Vinyl Rain Gutters

Home repair: How to repair seepage in basement

Q. We are experiencing water seepage in the front northeast corner of the basement for the first time in the 13 years we have lived in this house. The basement is constructed of concrete blocks 10 courses high, with a poured-cement floor. This began with the melting of snow and icicles dripping from the gutters at the front of the house, and it has continued with all the rain we have experienced. We have observed that the ground at that corner has a slight dip toward the foundation and that a drip line the width of the gutter is visible in that area. There is also scaling on the concrete blocks up to about the fifth course. The water seems to be coming in from the point where the wall meets the floor and from the concrete blocks up to the second course. There is no bowing of the wall. We are considering the following solutions.

We want to add fill to the area that slopes toward the house so that the ground will slope away. When the wall dries out, paint it with a waterproof masonry paint and seal where the wall meets the floor with some kind of waterproof caulk. Is there a chance this will solve the problem? French drains seem to be too expensive an approach. Does the scaling on the wall create a problem with its integrity? Should it be removed before painting and, if so, how? In addition to adding soil to the low area, would covering it with heavy-duty plastic and adding river rocks to extend four to five feet from the foundation be a better solution? Would the commercial gutters you mention in your column help at the front of the house to lessen the ice backup and icicle melting?

A. Yes. Add fill to raise the low area and fill the trough formed at the drip line below the gutter; it must be coming from overflowing of the gutter. Once you have sloped the grade gently (two inches per horizontal foot is my recommendation), plant grass on it. There should be no need to lay plastic and river rocks, but that is your choice. To prevent gutter overflow, replace the existing gutters with commercial gutters and downspouts. This may eliminate the need for cleaning them regularly, unless you have a huge amount of leaves, in which case you may want to look into DCI’s Flo-Free Leaf Guard gutter covers (www.dciproducts.com).

If the scaling of the concrete blocks is not deep (less than half an inch), there may be no need to do anything about it, but you can remove it and apply a vinyl-reinforced cement patch, such as Top’n Bond. Once you have raised the grade, there may no longer be any leakage, and the water within the blocks’ cores should dissipate.

How to fill in vinyl top rivet holes in rail gutter - Vintage ...

+1 On MIG. If you weld from the bottom the larger bead will be there and easier to access for cleanup. A dremel would be much easier then to use inside the drip rail. Other tools for grinding are a die grinder with a small diameter carbide bit or a cut off tool with several stacked discs. I use a cut off tool. If you use it slowly and delicately it works fine as a narrow width grinder. As a matter of fact, I have holes to fill this coming weekend!

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