High water table or plain and simple leak?

[Fee_B77]

Hello!

I hope someone can help with this very frustrating issue. Our water authority is of no help whatsoever, plumbers are left puzzled and builders think they know what it is until they come and have a look. I'll give you a bit of a rundown:

Damp discovered in kitchen and dining room is lagged and a stud wall put over the membrane.

Damp patch below external back door (from kitchen) which ranges from a damp patch to a small puddle, rain, guttering, drainage and all other possible factors do not seem to have any bearing.

Slab lifted to reveal saturated earth which filled with water when further digging took place. Water seemed to flow from inside the back door so have now lifted two floor tiles.

When floor tiles were lifted, the earth was saturated there also. When we dug deeper, the holes filled with clean, fresh water but do not flow or flood.

When we drained the holes, they filled again with clean fresh water but do not overflow. They have been like this through the heavy rain, sunny days and lots of throwing water down the drain and gutter to see if it has any effect. It doesn't.

Now we're a bit stuck, has anyone encountered anything like this? Could you suggest who we get to look into it? Water authority are reluctant as it appearsto be internal.

I hope I've made sense, thanks for reading my rambling.

F

[heathfield]

Besides having an newly-emeging spring, it's a puzzle. I'm being perfectly serious when I suggest getting in a water dowser (diviner). Enter 'dowsing society' in Google Search. You should be able to find someone local through the Info available from the web.

[tamborine]

are you in a valley.....is the land outside flat.

Dig a hole further from house to assess water table level. If its low, dig a soak-away that house water can flow to & disperse.

[YvonneM]

Perhaps contact your insurance company my daughter had a problem in her garage everyone was baffled they put a camera down the drains and found that they had split This was covered by the insurance company and they paid for the repairs to the garage wall as well

[Fee_B77]

ZacMaster, thanks. We're looking into all sorts of different companies and will certainly consider a cctv survey.

Heathfield, I'm all for a bit of dowsing but not sure what it would achieve if anything was found.

Tamborine, we're on a common or garden street of victorian terraced houses. Street and surrounding area is pretty flat but will have a go with digging a hole out in the garden.

Yvonne, thank you too. We've tried insurance and they say that they'll fix any damage caused by the leak but not pay to find it or have it repaired. We'd really like to get to the bottom of it and stop all the dampness.

Thank you all for your responses, we're getting desperate.

F

[Clanad]

Have you talked to any neighbors to see if they are:

1. Experiencing the same thing...
or
2; To see if anyone around is experiencing unnaturally high water consumption refelected in thier water bills.

Here in the U.S., a neighbor of my son's had something of the same nature occurring and finally found a nearby house whose city water supply had sprung a significant leak and the leak had found its way into son's basement... where it surfaced through a drainage tile. The owner of the leaking house said he had noticed a big water bill for a number of months, but was either gone a lot or thought it seasonal...

Couldn't hurt to ask, no?

[Bettypat]

We have had lots of trouble with underground leaks. We have had our slabs up four times. We took out pipe insurance and when we get leaks we contact them and they send someone out. We just get the piece of pipe with the leak repaired. The last one was a massive leak and they dug a moat all round the house which filled up with water. The pipes are 50 years old and really the water main needs replacing but they will not do this. Without the pipe insurance, it is very difficult to get the water authority to do anything. If you do not get any joy then contact Ofwat and they should sort it out. The insurance is about �20 a year but it is well worth it. Our pressure was so low at one time that it ruined our shower and washing machine. Hope this helps.