In this episode, Adam Tracey (aka the “Crack Daddy) shares the story about the mysterious source of soaked carpet in a finished basement. Listen and enjoy!
Narrator: It’s time once again for the “Crack Man Podcast” hosted by A1 Foundation Crack Repair. We’re here with the Crackman himself, Rich Comeras. Rich has 30 years of experience in the construction industry and over 20 years experience as the President and founder of A1 Foundation and Crack Repair Inc. His podcasts 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 within the basement, and protect your biggest investment….your home. The topic for today’s podcast: The Case of the Mysterious Soaked Carpet in a Finished Basement.
Narrator: Today we are joined again by foundation crack repair expert, the “Crack Daddy” himself, Adam Tracey. Adam, you have a very interesting case study to share with us today, just like you did last week. Something about a mysterious water leak that soaked a customer’s finished basement.
Crack Daddy: Yes, we got a phone call from a man in Andover. A lot of time we’ll get these calls where owners will notice water coming in. They see water spotting on the walls. In this case it was in their daughter’s room. The room is down in the basement and the daughter noticed that there was some water in the corner of the room at the bottom of the house. So we pulled the carpet back and found that there was quite a bit of water under that carpet. We obviously needed to find the source of the water leak. So the first thing to do is to go outside and see if we can determine an obvious sign of the water leak source. We saw a few areas that may be a cause for concern.
Ultimately the owner had opened up some walls to find out where the flaw was. He some things in there that showed signs of water coming on over a period. So we said now that you think you’ve isolated the problem area, let’s run some water on the outside to confirm your findings.
But no water came in and we were initially confused as to why no water had come in from the outside. So a couple of days of testing went by and in the meantime we had a heavy rain. We saw water was coming in but it wasn’t coming in from the corner but rather way up the wall from the corner. So it was running down the wall to the corner because no floor is perfectly level.
Eventually we followed the leak far up the wall and into a space beneath the stairs in a long-forgotten crawl space. We found water emerging from a long-forgotten sump pump that had not had any attention for years. The sump pump was not working so we concluded this was a simple fix. We’d get in there and replace the broken pump. So we did that, closed the case, and everything worked fine for a couple of weeks.
We got a call a couple of days ago and he said he sees water coming in again. Come to find out that the water that was coming into the room, a milky white substance, which confused us because ground water is usually clear. So we returned to the sump pump pit and noticed the similar looking milky substance so we had to figure out where this was coming from. I asked if he’s had any construction going on in the house in the past couple of days. He said yes, he’s had a painter in the house recently. I asked him where is he washing his brushes which he answered in the upstairs tub. Sure enough, what was happening was that the water was getting underneath the floor and flooding the sump pump basin. So we called a plumber in who used a scope to confirm that the sewer line going out to the street was completely blocked. So it is not unusual to discover that water leaks are not foundational problems at all. Plumbing problems occur that often mask themselves as foundation problems.
Narrator: Wow, what a complicated problem and fantastic diagnosis. What if you had not had the white paint indicator. Do you have a process where you put die in the water to troubleshoot this type of thing?
Crack Daddy: The next step would have been to have a plumber come in and scope the plumbing lines. We had eliminated the foundation as the source of this problem.
Narrator: All right, Adam. Thank you for sharing this information about an interesting challenge that epitomizes A1 Foundation and Crack Repair’s service before self-attitude. If you have a basement water problem and think you need a professional, or, if you’d like more information on foundation repair and 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.