Major home excavation project cancelled

showcrop

Well-known Member
When we bough this 1870s farmhouse in 1989 it had been rehabbed but still had a dirt basement floor and some water leaked through the dry stone foundation. It was impossible with the dirt floor to ID exactly where it leaked however. Once we got the concrete floor put in I could tell where. It was the worst where the new concrete foundation EL met the old stone. Over the years it got worse, and probing outside revealed the area to be very porous. I blamed it on poor fill material and lack of compaction, and formulated a plan to excavate down three feet, compact, put in a rubber barrier that would funnel into a drainage pipe, then fill with good gravel and compact. I decided to postpone this project until next year and do a major interior job as well as paint half of the exterior. In the course of painting I came across some holes which I probed and found that my bar would drop two feet. I soon realized that this was from a mole problem a few years ago when I neglected grub killer for too many years. I searched a fifty square foot area for holes and filled 8-10 of them. We had a very heavy rain yesterday afternoon and overnight and I found no water in the basement this AM for the first time in thirty years.
 
We went through the same thing with ours, guessing 1840 era. Stone foundation with only sand/lime mortar and an 1930's addition with the old clay block. The early
section is dirt floor and would pool water in the low spots during the wet seasons. Got an excavator in and dug it up for drain tile and gravel. I pressure washed the
stone and got a mason in to the mortar the joints. Stays bone-dry now. Drainage is the key.
 
Showcrop pictures from last weeks job. Block foundation but
perimeter drain plugged up so dug down to base of the footer.
I wire wheeled and painted wall with Dry Lock. 2 coats then
barrier added. On my house about 5 years ago dug alongside
foundation and installed perimeter drain and lots of #2 stone.
Has worked well so far after having over 30 inches of water in
the basement in 2011. Learned a few things after that storm
now own a generator as the sump pump is useless without
power. Haven’t had to use a sump pump since installing
perimeter drain.

cvphoto59666.jpg


cvphoto59667.jpg
 
Interesting as I have done 2 of those kinds of jobs way back when, dig up around the foundation, apply waterproofing, new drainage
etc. I've got a rental house down the lane now and I can see some spalling on the inside foundation walls, and took on some water,
not a heck of a lot, but enough to warrant concern. The rain was from that hurricane/tropical storm in August, so it was an unusual
event, and the last time I cut the grass, I forgot to put back the downspout extension on that corner.

At this point I'm looking for ways to parge in or patch the interior, wouldn't rule out doing some excavation, but want to see how
this goes over time, to determine how much of a problem there may or may not be. The house is in very nice shape for a 1929 vintage
home.
 
(quoted from post at 07:05:37 10/17/20) Showcrop pictures from last weeks job. Block foundation but
perimeter drain plugged up so dug down to base of the footer.
I wire wheeled and painted wall with Dry Lock. 2 coats then
barrier added. On my house about 5 years ago dug alongside
foundation and installed perimeter drain and lots of #2 stone.
Has worked well so far after having over 30 inches of water in
the basement in 2011. Learned a few things after that storm
now own a generator as the sump pump is useless without
power. Haven t had to use a sump pump since installing
perimeter drain.

<img src="https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cvphotos/cvphoto59666.jpg">

<img src="https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cvphotos/cvphoto59667.jpg">


Greg, it looks like you had a challenging job with the close quarters and whatever those tubes lying in the bottom are.
 
its always best to install a filter fabric between the gravel and the soil backfill---the water can migrate thru but the soil gets blocked and won't clog the gravel
 
Showcrop they said only the one electric line that was near
the surface. Wrong ! That was buried service entrance cable
and the water line. We were told they were on the other side
of the house. Platon is the name of the plastic barrier and over
the pipe and stone is filter fabric. A lot of hand digging. Had
cateract surgery and TORIC implant Tuesday so taking it easy
for a few days.
 
Billy who ever built this house did a terrible job. I think it’s only 40 years old needs sills rebuilt exsisting grade was way too high.
 
Dependzic existing drain tile was plugged almost solid looked like they only used a wheel load of clean stone. We use filter fabric on all projects like this. Had similar job on apartment house in local city lost all those photos as well as many more.
 

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