WINDOW WELLS
A common water problem is when rainwater fills up into window wells due to poor grading and comes through the window sill and down the wall. Sometimes, it can even come through the cinder blocks right below the casement window. The most common reason for this is poor grading around the window well. Usually when this is the case, the top of the window well (cement, galvanized steel, bricks) is even with the dirt, grass, garden bed, mulch, etc., and the surface water hits the ground and trickles down into the window well. It fills up like a pool and finds its way into your basement through the window sill, cinder blocks or mortar joints.
As a rule of thumb, you want the grading around the house to be sloped away from the house for about 5 feet. Imagine placing a soccer ball up against the house on the ground and let it go. It should roll away from the house. If it doesn't, the ground is too flat or pitches towards the house, which in turn, would be pitched towards the window well. One would have to add top soil and raise up the grade and slope it away but if your window well doesn't provide you enough room add more top soil, that's when you need a larger window well.
Below are some before and after pictures of instaling a window well. In this particular case, the homeowner was experiencing water coming through the window due to surface water building up outside. They were faced with the issue of having to build up the grade but not being able to because there wasn't a window well. We installed one and now the homeowner has plenty of room to build up the grade with top soil.
