Leaky Basement Hoppers - URGENT

[copykatpro]

It's been unusually rainy here and two of my basement hoppers have suddenly started leaking. My wife says it's like Niagara Falls. The caulking around the edges needs to be redone but I can't do that at the moment. Aside from making sure there hasn't been a huge build up of debris in the wells, is there any other temporary fix you can recommend? Some kind of putty that might work? Please help. It's not supposed to stop raining until the weekend.

[Windows on Washington]

A sump pump is your best bet in each of the window wells.

After it dries out, you could caulk that window shut and it still wouldn't keep water out if it stacks up against the window. You need a water management system for each window well that ties into the weeping tile of the home. Heavy rains will back water up in that well and poor it in regardless.

[copykatpro]

Much appreciated. I've never thought to put a sump pump in a window well before. I've only thought of them to be in basement floors. Anyway, I was hoping for a simpler, more immediate solution. It's literally rained here for a month so I really don't expect this to be an ongoing problem that would require sump pumps. Of course with the way July has started out I may have to retract that last statement.

[Window4U (IL)]

You'll never get a hopper window or any other operable window water-tight when it's under water.
If you already have window well covers on the window wells and the landscaping is not directing water into them, then WoW's suggestion is the best fix.

[pondscum]

In my previous home I had some leakage around the basement window during heavy rains, and yeah, it was a drainage problem rather than a window problem -- a clogged downspout so all the water was pouring out of the gutter into the ground next to the window well. It was very obvious what the problem was when I went outside in the rain to look at it. As a temporary fix,
I dug a temporary swale to divert the runoff away from the house. Once it stopped raining, I fixed the problem for good by getting the gutters cleaned and fiddling with the grading and brick border in the planting bed next to the house.

[TheWindowNerd]

I have often found that the problem is migrating surface water.
A simply fix that I have used on sevaral occasions is to caulk the window well to the wall, use Quad or similar.

[copykatpro]

Now that's an interesting idea. Thanks everyone for your advice. All I could do last night was dig out more of the dirt in the wells and use it to further slope the water away from the window areas. It rained about 4 or 5 inches in a very short amount of time yesterday, this on top of the fact the ground was already well saturated, which caused this problem. If this happens again I will definitely look into the sump pump solution.

[chrisexv6]

The sump pump will help, Ive had similar issues especially when the ground is frozen but we get rain (i.e. late feb/early march). Water sits on the ground and eventually finds its way into the window well.

The biggest fix, though, was taking out a few inches of dirt from the well area and replacing it with 3/4" process (stone). I put the sump pump back in but have never really had the problem since. Since the gravel doesnt freeze solid any water that gets in there drains into the ground and doesnt build up in the well.

The pump worked well before I fixed the issue with gravel. Also make sure you have a decent cover for the well, my original looked like swiss cheese and let a lot of falling water into the well.