LESLIE: Now I’ve got Randy in Wisconsin, who is dealing with a wet basement. How can we help you today?
RANDY: Oh, well, I’ve got a problem with water leaking into my basement. And the situation is I’ve got a cinder-block basement and the – right where the rain gutter comes down on one corner of the basement, I’m getting water. It’s just coming in in one little, tiny spot. And it’s always in that same spot and it only seems to happen if we get a lot of rain, a really fast thaw; something like that.
And so, what I’m trying to figure out – I know that there’s companies out there that – they’ll do your whole basement and that costs thousands of dollars. And I’m just looking for a fix that would probably go a foot or two either way out of a corner.
TOM: Well, the good news is, Randy, you don’t need to hire any of those companies that charge you thousands of dollars. A very, very simple problem with a very simple solution.
RANDY: OK.
TOM: As you mentioned, it happens whenever you get a heavy rainfall; it’s right near where you have some rainwater running off. So, do I understand that you have a guttered spout down here, as well?
RANDY: Yes.
TOM: OK. So what you need to do is this. First of all, take a look at the grading, which is the angle of the soil, in that area. Make sure that you add enough clean fill dirt to slope it away, so that you have a drop of about 6 inches over 4 feet, because you want to create proper run-off.
Secondly, and this is the most important thing, you need to make sure that all of your gutters are perfectly clean and free-flowing, that you take that downspout and you extend it out about 4 feet from the corner. If you do those two things, you will keep that soil around the house dry and you will stop the leak, 100 percent, from happening again.
RANDY: Alright.
TOM: Alright? Very simple.
RANDY: Well, that sounds good. I’ll try that.
TOM: Alright, Randy. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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