How Does Water Get Inside My Basement?

• Wall Cracks

Check your basement walls for any cracks. Concrete is already a permeable material, but water passes through even easier if the material is cracked.

The soil of Charlotte, NC, is called Cecil soil, which contains a lot of clay eight inches below the surface. Clay soils are known for expanding when saturated with water and retaining it. This means that the soil that surrounds your foundation is almost always wet and filled with water. If the wall is cracked, then the groundwater will seep through.

• Foundation Cold Joints

If your wall doesn’t have any cracks, then the water will come from the most naturally vulnerable parts of the wall: the joints. When concrete begins to harden, any new concrete that is poured on it will not stick, leaving a gap between the new batch and the old batch.

When there is a delay between pouring the different sections of the foundation (the floor and the walls), the joints will naturally be the weakest parts because the different sections aren’t really “stuck together.” This is called a cold joint. Because of cold joints, any groundwater surrounding your foundation can seep in through the different wall joints or any wall-floor joint.

• Basement Window

Basement windows are usually right next to your yard’s soil; so, when it rains, if the soil is saturated with water, it will all leak through the window. You can usually tell the window is the culprit if the wall under the window is wet with moisture from the leaks.

Basement windows, especially those made of wood, tend to get warped over time with exposure to moisture. The wood gets bent out of shape, and gaps start to form along the frame, which only makes it easier for water to pass through.

• Pipes and Broken Machines

Your basement is home to the pipes that are part of the plumbing system. If any one of the pipes ever burst, then you’ll have a leaking problem on your hands. Too much water, and it turns into an all-out flood.