Found a leak in my basement wall after 3 years of weird smells

Henry Miller · 2026-04-26T08:10:03.033014+00:00

Last week I finally tore out the drywall in my basement corner after always noticing a musty smell during rain. I pulled off the insulation and found a crack about 2 feet long with water stains running down the concrete. Turns out my house has a grading issue on the north side where the soil settled over time. Cost me $400 for a waterproofing guy to seal it and regrade the dirt. Has anyone else dealt with hidden leaks that took forever to track down?

elizabethtaylor5mo ago

@elizabethn56 must've missed the part where that stain meant water was dripping inside my wall for years. You get mold and rot if you let that sit. Did you find the crack was bigger behind the insulation than it looked from the outside?

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elizabethn565mo ago

Bit dramatic for a little water stain.

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hayes.jake5mo ago

Honestly that sucks, I had a similar situation where a tiny crack in my foundation turned into a nightmare after ignoring it for a year. I ended up digging out the dirt myself and slapping on some hydraulic cement before regrading, and it's held up fine so far. @elizabethn56 a little water stain can hide a lot of damage behind the wall once it's trapped inside the insulation.

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