Cellar filling with water

[Dan Lawrence]

Hi All,

Just took ownership of an Edwardian semi and the cellar is filling with a few inches of water, which seems to be coming through the floor from the water table.

There is a small 6 inch pipe set into the corner of the floor that doesn't seem to go anywhere and has stone/gravel in the base. Once pumped out, clear water can be seen rising back up through the pipe. I've used a drain plug to seal the pipe to see if this is where the water enters but it seems to rise up throughout the rest of the cellar floor. The rate that water enters is quick, I pumped and mopped to get as much water out and the floor was covered again in a couple of hours.

The cellar wall on the left of the photo tops out as a sleeper wall for one of the living room's suspended floor (seen in the other photo) and water is tracking right up to the top of that. The sleeper wall has a slate DPC on top and there's damp pulling through the wooden plate on top of it. The wall to the right in the living room photi is also saturated (behind in the cellar photo). Weirdly through, there is no issue with the wall above the right side of the cellar (where the living room door is)

All the drains surrounding the property seem to be in good working order so it seems to be the water table (?).

Any recommended course of actions?

 

[a twig]

First step I’d invest in a cheap USB boroscope from your preferred online bazaar of such things and investigate that pipe more fully.

If the water table really is that high then you’re likely onto a bit of a loser I’m afraid, you’d likely be looking at a sump pump to manage the water as it comes in

 

[Cubist]

The culprit here is Rainwater runoff from surrounding higher ground in conjunction with the typical ground water levels in your area. I know Bridgnorth quite well, your house probably does not sit high on one of the hillsides and is most likely on the lower slopes toward the river?

The hole in your cellar floor IS the drain intended to expel water from the property as the Ground Water level rises during periods of heavy and/or protracted rain. That water WILL rise through the flooring material and perhaps the walls. Rodding the drain through to get rid of the accumulated silts MAY help but part of the problem is perhaps due to the local drain network being overcome. If that's the case, and rodding the drain to clear it does not help, then sadly theres little to be done about this problem.

 

[jamest]

The same in my cellar, we have a high-ish water table and there tends to have an inch or so of water over the floor for about half the year. At the moment with all the rain, it's about 6 inches deep. I don't worry about it, just keep the cellar ventilated. However, the previous owner told me that back when there was very heavy rainfall and substantial flooding in some nearby areas, the cellar completely filled up and overflowed into the kitchen flooding it. The water gets into the cellar much more quickly than it can get out, so it acts like a slightly leaky contained being filled from below. To avoid this happening again, a sump pump was fitted, though most of the time it's turned off. Might be worth considering in your case given that the UK is predicted to have more and more rain and flooding over the coming years.