Workshop Flooding

[Vixen]

This is a new topic, all about my workshop flooding problems and my attempts to solve the problem.

Background:  My workshop is inside a brick built 8 x 20 garage located a short distance remote from the house. The ground consists of heavy clay with very poor natural drainage. During the heavy winter rains, the clay soil becomes waterlogged. It then takes days, weeks for the ground water to soak away. Two sides of my garage/ workshop are below ground level and the ground water seeps in through these two walls and floods the floor.

This topic will therefore tell the saga of my attempts to fix the problem.

Mike

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Progress has taken a bit of a hit yet again.

We have just had a couple of days of heavy monsoon like rain and the ground water level has risen. The result is my workshop has flooded again. It's difficult to identify the point or points of entry in order to fix them. It's almost as if the water is coming up though the concrete floor raft.

I am sure it would be easier to fix if the workshop was completely empty, but that's not going to happen. So for the moment, all the loose items are piled up on the benches, while I mop out and wait for the floor to  dry (or soak back through the concrete).

What ever happened to this global warming?

Mike   

[vtsteam]

So for the moment, all the loose items are piled up on the benches, while I mop out and wait for the floor to  dry.....

Oh so familiar... 

[Roger B]

That's a bummer    I hope nothing gets damaged.

[Jo]

Could be worse: (Deceased) Neighbour had a burst Hot water tank which his kids didn't find until 5 days later by which time it had taken down two ceilings and come through the shared chimney onto my lovely Oak floor  so I'm on week 3 with a dehumidifier running in my lounge 

Sound like you are an old hand at sorting it out, soon be fixed 

Jo

[RReid]

Sorry to hear your flooding issue has made a return. That's definitely frustrating, but you are a smart guy and I'm sure you'll find a solution.

[Vixen]

Could be worse: (Deceased) Neighbour had a burst Hot water tank which his kids didn't find until 5 days later by which time it had taken down two ceilings and come through the shared chimney onto my lovely Oak floor  so I'm on week 3 with a dehumidifier running in my lounge 

Sound like you are an old hand at sorting it out, soon be fixed 

Jo

That makes my flooded workshop floor sound trivial. I have nothing at ground level that can get damaged. It's just the inconvenience.

I hope you did not suffer too much flood water and were able to mop it up before it had time to get into the oak flooring. Plank or parkette? Either way, if the wood starts to swell, it can lead to a lot of problems. Hope you were able to save the situation, otherwise you will need to make a claim in the deceased's estate. Not nice.

I thought I had sorted my flood problems after the November inundation. Then, I applied a thick coating of 'cement tanking' over the apparent leaks in the brickwork. That work appears to have held up, the current point of entry seems lower down where the bricks meet the concrete raft. So today, I applied a thick fillet of 'cement tanking' to that area. Time will tell.

I'll move everything back to ground level tomorrow and hopefully it's back to model engine making the day after.

Mike

[Laurentic]

Ouch Jo - that very thing happened to a colleague of mine, to his house that he had rented out prior to selling and moving location.  The renters had moved out without telling him in the middle of a very cold winter.  Damage was horrendous, like you describe, ceilings down, walls needing replastering, furnishings ruined.  Hope the damage to your floor is salvagable, oak flooring sounds very nice.

Chris

[vtsteam]

Mike, fingers crossed it works for you. If it does, I'll follow suit. The water comes in for me at the join with the floor, like your present situation..

[Admiral_dk]

Oh No - not again Mike - I hope that you solve this quickly.

Commiserations to you too Jo - that sounds like a case of Insurance and Builders - hope this goes well too.

Best wishes

Per

[Kim]

Hope you get the leak plugged for good this time, Mike.  Water damage is no fun.  And water is insidious - it will find the smallest of cracks to seep through!

And Jo, I hope your situation gets resolved soon too!

No fun, either of them

Kim

[Jo]

Have you considered digging a drainage channel round the garage to guide the water to the mains drain?

I use to live on clay and it was only after I built my conservatory that I realised the old patio area actually lead the water into the drain cover 

Jo

[Michael S.]

Hi Mike, that sounds like you have to seal the walls from the outside. The walls that are in the ground. This is of course very complex.
I hope you find another solution to the problem.

Michael

[Vixen]

Thank you all for your words of encouragement and helpful suggestions.

If it were easy, and darn fool, including this one, could fix it. However this is a problem with problems. All the easy options have been tried, without success.

My workshop is inside a brick built 8 x 20 garage located a short distance remote from the house. The ground consists of heavy clay with very poor natural drainage. During the heavy winter rains, the clay soil becomes waterlogged. It then takes days, weeks for the ground water to soak away. Two sides of my garage/ workshop are below ground level and the ground water seeps in through these two walls and floods the floor.

The offending outside wall is the boundary to my uncooperative neighbors property. So I am more or less forced into trying to seal the leaks from inside rather than outside. The next problem is my overcrowded workshop. The benches and machinery are against the four walls with a single walkway in the centre. This is the side wall which is giving me the leak problems. Access is very limited. Moving stuff is like a Tetris game, too much stuff and only one small space and it's also heavy for a one man band.





Some years ago (previous neighbor) I dug down and installed drainage pipes around the four sides of the garage/ workshop. Unfortunately, the garage is in a slight dip and the slope of the land prevents the water draining into the main drainage system, water will not flow uphill. All I can do is to let the seepage from the drainage pipes flow onto the patio/path area on the lowest (dry) side of the building. The water then soaks away naturally over a large area.






It has been difficult to identify the point or points where the leaks actually occur. I have been able to identify possible leaks in the brickwork walls above floor level. But leaks at floor level are more difficult as they are obscured by the flood water itself.

After the November inundation, I thought I had sorted my flood problems by applying a thick coating of 'cement tanking' over the apparent leaks in the brickwork. That work appears to have sealed the brickwork walls, however the current point of entry seems lower down where the bricks meet the concrete raft. Yesterday, I applied a thick fillet of 'cement tanking' to that area. The light grey strip , under the cream paneling, is the previous (dried) coating on the brickwork, The lower darker grey strip is the still damp fillet between the wall and the concrete raft.





I had hoped that would fix the problem and today I would move everything back to ground level and hopefully get back to model engine making. Unfortunately, that was not the way it turned out; another 10 gallons of flood water greeted me this morning. So more mopping out with the dry/ wet vacuum cleaner.

Clearly, the water was still seeping in from somewhere, but where?. I noticed the area behind the mill stand was constantly weeping; so I investigated further.





These next two images are looking vertically down at the wall to concrete raft joint. Towards the top you can see the rough coating of dry cement tanking on the wall and a previously applied fillet between the wall and the concrete raft. The water appeared to be seeping from under the fillet. I attacked the fillet with a hammer and chisel and quickly discovered the cement tanking fillet was not adhering to the concrete. It came away cleanly and the water seepage was now very evident







So at last, I have positively identified the leak path and need to decide how best to deal with it. I can also see my future will involve  a big Tetris game to get sufficient access to remove the old (failed) tanking fillet and then what....try again?? Need to think about that. 

I just want to give up and ignore this is happening

Mike

[vtsteam]

I know just how you feel, Mike. I pretty much give up every spring at snow melt-out time. In a few weeks the water recedes, and it's dry for another year. Of course a lot of what is in the shop suffers from humidity. Rust is a battle.

I also put in perimeter gravel, a perforated drain pipe, and sand on top, but like your case, it didn't completely solve the problem.

I think ideallyI would need to dig down again, make an even deeper trench and somehow grade it to a lower location (not easy here). And then hit the outside floor/wall joint with a thick tar coating when the wall is absolutely dry.

Pure portland cement is waterproof as a coating. However it has poor adhesion to already cured cement. I think this is what happened with your "cement tankage". Actually, I don't know what that term means, but I'm guessing it's a Portland cement coating used to seal the inside of water tanks. If so, it would mainly need to be waterproof as a coating but not high strength structurally because it's on the hydronic compression side of the tank wall. It would also be self sealing in that role.

However, if it is put on the tension side of a cellar wall (external water pushing it away from the wall) then less than perfect adhesion will lead to cracks, and then leaks. Four feet of earth outside a wall will probably yield 4 feet of head pressure in the water trying to penetrate the wall at the base. Any pre-existing crack, covered with a coating will probably act as a stress riser, and will get the full head pressure of the water at that level. Cement is brittle.

I think that explains why it is very hard to combat leaks like this from the inside, using a low adhesion brittle coating like cement -- even though it works well in tanks.

[Admiral_dk]

At least you found the Source so to speak Mike ....

As this will rapid deterioate if there is water in the wall itself an the weather then changes to frost ... 

I will have to agree with Steve - you need to dig out the outside of the wall and either replace the defective part with new concrete or add another layer to the outside ...!!!!
All other solutions usually fails after some time and you already has a considerable leak there ....

You might get away with removing the defect part of the wall from the inside with a Bosch / Hilti Hammer - if things where dry enough outside - and do the repair from the inside .... but it would be best to dig the outside.

I'm sorry to tell you something you don't like to hear - but ....

Tar the inside and wait for a dry summer - do the inside removal / reconstruction ... 

Best wishes from here

Per