Timeline for French Drain Below or Above Retaining Wall?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
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| Dec 21, 2017 at 3:47 | comment | added | stormy | Excellent measures, take pictures. This is not at all a home that should have be on the market until these problems were solved. That is a fact. You know, I would hire a private building inspector. This is their job and believe it or not their invaluable information was under $200. Totally admissible in court. Do not want to go that way but you do have a very eligible case. The only way to fix this is to get heavy machinery, experience and know how that is certified to correct this MAJOR problem. Or your house just might end up slip sliding down the slope as well. | |
| Dec 21, 2017 at 2:12 | comment | added | maplemale | Nice, a fellow Oregonian! So, you know what kind of rain volume I'm dealing with. I covered the entire area in black plastic, dug up the downspouts and shot them down the hill. Eliminated 90% of crawl space water. Still a trickle, but now it's obvious. The water is coming from 30 inches below the vent. So, I dug that area up and found a 8" junk greenhouse pipe running mostly vertical that had the crap beat out of it and leaking water everywhere. The mystery deepens... never seen that pipe anywhere else but it's clearly directing water up against the foundation. | |
| Dec 14, 2017 at 7:12 | comment | added | stormy | How long ago did you purchase your home? Oregon. Gee, guess where I live now? It is illegal to sell a home with such bad drainage. They call this 'discovery' and there is a large window for this problem. Did you go through a bank? If you did then you might have some power here to get help financially. A home snuggled into the hillside with a lame foundation drain and not even sloped foundation soils? I taught this stuff University level and built 30 custom homes on difficult sites. In Washington State the state warranty is 12 years from occupancy permit holding the contractor liable. | |
| Dec 14, 2017 at 7:02 | comment | added | stormy | That is some slope. Excavators should be able to get to your home, they had to be there at the beginning. The difference in depth between 6 and 13 feet is negligible in cost. There are no other options to protect your home and your home's value other than focus on basic working drainage. All soil has to slope away from your home. You must have a foundation drain system. Behind your home there should be at least 4 to 6 feet sloping away from foundation and into a serious swale ( a ditch to direct water around and down slope). There are also cheap laborers to wield shovels | |
| Dec 13, 2017 at 23:33 | comment | added | maplemale | None of that is what I wanted to hear of course. LOL Not sure foundation drainage recommendation (below footing) is plausible. My footing stops at around 13ft deep (not 6-8). I'm not certain how far away from the foundation they cut into the hillside. But doubt it's more than 12"? In any case, getting an excavator in there was possible before my house was built. Now it's not. I'm not sure it would cut thru the sandstone anyway. My 1 acre has 130ft elevation front to back. The house is cut deep into a hillside with a half basement (downhill) and 12ft deep crawl space (uphill) with a pony wall. | |
| Dec 13, 2017 at 23:16 | comment | added | maplemale | It's not at an issue at all to dump into the stream from any property drainage where I live (Oregon coast). Every drain in my neighborhood / all homes do this at some point and those drains run right into the ocean 100 yards away. The way the laws work here, unless it's a named creek (mine isn't) you're pretty safe. In fact, it is illegal for any organization to claim ownership of ground water. I was told by the county water person that I could literally put in Micro Hydro, drain my roof into the creek that runs down the hillside / do whatever I want cause it's just a "drainage" creek. | |
| Dec 13, 2017 at 4:54 | history | edited | stormy | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
more info
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| Dec 13, 2017 at 4:32 | history | answered | stormy | CC BY-SA 3.0 |