We got a call the other day when the outside temperatures were about zero degrees. The homeowner told us that their bulkhead was leaking. With zero degrees outside, the snow is frozen and the ground is frozen, we knew there were no leaks from outside causes. So we had to figure out what happened through over-the-phone trouble shooting.
Our first question was if they had an outside faucet on that side of the house that could possibly be leaking or dripping. He said no. So we sent him upstairs to make sure all faucets were off and that there were no toilets leaking.
We then sent him to his water meter to see if it was still moving. He said it was spinning pretty good. So we knew there was a leak from a pipe somewhere outside. We sent him back into the basement to listen for running water through the pipes.
Sure enough he heard water. He headed outside, uncovered some snow and found an outdoor faucet that was dripping and he found water coming in through the bulkhead.
This presented two problems, a leaking faucet and a leaking bulkhead. We walked him through following the pipe and found a ball-valve to shut it off. Shut the ball-valve off and after about 10-15 minutes the water stopped leaking through the bulkhead seam.
Through this he figured out that with all this snow outside that is going to melt, it is going to come into the basement right where his faucet leak water was coming in. We headed to his house the next day and fixed that problem, so there was no more leak in the bulkhead.
For more information on leaking bulkhead or preventing basement water when the snow melts, contact A1 Foundation Crack Repair.