Clocks off Lake?

[88Nightmare]

Its located in either my backyard or my basement. I get home yesterday, relax for a few minutes, take a shower, then go to head into the basement. I take two steps down the stairs and stop.... noticing water at the bottom of the basement. I start freakin, we've been livin here for 10 years and NEVER had water in the basement. I suppose there is a first time for everything. Our brand new sump pump was kickin ass without missin a beat, but the problem was coming from one of the windows. Our basement windows have those recessed wells around them. One of them filled with water, and the weight of the water was forcing the corners of the window open, causing water to just gush in. Luckily I wasnt the only one home. I had my mother hold a bucket underneith the window to catch the water, and I ransacked my garage to find a small electric watergarden pump. I jammed the garden hose into it, dropped it in the window well and plugged it in. It drained in about 15 minutes, but then would frequently fill back up. After getting it drained, I took my drill and screwed the window shut. It stopped leaking. I kept having to go back out and get the pump going to drain that window well, but for the most part, it was working. When I had it under control, I ran to home depot and bought sandbags to surround the top of the well, and then bought a DC backup pump system for my sump pump well incase the power went out. So I thought everything was all safe, ready for any amount of rain.

So I go to work today, and around 11ish, it starts downpouring at work. Kinda nice, hot inside and nice and cool outside. Could run outside for a quick second to cool down. Carrying on my business, my mother calls, says the window is leaking again, bad. She said at this point she was concerned with stopping the water from reaching the other side of the basement, the part thats finished off (drywall, carpet, wood trim....etc). I was picturing the worst. After spending so much to finish off that section of basement, I didn't want my work done on it to be in vein, so I flew home, to find the same window leaking inbetweem the wood trim and the concrete block. So back to pumping the well out. Then I took my mini propane torch, dried out the area with some heat, and caulked the **** out of it with some waterproof sealant I found at home depot. So far so good, we are just working on containing and removing the water.

So.... anyone have any recommendations of what else I can do to stop this window from leaking right now if something else should happen? I know the window should be replaced, or better yet, just glass block the damn thing. I know the backyard should be regraded and a underground drainage basin put in to protect the house as we are at the bottom of a hill, but what else can I do now to protect the basement?

[Feature Pony]

glass block windows FTW and your problems will go away. You might also want to bring up the pitch of dirt by your house to drain the water away, that might help also,

[88Nightmare]

What I want to do is dig a drainage basin in my backyard running parallel with the house and have it drain to this small ditch next to my house, which will run out to the street and into the sewer. And then pack dirt around the base of the house so it pitches it away from the house and towards the drainage basin I want to dig

[95mustang302]

^^^ Thats what My parents did at their house and its been workin great the past 2 days

[88Nightmare]

Its been in my mind for a few years now, but it was never a big problem before like it is now. Before, I wanted to do it so the backyard would drain instead of sitting as a lake. Now, I want to get it done to protect the house....

[juicedimpss]

i have some extra fish in the lake in my backyard if you want a few

[pOrk]

Mike, just sit in the window well until it stops raining. Your ass should seal it up pretty good.

[flyin_blue_egg]

set up something like a sump pump on the window well....put a small pump in there that can some how be turned on when a float attached to the pump gets to a certin level

[DirtyMax]

The window sill in one of my north-facing windows is full of water and had a little leakage in my spare bedroom. Was comtemplating drilling a small drain hole on the exterior side, but not sure of any ill-effects effects of doing that.

[88Nightmare]

my well is below ground level though, so no drilling holes for me.

[0TransAm0]

cant you get those clear covers that go over the whole well? then nothing can get down thier... i know it wouldn't stop all the water but most of it right?

[jbiscuit]

plastic covers FTW

[88Nightmare]

I thought about it, but while pumping the water out of said well, I was watching it seep in from the sides, where the well meets with the foundation. A cover would do very little to stop it.

[forest]

screw plywood over the window, line the well with plastic, and then fill it with dirt

[wikked]

Do you have a gutter/drain on the corner of the house by that window well?

I used to have a leak like, because the previous owner only had like a 2ft downspout coming off the gutter... wtf.

So I...
- Dug a ~15ft trench
- Buried a longer downspout extension
- Dug a 5ft hole at the end of that yet, filled hole with gravel.

Fixed the problem until this weekend, it was just way too saturated.
Still barely leaked though, but had to empty out the window well with a bucket a few times.

[DirtyMax]

No this is an actual window up off the ground. Like a bedroom or a kitchen wondow if you will. Water was pooling between the screen and the window that goes up and down. Luckily, I think the that with angle of the window sill, the overflow ran back outside... for the most part.

[johnny--2k]

Get one of those bubble things to put over the window well. It's ugly, but it serves it's purpose!

[88Nightmare]

window cover wont fix it, its seeping in through the ground around by the foundation and pooling in the window well. and the gutters arent the problem, my gutters drain into the sewer