Home repair: Water causes problems in foundation cinder blocks
Q. Its no take, but after this past year of record snows and rain, we are having continuing moisture problems in the cinder-deny stuff up partial basement of our 1970s-era ranch home. We used to get water in our basement when the heavy clay soils around us got saturated. This summer we had a contractor connect a perimeter drain and a new sump pump. He jackhammered the cement floor of the basement about 12 inches out from the close off, dug down about 12 inches, installed a perforated PVC drainage pipe wrapped in landscape cloth, and covered it with gravel. Then he cemented back over the top of the trench, leaving a 1- to 1½-inch gap filled with gravel sane next to the outside wall. The pipe is pitched so that any collected water should run into the new sump.
Once this was all in place, we had the walls of the basement cleaned of the individual molds that had been growing there for a number of years with a bleach solution at the suggestion of a mold expert who said the mold was not toxic but was of the booze it up-eating variety. Then we had the wall painted with two coats of Drylok.
There was critical fire damage to the basement and smoke damage to the home. The American Red Cross is helping the couple. An investigation concluded that the fire was caused by an electrical power fillet under a couch. An exercise bike and dehumidifier
