Water under house.
Discussion
We have a 60s built semi and have been in it now for about 3 years. A year ago after a period of heavy rain I noticed water under the floors. We have a void of about a foot between concrete slab and bottom of the joist. Anyway, once the water table dropped, so did the water and over the drier months I've not been overly concerned.
Over the past month we have had some prolonged rain and the smell of damp once again prompted me to look under the floor. Again the water was back, about 2 inches in a couple of areas. All of my access to under the floor is at the front with carpets being easily pulled up. The back is stone/wood flooring.
I bought a pump and took out 100 litres of water from 3 inspection areas but once I cleaned back the silt on the bottom, I've noticed that there is a hairline fracture of the concrete pad running across at least 4 or 5 foot and likely goes further. I managed to drain the water all out but at this fracture, the water slowly seeps back through. We are on a layer of solid clay which drains slowly.
I went back later in the day to find it back up to an inch at the fracture point, the water being very cold and very clear.
Any ideas what to do? I'm stripping the front lounge next spring and planned to pull up the floor in that room anyway. Hopefully it'll confirm its coming from that fracture rather than anything from the rear as the kitchen stone floor is recent. This obviously has been happening for a number of years as there are many rusted floorboard nails on the concrete. Surprisingly, the timbers under the floor apart from some salty deposits, look good with no rot as yet.
Over the past month we have had some prolonged rain and the smell of damp once again prompted me to look under the floor. Again the water was back, about 2 inches in a couple of areas. All of my access to under the floor is at the front with carpets being easily pulled up. The back is stone/wood flooring.
I bought a pump and took out 100 litres of water from 3 inspection areas but once I cleaned back the silt on the bottom, I've noticed that there is a hairline fracture of the concrete pad running across at least 4 or 5 foot and likely goes further. I managed to drain the water all out but at this fracture, the water slowly seeps back through. We are on a layer of solid clay which drains slowly.
I went back later in the day to find it back up to an inch at the fracture point, the water being very cold and very clear.
Any ideas what to do? I'm stripping the front lounge next spring and planned to pull up the floor in that room anyway. Hopefully it'll confirm its coming from that fracture rather than anything from the rear as the kitchen stone floor is recent. This obviously has been happening for a number of years as there are many rusted floorboard nails on the concrete. Surprisingly, the timbers under the floor apart from some salty deposits, look good with no rot as yet.
33q said:
We had this problem with our house 28 years ago.
After much debate and tooing and froing with NHBC they agreed to remove the wooden suspended floors and install concrete with a floating insulated deck on top. All the services run in accessible ducts within the insulation layer.
We had up to 4 inches of ground water when it was wet weather. The underside of the floors and joists were soaking. Humidity in the house was very high and on opening the loft hatch in cold weather it felt like it was raining in the loft the condesation was so bad. We had mildew on clothes......total nightmare for about 18 months.
We had to endure 7 weeks of builders and a portacabin outside but it has all been worth it.
Our neighbours have the same problem....not so bad...but their house feels very humid. They deny it is a problem.
It cost £17500 plus VAT in 1991. Had we had to pay it ourselves....no idea on how to fund it etc....NHBC stumped up the full cost but we lived upstairs during the works....they refused alternative accomodation
How come the BC paid for it? After much debate and tooing and froing with NHBC they agreed to remove the wooden suspended floors and install concrete with a floating insulated deck on top. All the services run in accessible ducts within the insulation layer.
We had up to 4 inches of ground water when it was wet weather. The underside of the floors and joists were soaking. Humidity in the house was very high and on opening the loft hatch in cold weather it felt like it was raining in the loft the condesation was so bad. We had mildew on clothes......total nightmare for about 18 months.
We had to endure 7 weeks of builders and a portacabin outside but it has all been worth it.
Our neighbours have the same problem....not so bad...but their house feels very humid. They deny it is a problem.
It cost £17500 plus VAT in 1991. Had we had to pay it ourselves....no idea on how to fund it etc....NHBC stumped up the full cost but we lived upstairs during the works....they refused alternative accomodation
The sump pump has been suggested, but how noisy are these? I'd also have to consider how i'd get it into the drains as they run at the rear of the property. It'd mean taking it under the stone floor in the kitchen.
I must admit, my first thought would be to dig a large soakaway in the front garden (lowest point on the property) and hope that it lowered the water enough not to be a problem, then look at sealing the cracks in the pad. I'm hoping its just settlement rather than anything serious (no vertical cracks in the brickwork but some of the plaster in the house has a few cracks in it).
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