Gyroscopic Investing

Next year will be 40 years I've owned my home.

For about 85% of those years when the snow melts in late February or early March I get water in my basement. Only about an inch.

15% of those years I get no water during those time periods.

Only twice in those 40 years have I ever had water in the basement aside from those time periods.

One was last July when we had three weeks of intense rain almost every day.

It seems to clearly not be a rain issue but a snow melt issue.

The street above mine is about 15 to 20 feet above mine and all the property above me and mine slopes downward to the back of my house's foundation.

Our theory is that when that snows melts too fast the ground below is still frozen about three feet from the surface so the water just flows towards my concrete block foundation.

Otherwise when it is raining the rain goes straight through as I am in a sandy soil location.

The other theory of where the water is coming into the basement is that is occurring where the concrete basement floor meets the bottom of the concrete block foundation.

The suggested remedy I've most believed in is that the property should be regraded behind my house so that the ground slopes downward about 8 to 10 feet, away from my foundation.

That seems to be the first thing that would have the greatest effect.

The question is how much gutters would help since it is NOT a rain issue. The problem is almost exclusively confined to when the snow is melting.

Today someone was here to give me a quote. She noted that I have gullies or erosion next to my foundation around the entire perimeter of the east and west sides (the way the roof slopes) of my house.

As a result of all this water rolloff and then splashing on to the foundation there is practically no paint left on the foundation from when it was painted in 1995. Except on the south side where it looks almost like it was painted yesterday and almost all the paint is still intact 26 years later.

So finally the questions.

1) I initially went into this attempting to reduce the amount of water infiltrating my basement. Now I'm wondering if I need a gutter system to protect my foundation from outer wear.

2) Do any of you have any experiences, positive or negative, with any of the national gutter companies, e.g, LeafFilter, LeafGuard?

Any of you have had water in your basement and which you were able to remedy? At this point I'm first looking at the ways to keep the water away from the foundations on the outside.

This probably won’t be of much help, but

yankees60 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 30, 2022 9:26 pm Any of you have had water in your basement and which you were able to remedy?

Yes, but in my case the problem turned out to be a brick wall near the roof. i had the brickwork touched up and the whole wall coated with waterproofing. Roof is is in good shape with a new silver-aluminum coating.

Look into getting a french drain installed where those gullies are forming, it will capture the water where it naturally flows and get it away from the house. When they're installed properly they're a water barrier. If you did a french drain and gutters you could connect the gutter downspout to an underground pipe buried with the french drain and pipe it away from the house and only need to dig one trench for both.

+1 My neighbor put in a french drain and it has helped immensely. her, not me

PrimalToker wrote: ↑Fri Apr 01, 2022 12:11 pm
Look into getting a french drain installed where those gullies are forming, it will capture the water where it naturally flows and get it away from the house. When they're installed properly they're a water barrier. If you did a french drain and gutters you could connect the gutter downspout to an underground pipe buried with the french drain and pipe it away from the house and only need to dig one trench for both.

I had someone show up yesterday who I was almost ready to sign on the spot.

He pointed out the pros and cons of gutters ... in my case there could be more negative than positive to them.

I got him there to discuss doing significant regrading of my property. Instead of all the current positive slopes heading to my foundation, he'd make them negative slopes. On each side of the house he would put barrels in the ground to collect the water headed in each direction.

Finally, because he'd be having all his equipment there it made sense for him to also remove the stumps from 10 bushes and two trees and grind the stump of another tree.

The gutters could solve some of my problems but they could cause some of their own problems by themselves doing damage to the roof with ice buildup in them.

I have no need for gutters during the year when it rains. They would only be of value during the late February / early March time when they'd prevent the snow melt on the roof from falling alongside my foundation.