Hello, this concerns a single-family house built in 1973. In the basement, several walls in different rooms are damp.
The likely cause is improperly diverted rainwater, because the previous owner sealed off a large drain pipe from the roof, causing all the rainwater to be discharged at four points onto the lawn about 2 meters (6.5 feet) from the house. The roof area is 270 m² (2,906 ft²), with 135 m² (1,453 ft²) per side. According to my calculations, on heavy rain days about 1,140 liters (300 gallons) of water were released into the soil at each of the four points around the house, effectively saturating the ground near the building. At each of these four discharge points, approximately 240 m³ (8,475 ft³) of soil was soaked with water. Roughly estimated, it takes 60-70 hours for this water to permeate away from the soil around the house.
This problem was completely resolved three weeks ago, and now I wonder how long it will take before this is reflected in moisture measurements inside the basement rooms. The basement walls are made of 24 cm (9.5 inches) calcium silicate bricks.
Question 1: Can anyone roughly estimate after how many weeks or months the walls will be dry if no additional drying measures are applied? Or how fast moisture travels through calcium silicate bricks from the outside to the inside?
Question 2: Was it already common practice (standard) in 1973 to waterproof basement exterior walls in contact with soil using an external membrane or coating, for example, a thick bitumen coating?
Question 3: Does such waterproofing eventually fail on its own? If yes, does it fail only in isolated spots or does it deteriorate over larger areas?
The likely cause is improperly diverted rainwater, because the previous owner sealed off a large drain pipe from the roof, causing all the rainwater to be discharged at four points onto the lawn about 2 meters (6.5 feet) from the house. The roof area is 270 m² (2,906 ft²), with 135 m² (1,453 ft²) per side. According to my calculations, on heavy rain days about 1,140 liters (300 gallons) of water were released into the soil at each of the four points around the house, effectively saturating the ground near the building. At each of these four discharge points, approximately 240 m³ (8,475 ft³) of soil was soaked with water. Roughly estimated, it takes 60-70 hours for this water to permeate away from the soil around the house.
This problem was completely resolved three weeks ago, and now I wonder how long it will take before this is reflected in moisture measurements inside the basement rooms. The basement walls are made of 24 cm (9.5 inches) calcium silicate bricks.
Question 1: Can anyone roughly estimate after how many weeks or months the walls will be dry if no additional drying measures are applied? Or how fast moisture travels through calcium silicate bricks from the outside to the inside?
Question 2: Was it already common practice (standard) in 1973 to waterproof basement exterior walls in contact with soil using an external membrane or coating, for example, a thick bitumen coating?
Question 3: Does such waterproofing eventually fail on its own? If yes, does it fail only in isolated spots or does it deteriorate over larger areas?
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