So, here’s the deal: my family and I have been living in our house for 9 years now. The house itself is pretty old, built back in 1937. We don’t have a sump system in place, but we’ve set up our downspouts to drain water away from the house. We’ve also made sure to grade the soil along the perimeter of the house wherever we could.
Now, when it comes to water issues, we’ve got a small section of one wall, about 3 feet wide, where the paint looks all bubbly and soft – classic signs of water damage. This spot hasn’t really changed much over the years. Every once in a while, especially after a heavy storm, we’ve noticed water seeping through the cracks in the floor. It usually happens when our gutters are clogged, and the water ends up overflowing instead of draining properly through the downspouts.
Recently, we had a waterproofing company come in to take a look. They recommended a whole bunch of stuff: digging a trench around the entire perimeter of the house, drilling drainage holes in the lower blocks, installing a sump pump, and putting up wall braces on the damaged wall. I thought maybe we could just go with the sump pump, but the company explained that because our house is so old, there isn’t enough gravel underneath for the water to flow towards the sump basin. They also mentioned that without the trenching, they wouldn’t be able to get rid of the water trapped in the blocks along the walls.
Now, I’m sitting here thinking, do we really need to do all of this? Is it all absolutely necessary, or can we hold off on some of these tactics for now? It’s a tough call, and I’m not quite sure what to do.