Good afternoon.

I recently moved into an older house, built in 1977, that has what appears to be a cinder block wall foundation. Not sure how to describe it, but at about the 5’ level from the foundation floor, the cinder block top is “exposed” while the rest of the wall goes up to ceiling level behind the exposed row of blocks. I am not sure if the blocks sit on the foundation itself.

Though our home inspector saw no evidence of water intrusion, during moderate to heavy rains, there is some mild seepage in some areas where the block and foundations join, and one area has a small pooling of water. The seepage is on 2 of the 4 sides of the house; the other 2 sides remain dry (for now). When I look into the exposed cinder block openings on those sides of the building with a flashlight, I see some level of water sitting in the blocks on the seeping sides of the wall – the other sides, the exposed blocks are dry at the bottom. The blocks throughout the basement were obviously dry-lokd, which should have clued me in during the inspector process.

The grade on those sides of the house needs some work, and one side sits near a large deck that has no under-deck drainage, so heavy pooling occurs. I assume that proper grading under the deck, though seemingly difficult, would help with the seepage on that side of the house. Same with the other side (yard sloping, it was obviously graded years ago, but has deteroriated).

Time for my main question: assuming that the grading does not help with the seepage, what would happen if I poured a concrete mixture into the exposed cinder blocks in the basement? Would that effectively seal the blocks from water intrusion, or would that only make the problem much worse – as any groundwater would look for another point of entry and possibly force incredible force on/thru the foundation? I have no idea how deep the blocks go, or if they sit on the foundation – or what the typical construction at the time, with that material, was.

I’ve also looked at Hydro-Seal 75 as a possible addition to the blocks to combat the seepage, though it doesn’t solve the water in the blocks issue. The concern, along with the seepage issues, is a mold hazard as I have young kids in the house. Doesn't look to be an issue currently.

Thanks for any input.

v/r,
Chris

Your right, this is not a new issue if someone tryed using Dri-Loc.
90% of stopping the water from coming in is done on the outside.
The idea way is to install a french drain and seal the outside of the wall with foundation sealer, It looks like a thick tar.
There has to also be working gutters with down spouts with down spouts leading as far as possible. And Regrading to get that water away from the house.

Thanks for the reply Joe. I will surely work on the regrade - trying to figure out how to do it around the deck without ripping it out.

Thanks.

Can you post a picture of it?

I'll take some pictures tomorrow ... good idea.