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Banty

In article ,
says...

On Mar 30, 10:16=EF=BF=BDpm, "John" wrote:
"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. =EF=BF=BDI 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 t=
he
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 trenc=
h
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 troubl=
e.
Not to mention, how warm does the garage stay? Ever get cold by where th=
e
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 ev=
en
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 s=
o.
And I can understand that.

Your comment about french drain people selling snake oil is absolutely
right. =EF=BF=BDThey wanted to do that on my property for $1-2000. =EF=BF=
=BDThe last owner
sold rather than deal with it. =EF=BF=BDI decided to do it myself. =EF=BF=
=BDI found my
problem was caused by construction fill of a deep ditch between my house a=
nd
the neighbors; the street slopes downward toward me and the lawns are even=

with the curb. =EF=BF=BDAs I said, apparently before the houses were finis=
hed there
was a big ditch there until they filled it in. =EF=BF=BDThe problem was th=
at they
used construction sand: =EF=BF=BDvery porous.

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

Like your suggestion, I dug out around the house. =EF=BF=BDThe crawl space=
had been
filled in with concrete block some years ago, but it wasn't sealed very
good. =EF=BF=BDI sealed and waterproofed it, then put a border of 4mil vin=
yl
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. =EF=BF=BDThe pipe went a=
round the
house to the lower side, where I got permission from the city to put a dra=
in
in the curb. =EF=BF=BDI tied my gutter drains and a basement drain into it=
.

This drastic fix works. =EF=BF=BDWe've had less than moderate rains so far=
this
spring and haven't had any for nearly a week, but that drain that comes ou=
t
of my curb is still running down the street today. =EF=BF=BDIt shows no si=
gn 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.- Hide =
quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I am the other half of your success...................... failure.

heres what we tried.......

had foundation mostly dug out to footer level, found old drain line
clogged completely, water proffed walls, installed new drain line, and
many tons of gravel since we had to remove all the sidewalks and steps
that suurrounded a good bit of the home. then regraded entire yard,
installed new downspout drains going to street and daylight, replaced
entire yard........

If it hadnt been DIY it would of likely cost 20 grand...........

guess what?

Well the water no longer bothered the walls but still came up thru
floor with every heavy rain........

had interior french drain installed, that fixed it finally............

conclusions exterior work costs a fortune and may not be
effective........

the costs for backhoe, gravel, dump truck to haul away excess dirt the
gravel replaced, rebuilding lawn, tons of hard labor,new sidewalks and
steps, well it all looked nice and gave the home curp appeal, we sold
it some years later.

but the interior drain worked better and only cost 3 grand.

sometimes water table actually rises and all that exterior work is a
grand waste of time and money/

smart builders install interior french drains in new homes, today its
frequently a building code requirement

Yep.

Around here every basement is a hole in clay. Of course water finds it. The
people living on *top* of the hill I live on eventually got an interior drain
tile system.

Banty