Leaking basement repair: advice needed

[mommy111]

So our basement leaks from one corner….and it’s a lot. Tried a lot of different things ourselves but nothing works so time to call in a contractor. He thinks it’s the part between where the old foundation meets the new foundation and repairing that he says would involve excavating, sealing, taking off our deck and putting in a new one when everything is done. Also installing downspouts on the roof so that water does not fall right into deck. We have a functioning sump pump already.
the issue is that the contractor gave us a huge estimate…..35k for all.
does that sound normal?

[SnuggleBuggles]

I think I would try and talk to a structural engineer first.


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[mikala]

Definitely get a few estimates. We had a basement leaking issue between old and new foundation and talked to 3 or 4 contractors and their approaches varied wildly, both in approach and $-$$$$. We ended up going with the approach that made the most sense to us/contractor we trusted the most and knock on wood, no leaking since. IIRC the winning estimate was on the medium-low end of all of them but it seemed to better pinpoint the issue than the others.

Part of our solution included gutter extensions away from the house and gutter guards on a large section to keep them from clogging from leaves and sending water over the edge. The contractor also sealed between the foundations and did some structural work.

[hbridge]

Sounds like the estimate includes a new deck on top of the excavating and fixing the problem... If that is the case, the number sound reasonable. However, definitely get a structural engineer to look at it and talk to a few contractors, there may be other ways to handle the issue.

[Kestrel]

Wow, that's a big number.

Do you not have downspouts on the roof already? I might look to do that repair first and see. I'm not quite clear on how you would not have downspouts and water falling on the deck.

[mommy111]

thank you all so much!
so not a new deck but disassembling and reassembling part of the old deck. There are downspouts already but we have multiple roofs at multiple levels so apparently we need more?

[Ceepa]

We have some dampness rather that active leaking. One suggestion we might follow up on is putting clean fill and gravel layers next to the foundation where are yard isn't graded really well.

[carolinamama]

Bottom line, I would recommend getting at least 3 estimates and opinions from different contractors. I'm always surprised that quotes and ideas for a problem can differ so much. Sounds like you definitely want to figure out ways to divert water away from your foundation, however that may be.

[LD92599]

Do you have French drains in addition to the sump pump? If not, start with that and get a quote for French drains!