Drain Pipe & Concrete Repair

We're removing the cracked and incorrectly tilting concrete, then digging down to the bottom of the concrete foundation, to expose the crack in the basement concrete wall. I painted a coat of tar on it about 25-30 years ago and that kept our basement dry until about 4-5 years ago. This time I decided to chisel out the crack and apply a patch of waterproof cement, then add more tar. Also, I decided to hire a guy who has the right equipment for breaking up and moving concrete.

Here's where the expert with the back hoe started digging the deep hole.

He left a "step" halfway down but I needed to lower down my eight foot step ladder so I could climb in and out of the hole. You can see the old tar patch I put on a long time ago, along with the puddle of muddy water at the bottom. I used the garden hose to spray down the wall, while scrubbing it with a stainless steel brush. Then I had to scoop out the water from the bottom of the hole.

Next, I used a pneumatic chisel to chip out and widen the crack.

Here the crack is completely chiseled out, scrubbed and washed.

While the concrete was still wet I applied a patch of fast-curing waterproof cement. Not pictured is the four thin layers of tar that I applied on top of the cement. Each layer needed about 12 hours to cure. I put an ordinary household fan down in the hole to circulate the air and help the wall dry out faster.