Dewatering a basement Please HELP!?

Question

I've got a bad water problem in the basement starting in the spring and lasting til the fall, Approx 18" if i let it go. After 20 years of trying things and having them fail i recently heard about Artisian wells. Please dont ask because i tried the following, Tar the ext. basement walls, Sloped grade away from house, extended gutter leaders, Installed professional interior french drain with two sump holes and two pumps in each hole. I must be on a spring its ground water!!

Does anyone know how to install or create an artisian well I'd like to try it around the house the water seems the be coming from two specific sides. If i can get the water to the grade before it gets into my basement and build a dry well away from the house could this work??? Please any knowledge is much appreciated, mildew inside is becoming an issue and im afraid for my kids health. Thanx

Answer 1

You say french drains...as in excavating around the walls and a below the floor elevation and installing perforated tile surrounded with coarse gravel?  Normally this is enough to

intercept ground water, especially that moving horizontally.  Getting the tile below the floor elevation is a must do.  If the exterior walls were tarred, I'd think the tile would have been installed then if it hadn't already been installed during construction.  The best perforated tile to use has a fabric sock over the outside, this prevents soil from being washed into the tile and plugging it.  

Where are you at, what state and where in the state?  Some soils are notorious for getting basements wet.  

Springs or seeps can be annoying and can run a lot of water at times.  They usually occur when water seeps down through soil and hits a layer of tight clay or rock where it flows horizontally.  Again, interception of the water is the goal rather than trying to make a water tight barrier.  If your house is on a slope and you think the water is coming from above, using a trencher to dig a 3-5' deep trench with a thin layer of coarse rock below a perforated tile with more coarse rock above to the top should intercept the water as long as it has a place to go once in the tile.  Be sure the rock is "poorly graded", in other words, stones are all of the same size rather than big stuff, little stuff and fines all mixed together.

Answer 2

An artesian well is simply a well with enough water pressure to have the water flow up out of the ground... ususaly because the area you are in is lower than the highest point in the water table or aquifer. Sure you could try and pump the water out from under your house faster than the water table can replace it but that would be real costly. if your house is one ahill or there is a low point in rech you could try a tile drain type system under your foundation and basement floor to drain it away. But if your house is built on a flood plain or your foundation is down into the aquifer/water table there should never have been clearance to build... ie... look into legal action against the builder as they should have checked all of that out before they started building... if you built the house yourself then next time you know to get the land surveied properly and check ground water levels before you build another house. Since this is a problem you have had for 20 years you can't realy go back against the seller or builder but you can watch out next time you buy or build.

Answer 3

I strongly suggest jacking your house up about 5 feet, extending your basement wall 4 feet, add gravel to the bottom of your basement then  let the house back down on the extended basement.

Why? you have your house dug down into the water table. You really do not want to lower your water table, you want to raise the house.

It could be simpler to move the house to a better site, but this time don't dig the basement into the water table.

Answer 4

This might be an underground stream which was not realised by the ground engineer, or the builders before the house was built. The flow of this water was interupted by the construction of the basement. I have seen similar examples of this here in Britain, The water may still be following it's natural course, and the basement now forms a receptical for it. Nothing you can do now. That my friend is my guess, but of course I may be wrong

Answer 5

okay, this might be expensive, why are you not hiring a geologist or some one with experience of whether your house is sitting on a spring or not.  have you even asked your neighbor, u didn't mention it, if they have the same problem as you do.

Just use bleach on the mildew.