Viewing homes in the areaSubmitted by Ar30la t3_11ebh24 in pittsburgh
Ar30la OP t1_jad03b5 wrote
House was built in 1955 the downspout no longer go into the ground, and this was this morning after the couple of days of rain. I know Pittsburgh homes basement were made before the idea of waterproofing but just want to make sure this is what you guys are used to seeing.
pedantic_comments t1_jad80oy wrote
This is normal and if you live in a house like this you’d just make sure everything drained and run a dehumidifier.
A heat pump, forced air furnace or AC unit running would suck this up in no time. I don’t treat most Pittsburgh basements as living space - you’d have to excavate and waterproof from the exterior to really solve the problem - Drylock on the interior is rarely a good idea.
That being said, lots of homes here have clogged/no gutters and no drainage plan. I kept my basement dry by improving the downspout layout.
Jmyles23 t1_jad9y5l wrote
This is literally what basements in older houses were designed for. Depending on the age and placement of the house, frankly I’d be a little concerned if I didn’t see some water seeping through.
HeyImGilly t1_jad37ur wrote
Pretty par for the course. Gonna need to fix up your drainage and seal the walls. But yeah, as soon as I saw that picture, I could imagine that wet basement smell.
Ar30la OP t1_jad4q63 wrote
Was here Sunday and smelled nothing and came back to look and saw this I knew I was gonna see some water but this
Aggravating_Foot_528 t1_jadnhdx wrote
Sealing the walls is a bad idea. Just keeps the water behind it and will mess up the wall. You gotta either take care of it outside the wall or interior w. a French drain/sump pump
Bolmac t1_jad4go2 wrote
In that case you really don’t know if there is a significant problem or not until the downspout is fixed. This might be simple and cheap to resolve.
PeanutHakeem t1_jada7z0 wrote
just my opinion but that water looks like its seeping in from all 4 walls. A broken downspout could account for one wall or corner flooding but not water coming in from all sides.
Bolmac t1_jadbqwa wrote
What I see is that there is enough water to cover much of the floor, and as such the picture does not tell us where it is coming from. For example, the raised part of the floor next to the wall on the left is dry. It is still quite possible that all the water we see on the floor flowed in from one place.
PeanutHakeem t1_jadg9s8 wrote
You may very well be correct. We are both just guessing based on the pic which as you mentioned, isn’t much to go on.
Ar30la OP t1_jadvn6x wrote
At first I thought It was my main drain in the middle of the basement and there was water there but it’s also in the corners of the walls
lil_thirteen t1_jadbv7a wrote
I will say… it’s best to tour houses during rainy days since you can get a better sense of drainage!
SuperRocketRumble t1_jadcs7q wrote
I would say that no, this is not normal for a house built post World War II.
It’s a lot more common in much older houses with natural stone foundations.
kniki217 t1_jadlluc wrote
Right? Everyone saying that is normal for a house built in the 50s? I have a finished basement. I had water come in once the entire time I've lived in my house and it was while the entire region was flooding from crazy amounts of rainfall. My grandma's house was the same. One time from hurricane Ivan. My parents basement is semi-finished and the entire time we lived there we never had issues until the yard was dug up to replace a busted sewage pipe. The company that did it messed up the French drain and now they are getting water in the one corner but it's slightly damp block. Not flooding the basement.
SuperRocketRumble t1_jadqr21 wrote
Yea, maybe just a lot of folks used to living in 100+ year old houses?
I’m not an expert by any means, but I would be concerned about that much water in a 1950s basement if it were my place.
skfoto t1_jaeba3g wrote
I grew up in a house built in 1925. My parents now live in a house built in 1926 and I currently own one built in 1923.
None of these houses have ever had a drop of water enter the basement.
If your house is old enough to have a natural stone foundation and/or dirt floor basement, sure, expect some water. But any house with a modern foundation and poured concrete basement floor should not regularly have water coming in.
BorisTheMansplainer t1_jaekcpb wrote
What if the basement floor is a 1-inch slab poured over dirt? ;)
The house is a hundred years old and the basement frequently got water, but redirecting surface water got rid of everything but the summer humidity from being in contact with soil.
turp101 t1_jaec1pn wrote
A lot of it depends on where your house is compared to the path of water. I have been in lots of 40s-50s houses with wet basements. Probably more than 75% of the ones I go in have some moisture. Drainage tile was still kind of new then, and lots of it has failed. It wasn't until you got into the 60s and 70s that homes seem to have gotten a lot dryer in general. The post-war era was really just the beginning of standards in the building industry so there is a lot of variance.
PirinTablets13 t1_jae18ga wrote
Yeah, our house has a natural stone foundation (~160 years old) and even with floor drains, french drains, and a dehumidifier, the basement is perpetually a little damp.
JAK3CAL t1_jadeht3 wrote
This has been mild compared to everyone I’ve ever lived in here. Sump pumps are your friend; and everything goes up on pallets or cinder blocks.
I rented a house in mt Washington that basically had an active river through the wall of the basement lol.
Aggravating_Foot_528 t1_jadnaml wrote
Or stolen milk crates. They make a good shelf. And you can turn one over for height and put another one on top right side up as a basket Not that I know.
JAK3CAL t1_jadvguq wrote
I have probably 50+ turner tea orange crates and they aren’t stolen; I found a business who throws them away and offered them to me. Incredibly useful (keep in mind I lived on a farm here so I’m not taking about a normal residential property lol). But everyone should grab some!
Red_Scare867 t1_jadpv7g wrote
If you buy this house I’d definitely get that post inspected. Older support posts are hallow steel posts and this one has obvious signs of rust which could lead to problems down the road.
Ideally you’d have a footing poured to raise the bottom of the replacement concrete-filled post off of the ground to avoid the replacement rusting.
turp101 t1_jaebisx wrote
Fairly appropriate.
If you look to have a perimeter drain put in, I have used the companies below previously and you can take my comments however you want. Always talk to at least 3 companies around here, 5 is better. I have fixed water issues from things as simple as running all downspouts to the low-grade end of the house to $20k repairs. You would be amazed at the # of options you can get.
>Bakers: Good work, not horrible pricing
>Keystone: The most expensive you will find
>Basement Guys: Decent price, decent work
>Advanced: Decent price, decent work
>Premiere: Good pricing, questionable work
[deleted] t1_jad5ubm wrote
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hooch t1_jaeg3r0 wrote
I don't think that's par for the course as far as houses built then. My house was built in 1950 and I absolutely do not have this problem.
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