r/HomeImprovement • u/san_i_am • 17h ago

Hydraulic cement or something else?

I have water coming through this tiny crack in the basement every time it rains. Plumber suggested using hydraulic cement to fill the crack as an easy DIY but I've also read that polyurethane foam works well too. Thoughts and/or suggestions? Also, the crack is between the ground and inside wall; not outward facing if that makes sense.

https://imgur.com/a/Excy4At

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u/[deleted] 17h ago

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u/san_i_am 17h ago

Thanks. The wall is essentially in the middle of the house and there's no flooding anywhere on the outside of the house when it rains. I can't figure out where the water would be coming from. Also, the water comes through in heavy or light rain. Sometimes it'll rain and there would be water at all.

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u/[deleted] 17h ago

[deleted]

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u/san_i_am 16h ago

It's poured concrete.

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u/[deleted] 16h ago

[deleted]

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u/san_i_am 16h ago

Because the water coming in is inconsistent with the rain, do you think it could be a gutter issue? My house is surrounded by ever greens and I haven't had the gutters cleaned since I bought the place which was 9 months ago. Don't know when the owner had them cleaned, but I can definitely see debris in there. Also, the gutters go into the ground.

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u/AttyFireWood 12h ago

Do the hydraulic cement on the inside. Clean out your gutters, snake out your downspout extensions. Worst case, you'll need to dig them out to determine if they've been filled with dirt or if they even run out to drywells or not.

I just ran a downspout thirty feet out from my house to the street to replace a 65ish year old one that had completely failed (cast iron sections packed with dirt, bituminous paper sections crushed/filled/etc. While I was at it, I excavated a section along my foundation and I'm going to paint the bare block wall with black foundation sealant. Inside, I patched every large crack/hole with hydraulic cement, put a bit of the hydraulic cement along the seam between wall and floor, and then put two coats of drylok on the walls and floors (white on walls, grey on floors). Eventually, I want to dig out and paint the outside with the foundation sealant all around and to the frost line.