Plumbers get a lot of calls to fix leaky pipes when in fact the pipe is fine, but the hole the pipe is going through is the actual culprit. In this episode, Adam shares his experience with leaky pipe penetrations and what you can do about them.
Narrator: It’s time once again for the “Crack Man Podcast” hosted by A1 Foundation Crack Repair. I’m Darren Kincaid here with the Crack Daddy himself, Adam Tracy. Adam and The Crack Man Rich have over 30 years’ experience in the construction industry. Rich as over two5 years as the president and founder of A1 Foundation Crack Repair. This podcast provides expert basement waterproofing, concrete repair, and preventative maintenance tips for homeowners and businesses. A1 Foundation’s valuable insight will help avert a disastrous flood within the basement, health problems associated with water infiltration, and protect your biggest investment….your home. The topic of today’s podcast: That leak in my basement, is it a cracked pipe or a leaky pipe penetration?
Narrator: So, Adam, I'll bet plumbers get a lot of calls to fix leaky pipes when, in fact, the pipe is fine, but the hole the pipe is going through is the actual culprit. Am I right?
Adam: You're exactly right. This is a very common area where water starts to come through and into the foundation. And when you have a pipe that goes through a foundation wall, which is, again, the vast majority of them, which will be typically your sewer or septic, and also on the inlet side going to your water main, sometimes you'll have well pipes going through, obviously, if you own a well. And then occasionally, you'll have electrical lines that go through the foundation. So any sort of pipe that goes through the foundation wall we call it a pipe penetration. And a lot of times when you're getting water in the basement, you'll happen to go see around the sewer pipe, for instance, a large dripping area of water that's coming right around the pipe. And, obviously, a leaking pipe, especially a sewer pipe or septic pipe is going to be immediate cause for concern.
So we do get a lot of calls from both plumbers and from homeowners who have contacted the plumber kind of in a panic to see. Oh my gosh. It’s just that my foundation leak is caused by my pipe that burst, somewhere. And so a lot of plumbers will go through and they'll test the system. Either they'll send dye through there or scope to make sure it's the pipe is intact and actually good. And a lot of times this issue presents as an actual foundation leak itself. Now why does this happen?
Well, if you can think of a sewer pipe or a water line going through the foundation, it is obviously going to be a certain diameter. Now when these go through, that hole that they core through the foundation is going to be larger than the pipe. Makes sense. But the problem is that there's a gap there. And that gap can be an 8th of an inch. It could be a half inch depending on how that pipe was routed through. Now most plumbers and builders when this pipe goes through the foundation, they're just going to pack it with a hydraulic cement on the inside and the outside of the wall where the pipe goes through the foundation.
Now that will hold up for some time, but the problem is now you have 3 separate materials going through your foundation. You have the concrete itself. You have a pipe which could be cast iron in an older house. It could be a plastic PVC in a newer home. It could be copper. If it's a water line or a plastic pecs line coming in, and then you have a hydraulic cement, so all these three materials are all going to expand and contract at different rates relative to each other in temperature changes, humidity changes, and in excessive water conditions. So what happens is that ring around the pipe, that little gap that's there, that hydraulic cement tends to break down over time just because of all that expansion and contraction and slight movement breaks it down over time. And all it takes is a little tiny fissure of the hydraulic cement to cause the water to come through onto the inside. How do we fix this?
It's actually a very simple repair. It does not involve digging out your foundation or excavating out the pipes and aligning pipes all the way out to the street. What we'll do is, on the interior foundation, we'll expose that joint between the pipe and the actual foundation walls. We've spent a lot of time really carefully taking out all of that material. Once that void space is exposed, we're able to inject a waterproofing material entirely around the pipe that'll go all the way out to the soil and seal off from the outside. It's also going to bind to both the pipe and to the concrete. So as the expansion and contraction of the materials continues to happen with temperature changes, that material will move with the pipe and the concrete and stay stuck together. And then on the inside, we cap it with a masonry material to make sure that it's all tightened up. These repairs are usually very straightforward, like I said, and all typically come with a warranty against any sort of water coming through there for future issues. So don't need to panic. You're always going to be doing the right thing by making sure that it's not a plumbing issue first. If you happen to see it coming around the pipe, it only happens during rainstorms. It's probably not leaking pipe. It's probably a foundation issue. Call us. We'll be able to help you out and guide you through the issue.
Narrator: Thanks, Adam, for sharing your experience with leaky pipe penetrations and what you can do about them.
Narrator: If you have a basement water problem and think you need a professional, or, if you’d like more information on foundation crack repair and basement waterproofing topics, please visit A1FoundationCrackRepair.com or call Rich at (866) 929-3171. Or you can email Rich at info@a1foundationcrackrepair.com. Thanks for listening and keep that basement dry.