This past week we received a call from a premier real estate investment company that has a basement leak behind their finished basement walls in their corporate offices. I suggested that they open the wall so we could see what part of the granite block wall was leaking. They opened the wall and saw water seeping and squirting from the blocks. The investment company decided that they would try to stop the leaks themselves. Within...

Right now, our most common call regarding water in the basement is people who are finding water at the bottom of their bulkhead steps in the basement. Water is coming in from the snow melt right now. With the snow melting, the water is often coming in from the top of the bulkhead door where it meets the concrete. The way you can see that is to simply feel the wall or seam at the...

We have been running into the problem of water leaks under finished walls quite a bit lately. In an apartment building in Waltham, we had this situation in a "garden level apartment". This is an apartment that is mostly below grade. It was freezing out and they said the water was coming from below the finished wall. This didn't make too much sense. When we got there, the only way we could see what was...

Do you remember how good your concrete floor looked when it first was installed? So fresh looking and free of cracks? If it could only stay that way forever. As concrete ages it will it start showing signs of wear and tear. But it IS possible to stave off the effects of aging and the elements by low cost prevention methods. Here’s the primary culprit: water. Concrete spalls and decays due to water penetrating the...

We got a call the other day when the outside temperatures were about zero degrees. The homeowner told us that their bulkhead was leaking. With zero degrees outside, the snow is frozen and the ground is frozen, we knew there were no leaks from outside causes. So we had to figure out what happened through over-the-phone trouble shooting. Our first question was if they had an outside faucet on that side of the house that...

We get a lot of calls this time of year from homeowners because the sump pump has stopped working. There are six main reasons why sump pumps shut down. Electrical problem - you need to be sure that the pump is getting electricity. Check the fuse or circuit breaker to make sure it is not tripped. Plug something into the outlet to be sure it works. Your sump pump may have a "test" button as...

Recently we were called in by a previous customer who had just built a new house. He had a floor crack in his new cement basement floor and had some water coming up through it. He was wondering if he should put in a sump pump or should he have the floor crack repaired. Our recommendation was to put in a sump pump. We broke the floor, dug down, put a sleeve in, and put...

Foundational wall leaks have always been a common issue for homeowners. Especially during periods of heavy rain or snow melt. Foundation wall leaks can wreak havoc on your basement. Basement wall leaks, can happen in a couple different areas of your house for a few different reasons, and many repair options prove to be ineffective. Ineffective DIY attempts that fail include hydraulic cement, Flex Seal (as seen in TV), or tar. These methods tend to...

There is a lot of snow in and around Boston. In fact, many areas have at least 36" of snow that will eventually melt. This equals over 3" of water. This means that there will be over 3" of water sitting on the ground when this melts and we are expecting more. Not only are we going to have more water and snow, there is we also need to consider the snow on the roof...

Bulkhead leak problem: Last night, I received a call for a woman in Nashua, NH that was having water entering her foundation from the seam between the bottom step of her bulkhead and the concrete floor. She told me that her husband had tried to stop the foundation leak with hydraulic cement that had failed. I questioned the homeowner about the bulkhead leak and found out that as soon as they wet vacuumed it up,...