replying to clare , Arnold2303 wrote:
clare wrote:

On Sat, 08 Mar 2014 09:35:30 -0500, Art Todesco
As a matter of principal I will never buy a house that depends on a
sump pump to keep the basement dry.
The house I grew up in was at the low point of the street (the street
was about 8 inches lower than the next catch basin in front of our
house), and the main floor was about a foot or so lower than the
street, with the lot sloping back to a bank (drop-off) to the riover
flats.
In a heavy rain, the street would fill with water, and trucks going by
(or even cars) would cause a wake that splashed water over to the
house. The water would run in the front door, across the linoleum
living room floor, down the basement stairs, and out the cellar drain
to the river flats.
Dad pured a retaining wall along the front of the house, against the
foundation and extending up a foot or so above foundation level, and
poured a concrete front poach about 8 inches higher than the living
room floor, so you had to step down going in - with a raised threshold
lip. A brick "railing" around the porch acted as a breakwater, and we
had a drop-in "floodgate" that blocked the entrance in rainy weather.
Those modifications kept the water out of the house on all but the
very worst rainstorms.
Dad bought that house for $2000 in 1957. It was built before
confederation (I think it was 87 years old when he bought it).
He sold it in 1975 and it was demolished and replaced by several
townhouses just last year.
Both my first house and this one are at the high point of the street,
in sand, on an open gravel bottom with no sump.



Thank you for your post. If you know any builders in suburbs bordering
major cities, building departments are mandating that NEWLY BUILT homes
have their storm water drain onto their property vs going into storm
sewers. Many municipalities don't want any more water running into storm
sewers; they feel sewers are already maxed out, resulting in storm water
co-mingling with waste water.

The mandate for builders: Grade the lawn so that water runs across it and
eventually (hopefully) seeps down in --- never reaching a storm sewer.




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