I've got a poured foundation basement wall that has a settling crack in it from floor to sealing. It leaks a little bit during major rain storms - usually just a small puddle and then it dries up. It was originally found when a corner of the carpet in the basement was found to be damp/wet, so after the drywall behind it was removed, I found the area that had been patched previously and apparently it had been stable for perhaps a period of at least 3 or 4 years, maybe longer.
Last year a contractor chipped away the old patch up to about 4 feet - and sealed the crack with what appeared to be a gray hard epoxy like sealant out of a caulking gun. It held for nearly a year but began to leak again, just a small puddle so nothing major.
I chisiled and cleaned it all off down to the bare poured concrete wall and applied a fairly thin layer some hydraulic cement - but after applying it realized it wasn't meant for trowling on the outside but rather to put into hollowed out cracks. It was a thin layer but looked solid so I found another hydraulic cement product called Dry Lok and it IS meant to be trowled on the outside to seal leaks, such as cement or cinder block basement walls. It was easier to work with and I applied a layer over the other hydraulic cement, but later it appeared that was incompatible with it.
I found by tapping on it it sounded hollow like it was not bonded solid to the previous surface - and sure enough, it was easily chipped off and spauled away and took with it most of the hydraulic cement I had put down. Lesson learned, don't put incompatible materals over each other.
So clearly I'll need to clean off the surface of the poured foundation wall so it is a clean hard surface to apply an good layer of a patch on it. Does anyone have experience with and can recommend what is the best kind of patch?
The old patch looks like really good stuff - in it's dry state, it looks like a very hard cement like product, light olive greenish in color, a bit of a grainy texture as if it may have had a filler like a grit in it, but it is glossy smooth and very hard. In contrast, the hydraulic cement I applied dried with a grainy gritty non-glossy texture, very different. Anyone have any idea what the glossy olive green patch was, or what it is called?
I've been to home depot and looked around to see what patch materals they have but haven't been able to identify the type of patch substance used originally, which looks like it would work much better and hold for several years at least.
Can anyone comment on it? Of course probably the best seal would be to dig down on the outside and patch there, but considering it's a fairly tiny leak, a good inside patch should hold for a period of a few years at least. Anyone know of what is the best material or can point me to a good forums regarding this?
Last year a contractor chipped away the old patch up to about 4 feet - and sealed the crack with what appeared to be a gray hard epoxy like sealant out of a caulking gun. It held for nearly a year but began to leak again, just a small puddle so nothing major.
I chisiled and cleaned it all off down to the bare poured concrete wall and applied a fairly thin layer some hydraulic cement - but after applying it realized it wasn't meant for trowling on the outside but rather to put into hollowed out cracks. It was a thin layer but looked solid so I found another hydraulic cement product called Dry Lok and it IS meant to be trowled on the outside to seal leaks, such as cement or cinder block basement walls. It was easier to work with and I applied a layer over the other hydraulic cement, but later it appeared that was incompatible with it.
I found by tapping on it it sounded hollow like it was not bonded solid to the previous surface - and sure enough, it was easily chipped off and spauled away and took with it most of the hydraulic cement I had put down. Lesson learned, don't put incompatible materals over each other.
So clearly I'll need to clean off the surface of the poured foundation wall so it is a clean hard surface to apply an good layer of a patch on it. Does anyone have experience with and can recommend what is the best kind of patch?
The old patch looks like really good stuff - in it's dry state, it looks like a very hard cement like product, light olive greenish in color, a bit of a grainy texture as if it may have had a filler like a grit in it, but it is glossy smooth and very hard. In contrast, the hydraulic cement I applied dried with a grainy gritty non-glossy texture, very different. Anyone have any idea what the glossy olive green patch was, or what it is called?
I've been to home depot and looked around to see what patch materals they have but haven't been able to identify the type of patch substance used originally, which looks like it would work much better and hold for several years at least.
Can anyone comment on it? Of course probably the best seal would be to dig down on the outside and patch there, but considering it's a fairly tiny leak, a good inside patch should hold for a period of a few years at least. Anyone know of what is the best material or can point me to a good forums regarding this?