On Sun, 16 Jul 2006 03:30:01 GMT, "Mike" wrote:


"JimL" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 15 Jul 2006 21:34:10 GMT, "Mike" wrote:

Your damp floor indicates that you have minor seepage, so I'd dig as
far as I could and call it a day. In a perfect world the drainage
would be about a foot beneath the basement floor.

Of course, the house should never have been built with drainage
moving toward the house. So all you are doing is giving the ground
water a quick escape away from the house.

The 100 year flood plain solution is a sump pump in your basement.

The house is 70 years old

I understand. Also, I meant the surface rainwater falling on the
ground and running toward the house should be quickly moved away from
the house. Ground water is something else and I shouldn't have used
that word.

In my neighborhood, 20 year old houses were not graded properly and
many have water standing in the backyard after every rain. My
suggestion is what they did to get the water away from the house.
Gravel and 4 inches of sandyloam provide excellent drainage and st
augustine covers it all up. The only clue is the pvc pipe dumping
water into the street sewer system.