Doing some electrical work today. The house originally had a single 100 amp panel, it was in a breezeway between a carport and the house. The carport got turned into a sun room and the breezeway into a hallway eventually. Then when the previous owners added on to the house, they put a 200 amp panel outside. But they didn't get rid of the 100 amp panel. They fed the 100 amp from the 200 amp, and the house ran off two panels, because ???? It would've been one thing if the old section of the house ran off the 100 amp and the addition off the 200 amp, but no, half the kitchen was on one panel and the other half on the other. The back hallway light is run off the 200 amp panel while the exterior light by the back door is run off the 100 amp. There was also a 50 amp panel in the garage, ran off the 100 amp panel, that was ran off the 200 amp panel. Today's job was to get rid of the 50 amp panel completely, move the 100 amp panel to where the 50 amp panel in the garage is, and power the whole house off the 200 amp panel. Taking the 100 amp panel out was straight forward enough, detach all the wiring and pull the panel out of the wall but then the fun started. When I started pulling the old wiring back to be rerouted I discovered that there were three lines, all live, all on individual breakers, that went nowhere. Literally just cut, twisted around something in the basement ceiling, not wire nutted, taped, anything. Just exposed live ends. This is all cloth and tar insulation wiring, too. Another section had a splice in it wrapped in cloth tape, not soldered, nutted, anything. It powered the outlets in one of the bedrooms, and the splice went off to the pump house outside.
All this has made me realize, I could've burned it down. I could've burned it down, and nobody would've ever suspected it, because the inspectors would've found so many fire-causing problems it wouldn't have looked suspicious at all. I could've taken the insurance payout, and started fresh. For some reason I just keep repairing things...
At least that wasn’t against code…it’s dumb as fuck, but other things were just insane code violations. Running a 200 amp panel into a 50 amp panel and a 100 amp panel is silly, but as long as it’s properly identified it’s proper code.
Yea we got a $200ish Base toto back in 2018 and it's still going strong. Easy to clean, flushes well.
I was browsing the toto website and saw 7,000 dollar toilets and was like ehhhhhhhhhhhhh, but yeah, if the base models are solid, maybe I'll grab two of those.
So I agreed to let the neighbor behind me have some large pine trees in my yard cut down. The trunks were in my yard but basically 95% of the limbs hung over their yard, and they have a pool so that had to suck. I know, not my problem, but I'm trying to be considerate. There was talk about the trees being diseased and needing to come down eventually, which I'll kinda believe because they dropped branches and limbs like crazy and the wood on those was often soft/brittle as hell. I also still have plenty of pine trees still in my yard. They paid for it all, but the work had to be done from my yard.
But man, my advice is to never do this. The tree people's trucks tore up my yard, and they drove over some pavers with bobcats and shattered them. I'm not their customer, so not like I can complain to them. Not worth it to just be considerate.
I think my sump pump is having some issues. Usually when it comes on I can hear it humming and then I hear the water go through the pipes. But the past week or so it hums for about 2 seconds and then I hear a loud thunk and it stops. My wife swears it has done that every time but I think she's full of shit lol. Does anyone have a ballpark range on how much a new sump pump is and/or the motor?
So I agreed to let the neighbor behind me have some large pine trees in my yard cut down. The trunks were in my yard but basically 95% of the limbs hung over their yard, and they have a pool so that had to suck. I know, not my problem, but I'm trying to be considerate. There was talk about the trees being diseased and needing to come down eventually, which I'll kinda believe because they dropped branches and limbs like crazy and the wood on those was often soft/brittle as hell. I also still have plenty of pine trees still in my yard. They paid for it all, but the work had to be done from my yard.
But man, my advice is to never do this. The tree people's trucks tore up my yard, and they drove over some pavers with bobcats and shattered them. I'm not their customer, so not like I can complain to them. Not worth it to just be considerate.
I would 100% complain to them. They should have still needed your permission to drive into your back yard. Tearing up the yard is pretty common and they probably won't care, but breaking pavers and such, they should provide some compensation.
So I agreed to let the neighbor behind me have some large pine trees in my yard cut down. The trunks were in my yard but basically 95% of the limbs hung over their yard, and they have a pool so that had to suck. I know, not my problem, but I'm trying to be considerate. There was talk about the trees being diseased and needing to come down eventually, which I'll kinda believe because they dropped branches and limbs like crazy and the wood on those was often soft/brittle as hell. I also still have plenty of pine trees still in my yard. They paid for it all, but the work had to be done from my yard.
But man, my advice is to never do this. The tree people's trucks tore up my yard, and they drove over some pavers with bobcats and shattered them. I'm not their customer, so not like I can complain to them. Not worth it to just be considerate.
I would 100% complain to them. They should have still needed your permission to drive into your back yard. Tearing up the yard is pretty common and they probably won't care, but breaking pavers and such, they should provide some compensation.
If not your neighbors should replace them, since you did them a solid favor.
So I agreed to let the neighbor behind me have some large pine trees in my yard cut down. The trunks were in my yard but basically 95% of the limbs hung over their yard, and they have a pool so that had to suck. I know, not my problem, but I'm trying to be considerate. There was talk about the trees being diseased and needing to come down eventually, which I'll kinda believe because they dropped branches and limbs like crazy and the wood on those was often soft/brittle as hell. I also still have plenty of pine trees still in my yard. They paid for it all, but the work had to be done from my yard.
But man, my advice is to never do this. The tree people's trucks tore up my yard, and they drove over some pavers with bobcats and shattered them. I'm not their customer, so not like I can complain to them. Not worth it to just be considerate.
I would 100% complain to them. They should have still needed your permission to drive into your back yard. Tearing up the yard is pretty common and they probably won't care, but breaking pavers and such, they should provide some compensation.
Yes. 100% complain to the company. They are liable for any damage they do to your property. Don't worry about your neighbour, they won't have to pay for anything.
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zepherinRussian warship, go fuck yourselfRegistered Userregular
They can protect the yard as well, both the yard and tiles could have been protected with the cost of some plywood and an hour of prep time. I’d consider having both fixed and taking the company to small claims.
I think my sump pump is having some issues. Usually when it comes on I can hear it humming and then I hear the water go through the pipes. But the past week or so it hums for about 2 seconds and then I hear a loud thunk and it stops. My wife swears it has done that every time but I think she's full of shit lol. Does anyone have a ballpark range on how much a new sump pump is and/or the motor?
If it isn't hardwired, you can get a new pump assembly for around $200 depending your specifics.
Grab some buckets of water and do some tests before you confirm it needs replacing. It'll also allow you to figure out the plumbing setup for the discharge.
Like everything else, removing that panel took way longer than I'd planned. Partially my own fault. I'd intended to reuse the cable that went from the old house panel, through the attic and out to the garage, but it turns out it was spliced twice about a third of the way along. So since I was going to have to replace the whole run I decided to go all out. The transfer switch on the house has double lugs, one set going to the house panel already, so I bought some 4/0 service entrance cable, installed a new mast, bought a new panel for the garage, some LBs, conduit, lots of connectors, spent three days cursing pretty much nonstop, and now I have 200 amp service to my garage.
Running 4/0 cable is something I never want to do again though. I got lucky and Amazon had 1 day shipping on a cable bender, otherwise I never would've gotten it through the weather heads and LBs.
Wife: "can you load the dishwasher?"
Me: "sure" *loads* *hits power*
Dishwasher: *silence*
Not what I want to try and troubleshoot on Thanksgiving... (didn't see any tripped breakers, will have to pull it out later).
Check the gfci in the kitchen. They are usually connected. So if that’s popped it’ll often hit that as well.
I mostly ignored it, since family was coming over, etc. This post made me go "dammit" (because I didn't think of that), go to look for the GFCI. Didn't find it, but found two light switches on the wall on the other side of the sink, flipping one of those worked...
So, I feel stupid. Didn't think about them, and didn't see them initially because we moved a toaster oven in front yesterday which is probably what flipped it.
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zepherinRussian warship, go fuck yourselfRegistered Userregular
I need to replace an exterior light, and the internet has failed me on where to purchase it.
I reckon you could go to the dollar store and find an LED board almost identical to that. That is a very standard design used in a lot of cheap outdoor solar lights. Are you sure it's not the DC power supply that's gone bad? That board looks like it probably runs off 5v. In a pinch you could do some surgery on a USB cable and plug it into a USB power supply. Red is going to be your +5v rail and black your neutral.
Anyone have recommendations for basement sealant paint? Gotta paint a room and want to make it as moisture resistant as possible and I want to paint a corner of my basement where water seeps in on occasion. I hear certain things will help prevent that from happening?
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That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
Anyone have recommendations for basement sealant paint? Gotta paint a room and want to make it as moisture resistant as possible and I want to paint a corner of my basement where water seeps in on occasion. I hear certain things will help prevent that from happening?
You really don't want to seal your basement from the inside like that. Especially if you don't give the water anywhere to go. There is a sort of rubber membrane I've seen used on This Old House. It goes over the entire wall and has drain channels to move the water to your sump. If you want to seal your basement the RIGHT way you have to dig the wall out and apply the sealant to the outside.
Your basement walls will quickly degrade and could totally give way if enough water builds up for long enough.
Anyone have recommendations for basement sealant paint? Gotta paint a room and want to make it as moisture resistant as possible and I want to paint a corner of my basement where water seeps in on occasion. I hear certain things will help prevent that from happening?
It depends on how much water seeps through. If the walls are bare concrete and it's just a little occasional weeping like spring melt / super-wet times, you can use Drylok waterproofer as a base coat and it should help to keep things dry. That's what we used and it has worked well the past two years in the spring where we would get a bit of water running down from the spots in the wall where the forms were connected. Preparation is important - you have to clean the walls / concrete and if there are any cracks you'll want to make sure they are filled ahead of time. If there are specific spots going extra heavy isn't going to hurt anything, it goes on like paint and you just want to layer that stuff on.
If you're getting regular seeping / weeping though or to the point of puddles you usually can't solve it just by sealing the inside. Any coating or paint will eventually fail due to hydrostatic pressure depending on the amount of water (and type of soil to some degree). Improving drainage outside so you don't get so much water near your house is the easiest fix if possible, but if not the ultimate fix is digging out along the foundation and sealing the outside of the concrete in really bad cases.
I'd go with Drylok, it's not super cheap but you can get it at Lowes / Home Depot and see if that works. If you're putting drywall or paneling up over the concrete I'd consider waiting a bit (i.e. wet season) before closing the area off to make sure its stopping all the water so moisture doesn't build up / cause mold.
We just put in 2 Totos, and they seem really solid! We wanted a modern low-flow/efficient that could also work with a Tushy hoo-ha sprayer, and these fit the bill. Replaced two absolutely ancient Eljers. Definite thumbs up, though they were definitely pricier.
Side note: wax rings were, are, and continue to be super gross.
Anyone have recommendations for basement sealant paint? Gotta paint a room and want to make it as moisture resistant as possible and I want to paint a corner of my basement where water seeps in on occasion. I hear certain things will help prevent that from happening?
You really don't want to seal your basement from the inside like that. Especially if you don't give the water anywhere to go. There is a sort of rubber membrane I've seen used on This Old House. It goes over the entire wall and has drain channels to move the water to your sump. If you want to seal your basement the RIGHT way you have to dig the wall out and apply the sealant to the outside.
Your basement walls will quickly degrade and could totally give way if enough water builds up for long enough.
I just want to emphasize this advice because I almost made the same mistake. We finished our basement and I was going to seal the inside concrete like you suggested, but thank God I was getting estimates before I did it. My contractor explained if you seal it like that, the water still enters your concrete from the outside, but can't finish traveling though the wall itself and gets trapped. Over time it'll build up and all the notice you're going to get is the wall ultimately failing.
We ended up going with this vapor barrier stuff that'll prevent moisture and mold.
Are you painting the bare concrete or framing out drywall? I think those require different treatments and this is something you may want to spend the money to get one of those basement water companies to look at before you just seal it up and hope for the best.
Anyone have recommendations for basement sealant paint? Gotta paint a room and want to make it as moisture resistant as possible and I want to paint a corner of my basement where water seeps in on occasion. I hear certain things will help prevent that from happening?
It depends on how much water seeps through. If the walls are bare concrete and it's just a little occasional weeping like spring melt / super-wet times, you can use Drylok waterproofer as a base coat and it should help to keep things dry. That's what we used and it has worked well the past two years in the spring where we would get a bit of water running down from the spots in the wall where the forms were connected. Preparation is important - you have to clean the walls / concrete and if there are any cracks you'll want to make sure they are filled ahead of time. If there are specific spots going extra heavy isn't going to hurt anything, it goes on like paint and you just want to layer that stuff on.
If you're getting regular seeping / weeping though or to the point of puddles you usually can't solve it just by sealing the inside. Any coating or paint will eventually fail due to hydrostatic pressure depending on the amount of water (and type of soil to some degree). Improving drainage outside so you don't get so much water near your house is the easiest fix if possible, but if not the ultimate fix is digging out along the foundation and sealing the outside of the concrete in really bad cases.
I'd go with Drylok, it's not super cheap but you can get it at Lowes / Home Depot and see if that works. If you're putting drywall or paneling up over the concrete I'd consider waiting a bit (i.e. wet season) before closing the area off to make sure its stopping all the water so moisture doesn't build up / cause mold.
Yeah Drylok is the thing I've heard of before. Definitely need to get some extra dirt to fix the grading too, that's probably the real issue?
Just has concerned me because the puddle that shows up seems to happen at sort of random times and is right under our breaker box which is not where I want water to be!
It also really depends on what your foundation walls are constructed out of. Is it poured concrete, cinderblock, flagstone, brick/mortar? All of those have different ways of handling moisture. Also, where is the water seeping in from, is it coming up from the slab or from the walls, is it a specific crack/joint or is it more weeping from everywhere?
It also depends on how you're dealing with water outside of the house. Maybe your downspouts are terminating too close to the foundation, do you even have gutters (I thought this was code everywhere, but learned otherwise in this thread a year back), maybe the yard isn't graded properly and the soil next to your foundation saturates with water because it's too low.
It also really depends on what your foundation walls are constructed out of. Is it poured concrete, cinderblock, flagstone, brick/mortar? All of those have different ways of handling moisture. Also, where is the water seeping in from, is it coming up from the slab or from the walls, is it a specific crack/joint or is it more weeping from everywhere?
It also depends on how you're dealing with water outside of the house. Maybe your downspouts are terminating too close to the foundation, do you even have gutters (I thought this was code everywhere, but learned otherwise in this thread a year back), maybe the yard isn't graded properly and the soil next to your foundation saturates with water because it's too low.
I will take some pictures when I get home later, probably easier that way.
From my recent experience with Thrasher and other foundation repair companies, definitely listen to an independent contractor first, especially a structural engineer. Pay them real actual money to look at it and tell you what they think.
I had 3 different foundation repair companies, Thrasher included, come out last Spring and scare the fuck out of me and try to get me on the hook for $40k of bullshit, and it was only their constant sniping each other and having my two BiL's, who do construction, look at it and tell me they were all full of shit.
I run a dehumidifier in the basement constantly and in a couple years we'll dig up the foundation and reseal it on the outside.
So caveat that there were floods in this area a few years ago and basically every home has some water stuff but we did get a home inspection and were told everything looked very good. We've been tackling small projects here and there but haven't scrubbed these walls yet cause I intended to paint things at some point anyway. So I know it's dirty over in this corner.
(Pics of basement water)
Darker areas have small puddles of water. Previously we had seen a buuunch of water on the ground in there (It's also the laundry room) and assumed it was something to do with laundry leaking but it had been after a big rainstorm and we've never had that happen from just laundry.
We've been here about 3-4 months now and have only seen water in there three times, so it's not super bad but something I wanna fix for sure. Definitely need to get dirt and work on the grading above it, just wondering what else to do inside.
I have an office area on the other side of the wall to the right of these pictures and that room i've never seen water in, but I also run a dehumidifier in there constantly since my computer is in there. Wonder if I should move the dehumidifier to a more central location and stick the tube down the drain rather than emptying the bucket on occasion?
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That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
Looks like that is concrete block to me. It would appear water is seeping between your blocks in multiple places. You really can't just paint over that and expect it to be good. There's some indication that your walls are shifting, causing cracks in the plaster. That doesn't look good but I've seen WAY worse. I don't think anything has been structurally compromised but you are in need of some remediation. As previously indicated, the best way of fixing that is to dig out the basement and seal it from the outside. It's a lot of work and isn't cheap but it's generally a permanent fix. That "shelf" will make interior remediation difficult but not impossible.
The last thing you want to do is plaster over it and forget about it. The previous owners could get away with that because the house was so new but you don't have that luxury anymore. The longer you sit on that, the more expensive it's going to get.
My favorite part about working with a contractor is when you tell them you want them to do something a certain way and they say that there's just no way possible way to do it, and then you show them a diagram you found online of that exact thing, there's silence for a few hours, and then they say "ok we'll try that."
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zepherinRussian warship, go fuck yourselfRegistered Userregular
@SniperGuy it may be worth your money to put a French drain outside of that wall to pull the water away from the house.
So caveat that there were floods in this area a few years ago and basically every home has some water stuff but we did get a home inspection and were told everything looked very good. We've been tackling small projects here and there but haven't scrubbed these walls yet cause I intended to paint things at some point anyway. So I know it's dirty over in this corner.
(Pics of basement water)
Darker areas have small puddles of water. Previously we had seen a buuunch of water on the ground in there (It's also the laundry room) and assumed it was something to do with laundry leaking but it had been after a big rainstorm and we've never had that happen from just laundry.
We've been here about 3-4 months now and have only seen water in there three times, so it's not super bad but something I wanna fix for sure. Definitely need to get dirt and work on the grading above it, just wondering what else to do inside.
I have an office area on the other side of the wall to the right of these pictures and that room i've never seen water in, but I also run a dehumidifier in there constantly since my computer is in there. Wonder if I should move the dehumidifier to a more central location and stick the tube down the drain rather than emptying the bucket on occasion?
I may have missed some stuff but when you say drain, there a proper sump pump down there or is there just a sewer/septic tank drain in a bathroom or something? Never had a basement before until the house we are in now but water is best away, or to go up (pump), out and away to a lower level of he property.
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MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
Best if you can stop it from getting in, but as others have said, you don't want to trap it in the walls. Outside check to make sure there's nothing above the foundation; dirt, plants, etc. Ideally everything should slope away from the house.
Your dehumidifier plan is good, maybe get another one and run both. Especially if there could be flooding again, you'll want as many as you can.
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That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
That is a good guide on how to seal up an old leaky basement well enough to pass inspection before you flip it.
Hard to tell with that white plaster what type of foundation wall that us? Can you tell whether it's coming from a couple cracks or more seeping in from everywhere. If it's it a crack or a few, some discrete locations, local basement waterproofing company might be the best bet. They
inject an epoxy resin that fills cracks all the way through the full thickness of the wall to the exterior, which protects the concrete from any more water damage. Definitely a lot more practical and a hell of a lot cheaper than digging the exterior foundation walls to waterproof. You still should fix any grading/downspout issues though too.
That is a good guide on how to seal up an old leaky basement well enough to pass inspection before you flip it.
I mean at the start of the video he spends time saying that the best idea is to take care of as much on the outside as you can to prevent any water from coming in before sealing the inside.
*edit*
Also the real fix to his foundation is to jack up the house and replace the entire thing because cement over fieldstone sucks but because he's not having major issues with water that's probably not justified for the cost.
Hard to tell with that white plaster what type of foundation wall that us? Can you tell whether it's coming from a couple cracks or more seeping in from everywhere. If it's it a crack or a few, some discrete locations, local basement waterproofing company might be the best bet. They
inject an epoxy resin that fills cracks all the way through the full thickness of the wall to the exterior, which protects the concrete from any more water damage. Definitely a lot more practical and a hell of a lot cheaper than digging the exterior foundation walls to waterproof. You still should fix any grading/downspout issues though too.
Yeah there is a pressurized epoxy from the surface that fills the cracks and voids from the inside. There is also something where they drill from the inside and inject epoxy/ sealant along the outside, but at that point I'm not sure if it really saves anything on digging out the whole wall and doing a membrane or sealer / drainage to the sump.
From the pics though and what I read researching our basement I am pretty sure Drylok or anything simple and easy is just a temporary fix. Maybe if drainage outside is substantially improved though it would make enough of a difference.
Hard to tell with that white plaster what type of foundation wall that us? Can you tell whether it's coming from a couple cracks or more seeping in from everywhere. If it's it a crack or a few, some discrete locations, local basement waterproofing company might be the best bet. They
inject an epoxy resin that fills cracks all the way through the full thickness of the wall to the exterior, which protects the concrete from any more water damage. Definitely a lot more practical and a hell of a lot cheaper than digging the exterior foundation walls to waterproof. You still should fix any grading/downspout issues though too.
Yeah there is a pressurized epoxy from the surface that fills the cracks and voids from the inside. There is also something where they drill from the inside and inject epoxy/ sealant along the outside, but at that point I'm not sure if it really saves anything on digging out the whole wall and doing a membrane or sealer / drainage to the sump.
From the pics though and what I read researching our basement I am pretty sure Drylok or anything simple and easy is just a temporary fix. Maybe if drainage outside is substantially improved though it would make enough of a difference.
I had 2 separate large cracks (4 ft each) in my basement that I had a local company come and seal up. They just cleaned up the concrete to get at cracks, drilled 4 injection ports in each, sealed it up and then injected the epoxy. On one of them I saw the epoxy resin come out and harden on the outside, so definitely full protection. Only ran $900 (they charge per foot of the crack), I have to imagine a full digout would be way more than $900 these days, and this is major metro area prices.
Edit: Though for SniperGuys's purposes, I think it would be very difficult for a company to do anything with it in that state. That skim coating is probably covering and trapping all the moisture behind it, which who the hell knows where it's coming in at that point. I'd probably try all exterior water management first and foremost (regrade soil, move downspouts further out or bury them with a farther french drain). After that if it's still leaking then the options are probably dig-out and exterior membrane, or grind off all that skim-coating in the basement and try to figure out the points of intrusion for epoxy injections, both of which are likely expensive, and extremely difficult to DIY.
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Yea we got a $200ish Base toto back in 2018 and it's still going strong. Easy to clean, flushes well.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
I was browsing the toto website and saw 7,000 dollar toilets and was like ehhhhhhhhhhhhh, but yeah, if the base models are solid, maybe I'll grab two of those.
But man, my advice is to never do this. The tree people's trucks tore up my yard, and they drove over some pavers with bobcats and shattered them. I'm not their customer, so not like I can complain to them. Not worth it to just be considerate.
I would 100% complain to them. They should have still needed your permission to drive into your back yard. Tearing up the yard is pretty common and they probably won't care, but breaking pavers and such, they should provide some compensation.
If not your neighbors should replace them, since you did them a solid favor.
Yes. 100% complain to the company. They are liable for any damage they do to your property. Don't worry about your neighbour, they won't have to pay for anything.
If it isn't hardwired, you can get a new pump assembly for around $200 depending your specifics.
Grab some buckets of water and do some tests before you confirm it needs replacing. It'll also allow you to figure out the plumbing setup for the discharge.
Me: "sure" *loads* *hits power*
Dishwasher: *silence*
Not what I want to try and troubleshoot on Thanksgiving... (didn't see any tripped breakers, will have to pull it out later).
Running 4/0 cable is something I never want to do again though. I got lucky and Amazon had 1 day shipping on a cable bender, otherwise I never would've gotten it through the weather heads and LBs.
Try unplugging for a bit. We have to do this often to our apartment dishwasher.
I mostly ignored it, since family was coming over, etc. This post made me go "dammit" (because I didn't think of that), go to look for the GFCI. Didn't find it, but found two light switches on the wall on the other side of the sink, flipping one of those worked...
So, I feel stupid. Didn't think about them, and didn't see them initially because we moved a toaster oven in front yesterday which is probably what flipped it.
The weirdness of that made me go looking - I wasn’t very successful, but I think this Reddit thread might be helpful if you haven’t seen it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/led/comments/bsjyme/from_an_altair_lighting_outdoor_led_lantern/
https://www.ledsupply.com/blog/altair-lighting-led-driver-replacement/
I reckon you could go to the dollar store and find an LED board almost identical to that. That is a very standard design used in a lot of cheap outdoor solar lights. Are you sure it's not the DC power supply that's gone bad? That board looks like it probably runs off 5v. In a pinch you could do some surgery on a USB cable and plug it into a USB power supply. Red is going to be your +5v rail and black your neutral.
You really don't want to seal your basement from the inside like that. Especially if you don't give the water anywhere to go. There is a sort of rubber membrane I've seen used on This Old House. It goes over the entire wall and has drain channels to move the water to your sump. If you want to seal your basement the RIGHT way you have to dig the wall out and apply the sealant to the outside.
Your basement walls will quickly degrade and could totally give way if enough water builds up for long enough.
It depends on how much water seeps through. If the walls are bare concrete and it's just a little occasional weeping like spring melt / super-wet times, you can use Drylok waterproofer as a base coat and it should help to keep things dry. That's what we used and it has worked well the past two years in the spring where we would get a bit of water running down from the spots in the wall where the forms were connected. Preparation is important - you have to clean the walls / concrete and if there are any cracks you'll want to make sure they are filled ahead of time. If there are specific spots going extra heavy isn't going to hurt anything, it goes on like paint and you just want to layer that stuff on.
If you're getting regular seeping / weeping though or to the point of puddles you usually can't solve it just by sealing the inside. Any coating or paint will eventually fail due to hydrostatic pressure depending on the amount of water (and type of soil to some degree). Improving drainage outside so you don't get so much water near your house is the easiest fix if possible, but if not the ultimate fix is digging out along the foundation and sealing the outside of the concrete in really bad cases.
I'd go with Drylok, it's not super cheap but you can get it at Lowes / Home Depot and see if that works. If you're putting drywall or paneling up over the concrete I'd consider waiting a bit (i.e. wet season) before closing the area off to make sure its stopping all the water so moisture doesn't build up / cause mold.
We just put in 2 Totos, and they seem really solid! We wanted a modern low-flow/efficient that could also work with a Tushy hoo-ha sprayer, and these fit the bill. Replaced two absolutely ancient Eljers. Definite thumbs up, though they were definitely pricier.
Side note: wax rings were, are, and continue to be super gross.
I just want to emphasize this advice because I almost made the same mistake. We finished our basement and I was going to seal the inside concrete like you suggested, but thank God I was getting estimates before I did it. My contractor explained if you seal it like that, the water still enters your concrete from the outside, but can't finish traveling though the wall itself and gets trapped. Over time it'll build up and all the notice you're going to get is the wall ultimately failing.
We ended up going with this vapor barrier stuff that'll prevent moisture and mold.
Are you painting the bare concrete or framing out drywall? I think those require different treatments and this is something you may want to spend the money to get one of those basement water companies to look at before you just seal it up and hope for the best.
Yeah Drylok is the thing I've heard of before. Definitely need to get some extra dirt to fix the grading too, that's probably the real issue?
Just has concerned me because the puddle that shows up seems to happen at sort of random times and is right under our breaker box which is not where I want water to be!
It also depends on how you're dealing with water outside of the house. Maybe your downspouts are terminating too close to the foundation, do you even have gutters (I thought this was code everywhere, but learned otherwise in this thread a year back), maybe the yard isn't graded properly and the soil next to your foundation saturates with water because it's too low.
I will take some pictures when I get home later, probably easier that way.
I had 3 different foundation repair companies, Thrasher included, come out last Spring and scare the fuck out of me and try to get me on the hook for $40k of bullshit, and it was only their constant sniping each other and having my two BiL's, who do construction, look at it and tell me they were all full of shit.
I run a dehumidifier in the basement constantly and in a couple years we'll dig up the foundation and reseal it on the outside.
(Pics of basement water)
We've been here about 3-4 months now and have only seen water in there three times, so it's not super bad but something I wanna fix for sure. Definitely need to get dirt and work on the grading above it, just wondering what else to do inside.
I have an office area on the other side of the wall to the right of these pictures and that room i've never seen water in, but I also run a dehumidifier in there constantly since my computer is in there. Wonder if I should move the dehumidifier to a more central location and stick the tube down the drain rather than emptying the bucket on occasion?
The last thing you want to do is plaster over it and forget about it. The previous owners could get away with that because the house was so new but you don't have that luxury anymore. The longer you sit on that, the more expensive it's going to get.
I may have missed some stuff but when you say drain, there a proper sump pump down there or is there just a sewer/septic tank drain in a bathroom or something? Never had a basement before until the house we are in now but water is best away, or to go up (pump), out and away to a lower level of he property.
Best if you can stop it from getting in, but as others have said, you don't want to trap it in the walls. Outside check to make sure there's nothing above the foundation; dirt, plants, etc. Ideally everything should slope away from the house.
Your dehumidifier plan is good, maybe get another one and run both. Especially if there could be flooding again, you'll want as many as you can.
inject an epoxy resin that fills cracks all the way through the full thickness of the wall to the exterior, which protects the concrete from any more water damage. Definitely a lot more practical and a hell of a lot cheaper than digging the exterior foundation walls to waterproof. You still should fix any grading/downspout issues though too.
I mean at the start of the video he spends time saying that the best idea is to take care of as much on the outside as you can to prevent any water from coming in before sealing the inside.
*edit*
Also the real fix to his foundation is to jack up the house and replace the entire thing because cement over fieldstone sucks but because he's not having major issues with water that's probably not justified for the cost.
Yeah there is a pressurized epoxy from the surface that fills the cracks and voids from the inside. There is also something where they drill from the inside and inject epoxy/ sealant along the outside, but at that point I'm not sure if it really saves anything on digging out the whole wall and doing a membrane or sealer / drainage to the sump.
From the pics though and what I read researching our basement I am pretty sure Drylok or anything simple and easy is just a temporary fix. Maybe if drainage outside is substantially improved though it would make enough of a difference.
I had 2 separate large cracks (4 ft each) in my basement that I had a local company come and seal up. They just cleaned up the concrete to get at cracks, drilled 4 injection ports in each, sealed it up and then injected the epoxy. On one of them I saw the epoxy resin come out and harden on the outside, so definitely full protection. Only ran $900 (they charge per foot of the crack), I have to imagine a full digout would be way more than $900 these days, and this is major metro area prices.
Edit: Though for SniperGuys's purposes, I think it would be very difficult for a company to do anything with it in that state. That skim coating is probably covering and trapping all the moisture behind it, which who the hell knows where it's coming in at that point. I'd probably try all exterior water management first and foremost (regrade soil, move downspouts further out or bury them with a farther french drain). After that if it's still leaking then the options are probably dig-out and exterior membrane, or grind off all that skim-coating in the basement and try to figure out the points of intrusion for epoxy injections, both of which are likely expensive, and extremely difficult to DIY.