A house we recently purchased has a couple of small leaks in the basement. Well, not strictly 'in' the basement, but under the front and back porches (which are cellars). The cellars are accessed by man doors, and have block walls on 3 sides; the fourth side is also block wall, but is the outside of the actual basement walls. Above each cellar is a concrete porch, both of which have recently been decked over with wood. They did a nice job, and both decks do slope away from the house slightly. Of course, I have no idea what the original concrete porch does underneath, and I really don't want to rip up both porches to find out. What I can see in both cellars is that where the concrete porch meets the outer basement wall, there is a thin fir strip in between... that's it. No Sealant of any sort. That's where there is a slight leak. The other 3 sides of each cellar all have what looks like tar paper where the wall and porch underside meet.
So with that being said, I was thinking of caulking or spraying some waterproof expanding foam from the underside to stop the leak into the cellar. From what I can see, this would not trap any water. Rather it would eventually force it off to one side or the other, where it would just fall to the ground outside. Does this sound plausible? Thankfully these are storage cellars and not liveable space, but a leak is a leak and I want it gone!
So with that being said, I was thinking of caulking or spraying some waterproof expanding foam from the underside to stop the leak into the cellar. From what I can see, this would not trap any water. Rather it would eventually force it off to one side or the other, where it would just fall to the ground outside. Does this sound plausible? Thankfully these are storage cellars and not liveable space, but a leak is a leak and I want it gone!