We have a brick house with a basement, but when it rains heavily, water will seep between the concrete foundation and the sill plate. Can I just caulk from the inside at the joint where these two materials meet, or is there something else that needs to be done?
Forget the caulking, it will just encourage the water to find another way into the basement. If the problem is frequent enough to warrant the time and expense you should consider installing a drainage system to intercept and divert the water away from the basement walls.
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I found the attached message in the FAQ section and it makes no sense to me. I also have a brick first story exterior wall and concrete foundation and water is leaking into the basement from the sill plate. The response in the faq doesn't seem logical since the concrete foundation is 12" to 15" inches above the ground and obviously the source of the water is from above not below. What am I missing? I have included the text from the faq below. Please help!
You need to fix the source of the leak. If water is indeed entering at the sill plate from the outside, then you have a tremendous amount of water coming down the wall. Caulking will send that water into the ground, where it may enter through the foundation. If so, you need to channel it away.
Could the water also be entering thru the roof or window openings and running down the walls into the basement?
Thanks for the response. One of the things that I have noticed is that it appears as though the bricklayer intentionly left open spaces in a number of the mortar joints on the bottom row of bricks. These spaces are approx. 1 -- 1 1/2 in. high where the bricks join laterally. There is a space about every 4 or 5 bricks. I was thinking that the water may be running down the face of the brick and entering these spaces. I have no idea why these spaces are there. Any Ideas?
