Damp Basement Floor After Rain

Check that the ground outside slopes away from your house at least 1 inch vertically for every 1 foot of horizontal travel.
Damp basement floor after rain. A flooded basement is never a good thing. Click on the home basement waterproofing link under your question and you will find all kinds of prior questions like yours if this is a basement foundation leakage issue rather than leaking siding or window or roof. If your basement leaks after it rains and you don t have gutters consider adding them. There are dangers of a wet basement that you re probably aware of but are worthy of being mentioned again just in case you re not afraid of these dangers.
Horizontal extensions to move the water away from the house. A flooded basement can cause interior damage and even destroy irreplaceable mementos like your family photo albums or heirlooms that you may have been keeping in storage down there. This can make cracks form in basement concrete particularly in wet seasons and is often why there s water in your basement after rain. Water coming up through the basement floor after heavy rain should be considered as an emergency because it is.
Look for ways runoff can enter your basement or crawl space. However if the dampness is more episodic like after a rain or wet areas regularly appear along walls or floor cracks there s probably significant water pressure against your basement walls. Since grading and adding downspouts hasn t worked installing a drainage system under your concrete slab may be the most effective long term solution. Condensation problems are usually easier to fix than leaks.
A damp crawl space or wet basement walls and floors just after a storm or as snow melts are telltale signs the problem is runoff. With the floors ruined drywall waterlogged and insulation soaked you have hundreds usually thousands of dollars worth of repairs ahead of you. A wet damp or flooded basement will instantly cancel all of your good basement finishing work. Condensation collects in your basement as droplets on any surface when humid air is in contact with it.
Both hydrostatic and lateral pressure push moisture and water leaks into basement walls and floors. If you don t have flows of water after rain or snowfall but you keep finding damp spots in your basement the problem is condensation. Water entry points when groundwater and flooding are the issues causing your basement water problem it can be difficult to identify from where the water is entering the basement. One common basement culprit is a clothes dryer.
Whether you re installing new gutters or already have them be sure the downspouts have 4 to 6 ft. First thing to check is for standing water outside the house during heavy rain or roof runoff getting up against house. Water coming up from the basement floor can lead to big headaches. Meanwhile the water absorbed by the soil that surrounds your foundation causes lateral pressure.