In this interesting case study, Adam explains why a homeowner might find a mysterious water puddle in their basement every morning. Is it a phantom or something equally sinister? The CrackDaddy explains.
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 25 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: Why is there a puddle in my basement every morning?
Narrator: So, Adam, what are we talking about here? A Phantom water problem like an apparition in the night, the water appears, dissappears and reappears again in the morning. What's going on here?
Adam: Oh, it's not ghosts, that's for sure. We get this call, usually a handful of times a year, where somebody’s complaining that on their concrete foundation, they're getting the water and they see it every day. It’s really kind of an investigation. Well, how can this happen?
For instance, right now, we're kind of in a current dry period where we haven't had a lot of rain, but we'll have a customer call us and say, I go down every morning to maybe do my workout, grab my laundry, and there's always a puddle there. And by the end of the day, it kind of evaporates away, but I know it's coming through this foundation area, it's coming through a crack or a pipe penetration. But I don't understand why it's leaking like this.
Are you near wetlands? Are you in a high-water table area? Are you seeing water in other places? And typically, the answer is, no, but sometimes it could be. Then when we kind of rule everything out, it tends to end up being, well, do you have a lawn sprinkler irrigation system? And that usually is followed by, oh yeah, I do. And these go off very early in the morning, usually, somewhere between 3 and 5 AM for most homeowners in New England.
So when they go down to the basement, they see water coming in. A lot of times, it's actually from a misaligned sprinkler head, and maybe it was not, maybe it was malfunctioning and it's pointing directly towards the house, dumping tens of gallons, if not more, hundreds of gallons in that area. Super saturating the soil, which is great for the grass, but not so great for that foundation. Then you're seeing that water leak everyday. So, while you may have a very unique situation that water is coming through the foundation on a daily basis, even without rain, a lot of times you have to understand, well, why is that happening?
In many cases, it's either broken pipe from the water main, or in this case, misaligned sprinkler heads. So, part of the repair is fixing the wall crack, making sure that water won't get in on another occasion, but also contacting the irrigation company to fix that sprinkler head. So, one, you're not damaging your house from over spraying and getting under the siding, and, making sure that you're actually spraying the grass where it's trying to get wet.
Narrator: Well, thanks, Adam, for explaining why a homeowner might find a mysterious water problem in their basement every morning.
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.