"aemeijers" wrote in message
...
Gritz_1 wrote:
We have a bi-level home on a hill; recently the garage, which is about
6' under ground, has been taking on water after a heavy storm. The
house is on a slope, and we know that hydrostatic pressure is the
culprit. We asked 4 contractors for ideas/bids and all suggested a
French drain-sump pump set-up, which seems like the correct way to go.
The sticking point is this; the garage is a 2 car, divided by a
cinderblock, load bearing wall. One contractor says he can just go
through that wall, and around the perimeter of the garage. This makes
the job much less expensive, instead of going around 6 walls with the
drain, he is going around 3, so the linear footage is much smaller. He
says, the hole that would be cut through the load bearing wall is
insignificant, and will be recemented anyway. I tend to agree with
him after thinking about it, but I do not want to wake up with a
collapsed/cracked wall one day! I would love to hear everyone's
opnions.
My opinion is to regrade the back yard, and put in a swale to redirect the
water around the garage. If that isn't enough, bite the bullet, and dig
out the backfill on the outside of those 2 sides, and put in a proper
foundation drain, with proper gravel and whatever above. While the trench
is open, replace the waterproofing on the outside of the wall. Interior
french drains are a second-best solution in a basement, where the floor
gets almost no load. But putting them in a garage, thereby breaking the
link to where the slab sits on the footer, seems to be asking for trouble.
Not to mention, how warm does the garage stay? Ever get cold by where the
big doors open?

IMHO, water should be redirected or stopped outside the basement wall.

(Yes, I just had a site survey from a 'reputable' basement waterproofing
company, and even after I told him I grew up in the business and knew
better, he still tried to sell me snake oil. As he was packing up, he even
tried to offer me a discount if I would sign a contract and give him a
check right then.)

But having said all that- no, a small hole in the bottom corner of the
dividing wall, to tuck a tile under there, won't seriously affect the
load-bearing capacity. I assume you have a door through the wall already?
Just stay away from right under the door frame.

--
aem sends...


From one who has gone through the drain problem from you know where, may I
say that your suggestions are the first ones that make any sense.

Gritz has tried to describe his problem, but it is a bit difficult to do so.
And I can understand that.

Your comment about french drain people selling snake oil is absolutely
right. They wanted to do that on my property for $1-2000. The last owner
sold rather than deal with it. I decided to do it myself. I found my
problem was caused by construction fill of a deep ditch between my house and
the neighbors; the street slopes downward toward me and the lawns are even
with the curb. As I said, apparently before the houses were finished there
was a big ditch there until they filled it in. The problem was that they
used construction sand: very porous.

After digging it all out, I could see that the groundwater would go six feet
under the surface, then under my crawl space, which was like a swamp. The
french drain guys wanted all that money to dig a 24" french drain. A lot of
good that would do!

Like your suggestion, I dug out around the house. The crawl space had been
filled in with concrete block some years ago, but it wasn't sealed very
good. I sealed and waterproofed it, then put a border of 4mil vinyl
sheeting on it before I filled it in.

Where the snake oil guys would have put a 24" french drain, I dug a
50'X2'X6' deep trench, put a 4" socked slotted pipe at the bottom, then a
sheet of 4mil vinyl along the side of the trench. The pipe went around the
house to the lower side, where I got permission from the city to put a drain
in the curb. I tied my gutter drains and a basement drain into it.

This drastic fix works. We've had less than moderate rains so far this
spring and haven't had any for nearly a week, but that drain that comes out
of my curb is still running down the street today. It shows no sign of
stopping.

They would have put in the french drain and missed all that water!

Oh, by the way, that crawl space is dry as a bone, even in rainy weather.
The partial basement, which used to be slimy, is now dry as a bone.