These homeowners had just come home from the closing and thought the water in their basement was coming in from the chimney.
They had a plumber come out because the water was right near the furnace and water heater which goes into the chimney.
The plumber said everything was okay. So, I further explored with them over the phone on that Friday night. I asked if the water was coming in from where the floor and wall meet. They tried vacuuming it up, and it was not coming in from that area.
By process of elimination I asked them if there was a "shoe box looking thing" near the furnace. They said there is. That is a condensate pump. When the furnace works, it creates moisture and it goes into this condensate pump and then there is a little pipe that pumps it out when it fills with water.
I had them stick their finger in the condensate pump and see if the little hole was near the top. It is.
I told them to get a glass of water and pour it in until the water reaches the top. There is a float in there that is supposed to go on and pump the water out once it fills. Well, it didn't pump the water out. What was happening was the water from that condensate pump was leaking out onto the floor. Because it was raining outside, they thought there was a leak.
We diagnosed all of this over the phone because we want to be sure it is something we can help customers with and we are happy to help homeowners with their basement water problems.
For more information on basement waterproofing, contact A1 Foundation Crack Repair.