to move some water away, but the bigger is a cracked foundation.

 

dont feel bad if you have to remove that poor looking yew in the corner. its time for an upgrade there anyway. Get your wife a miss kim lilac for thw corner

 

Easy weekend project. Dig it up, seal any cracks, grade it. I don't think it's necessary but you could easily do some drainage tile.
Get that gutter draining away from the house, and fix the grade at the patio so water can't pool there, either.

 

There are a few suggestions I have for your current water problem. Sorry if any points have already been mentioned as I didn’t read them all.

1. Put an extension on your downspout to get the rain water far away from the base of the foundation.

2. Make sure your gutters are not clogged and allow water to flow properly. If they are clogged with leaves water will overflow the top of the gutter near the side of the foundation.

3. You can paint the interior wall of your basement with a paint that will seal the cinderblock wall. I use a product by Sherwin williams called Loxon XP. The only problem is it’s been extremely hard to get since all the paint shortages started.

4. You can also Digg along side your exterior cinderblock wall down to the base of your foundation. Install a shallow 2” base of 3/4 base gravel. Then install a 4” corrugated drain pipe. You can also get the pipe with a covered fabric sleeve over it to keep it from getting clogged from dirt or soil. Make sure your drain line has proper slope or fall to drain out and away from the foundation. It’s important to make sure you cover the sides and top of the corrugated pipe with a good amount of 3/4” gravel. This is key to allow the water a way to collect and get out and away from your foundation before letting it wick into the foundation.

5. If you do dig up the side of the foundation, you may want to consider installing a membrane or water barrier on the over the exterior cinderblock. There are several different option for this. In a perfect world you would do all of these options to prevent the water from entering. However you may elect to try a few of the easier ones first and see if that fixes the problem first.

I can send you some more samples of products to use if you want to do this yourself.

Here is the block or concrete sealer.

 

Water always takes the path of least resistance so when it goes below grade it can be hard to tell where it ends up. In your case you know and it sounds like many many others on here do as well. Unfortunately you need to move the water more than you do protect your structure and the only way to do that is divert it with what we here in The United State of Texas call a French drain of all things. It’s not going to be cheap depending on how far you have to run your underground pipe. I do thes jobs all the time and for a roughly 150’ French drain I usually charge $2500-$3000

 

French drain is the way to go, once the water level is at the drain it will drain away…and it’s the most effective

 

Really appreciate all of the Input here. Going to do some I investigative work today and see what I can find. Lots of good solutions from you all and can’t thank you enough!

 

You will need to pull the soil away from the wall, pressure clean wall allow to dry. Apply 2 coats of Drylock on the wall to below slab, preferably to footer. Install a proper french drain against the home and run to the lowest point of yard. This should solve all future issues.

 

appreciate the feedback. After looking at the ground it’s nothing not limestone and rock.. tried taking a shovel to some fire the soft spots but hit rock within 2-3”

 

Ouch, Lime is no joke. Sounds like you will need a hammer drill to help break it up. Being from Florida I feel your pain with the lime rock.

 

Appreciate the offer but work has brought me to TN… guess it’s time for a username update??

 

I'm gonna have to do a french drain at my place. Unfortunately I've gotta corner and double lot

 

ouch…

 

I've always had good luck with the smallest size excavators in spots like this. E.g. bobcat e10. Last time I got one delivered for a day with tax and everything for a bit under $400. You can get right up on the edge with those things. No tail swing - really nice in tight spots.