I recently moved into an old house and have been dealing with moisture issues in the basement. I am stuck on what to do with this particular window. Water flow tracks are clearly visible.
So far I have cleaned the gutters, added 10 foot gutter extensions, built up the grade on the other sides of the house, spray foamed/caulked around the other windows and added window wells with drains to those. The other windows are further below grade and are made of wood.
I was told this side of the house is “properly graded” (though it doesn’t seem that way to me and I don’t know how they can tell since there’s stones hiding the soil). And removing these stones and the fabric beneath them has turned out to be an enormous undertaking I’d rather avoid unless necessary!
This window has a metal frame and doesn’t open.
I was going to prep the concrete sill and build it up with hydraulic cement, but I’m not sure it that will help since I can’t find any gaps under the frame and water seems to be seeping right through the concrete wall as it is.
There’s a concrete wall of sorts built around the outside which I assumed was intentionally full with rocks.
I’m a little burned out on basement water management, to be honest. I am looking for a good way to keep this water out of the basement window for 6-8 months while I save money for more permanent solutions (like glass block windows?) Any ideas for short or long term fixes would be much appreciated!
UPDATE: I removed the stones from the concrete retaining wall around the window.
Now I can see that water definitely pools in this window well!
There is no drain I can find, but there’s tree roots (and possibly and old broken pipe) preventing me from digging any deeper. I don’t think there’s a bottom.
I tried building up soil against the window, as I couldn’t make it any lower on the yard side. I tamped the soil as best as I could, but water seeps back in. The soil is easier for the water to pass through than the concrete of the wall and the earth under the lawn. Water pools on one side of the well and then soaks back through the soil to the window. I put the plastic back on to demonstrate