The mortar around my septic line has crumbled where is goes through the block wall and is now leaking in ground water. I am looking for an easy solution (if there is one) because I built shelves around it and it is hard to get to. Do you all think that the expanding spray insulation would hold out water? And surely it wouldn't crack my drain pipe??

Any other ideas?

clean out the crumbling mortar and hydraulic cement ,but the real issue is the water outside

clean the gutters , pitch the stuff away , something so you don't have water wanting to come in

I would repair at the source. Dig up outside and seal with hydraulic cement. Tar would work too. Clean out any loose material and clean up as good as you can before. Spray foam is temporary at best and not repairing outside still lets water into the wall cavity.

do you have a heavy clay soil ?

do you have a sump pump?

is your sum pump running day and night ?

Thanks guys. Good advice.

Pete - No sump pump. Basement has a drain. Heavy clay soil - YES

Nothing you do on the inside will stop the water . if you seal around the pipe on the is it will leak in the center of blocks .hate to say it but your gonna have to dig outside and dry it out and tar it up good. Gonna be hard to do today with all the rain but you probably all ready know lol

my parents and grand parents live in heavy clay

both had 2 sup pumps , and always kept the gutters clean and use pipe or old fire hose to get them 10+ feet away from the house.

even in a sever drought they have one pump run at least once a day

they have about 10 inches of top soil before read clay and when digging for an addition at 8 feet started hitting blue clay .clay that has yet to be oxidized by air that would turn it red.

good pitch away from the the house 3-4 inches over 10 feet minimum

gutters to get water away from the house

my parents did a decorative gravel for 6-8 feet out from the front of the house under it is 3 layers of plastic and it all pitches away from the house
they would get fast heavy storms that would overflow the gutters ability to move rain out

their backyard holds water every spring it seems just not a good place for it to go

they get 100 year rains every other year , I tried to explain that makes them every other year rains ,but the news calls them hundred year rains

Water plug or hydraulic cement will work.

Alright. I guess I know what to do. Not what I wanted to hear guys but appreciate the input. I will start digging. Just not today - Like concrete man said - we just had an inch of rain.

Think radon gas also can you tar the walls?

I will look into that Law Dog. Hadn't ever given radon a thought.

"LEAK IN BASEMENT"---Something you never hear a southerner say.

but there sure are a lot of them complaining about burst pipes , you get a lot less of the burst pipes if you keep them in the basement.

We bought a hose in 1975 that had a wet basement. An old field tile line used to run through where this house was built and was not properly closed off in the two lots north of us. We have clay. We dug all the way around the house, put in a tile line into a sump and tar and gravel. We also put a line in the floor on the inside, (copper pipe) that goes into the sump. We put in a large dry system with humidifier with the sump pump. Our basement is block and it used to sweat a lot but now we have that dry as well. We have gutters with rollup extenders that release rain water out from the house over 6 feet. Window well covers etc. are all needed as well. Tremendous amount of pressure is created by water in heavy soils, which is why wells work if we are looking on the bright side of things too. Water will seek the easiest path or create one.

Bryce

Fixed a lot of leaks in manholes below water table with a product called AV202 by Avanti. Its a resin that expands upon contact with moisture. Usually want to patch everything tight with a hydraulic cement. Drill a hole through it and pump it in. Fill the hole with a dowel or something. The hollow block complicates things. I might even drill a hole all the way through the block, sleeve the hole and pump the resin to the outside of the block. Beats digging.

A lot of issues with water near the foundation can be solved by putting extenders on the end of your downspouts, so that the water doesn't just sink in the gravel near the foundation.

Keith

Lots of good ideas!! Thanks again for all the input. What a great place to ask questions. Be hard pressed to find a profession or problem that at least a few guys on here couldn't answer questions about.

Basements rare in the south? If so, why? Water table?