Ok, this one is bad. Ground water is seeping into the crawlspace and filling up the footing bays. I need to dig under the footings to allow the water to gravity drain. I know that this sounds ridiculous, but it’s what has to happen.
My first thought was to use my 3.5 inch coring bit in my bosch roto-hammer and then stick three inch pvc under the footings. The problem with this is that the coring bit immediately fills with dirt. I think that I need some sort of auger. Is there one made for an SDS style roto-hammer? Anyone have any bright ideas that I haven’t thought of? I am somewhat desprate and will try basically anything.
Replies
Make a hole with a power washer?
You may need a pump to keep down the water level in the crawl.
oooohhh... i like the jetting the hole with the power washerMike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
or the old water blaster where you put a hose thread fitting on a length of 3/4" pvc and attach a hose and jab that sucker in there...
gets a little messy tho.
k
how bout a pump?
I went down to the lobby
To make a small call out.
A pretty dancing girl was there,
And she began to shout,
"Go on back to see the gypsy.
He can move you from the rear,
Drive you from your fear,
Bring you through the mirror.
He did it in Las Vegas,
And he can do it here."
Didn't know there was any work in a crawl space thqat wasn't horrible!
Good luck.
Don
The Glass Masterworks
"If it scratches, I etch it!"
Thanks for the ideas. I like the pressure washer...
There are a lot of footings, so even if I used a pump I would still have to dig. Plus they don't want to be relying on a pump, they want it to be gravity.
Rats will thank you for providing a subterranean entrance to the crawl space.Our perimeter drain flows to air about 60' from the house. I had to install cages at the top of the 16' downspouts to prevent their accessing my roof. Even saw a mink come out of the drain leader for one of the downspouts.
Good point about the rats. This is going to exit into the footing drains, so rodent infiltration shouldn't be an issue.
Would this help?
http://www.borzit.com/
Interesting looking tool. Thanks for the link.
I always wanted to try an "under wonder".
anyone used 'em? I hear they're kind of boring.
k
sorry...
Puns are fun. :)
Puns are pfun.
The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one. --Wilhelm Stekel
I thought a pfun was a type of North Atlantic bird?
You're thinking of Pipfun, and it's a type of North American screw.
God is REAL, unless explicitly declared INTEGER
I couldn't help myself...
but really, has anyone used an "under-wonder"?
My understanding is you don't have to be in a hole or below the surface with it, which might be an advantage over the borzit. I don't even know if my local tool renter has 'em, but I've heard of 'em for years.
I've always just used the hose fitting on the pipe trick. Meeessssy but effective.
k
I'm with all the guys who vote for water-boring. It's so amazingly efficient!
The best way, especially in muddy ground, is to start with the pipe you want to end up with, and bore inside that, feeding that pipe slowly into the ground as the dirt gives way inside.
Bore inside that 3" pipe with a brass jet nozzle attached to the end of a length of 1/2" or 3/4" pipe, on the end of a garden hose.
A power washer isn't necessary, but if you've got one, you might try it. It will use use far less water to drill, perhaps meaning less mess. But since you need lots of water to dilute and make the sludge pumpable, maybe there'd be no advantage in the end. Myself, I'd just use a garden hose.
Really easy if you're angling up, needing much more of a pump-out-assist if you're angling down, with your pipe is filling up as you go. It's all doable, though.
I suggest two drain pumps, one draining a crudely-dug sump/collection puddle, and another with an aimable inlet: a few feet of 1" pipe on the end of a 1" garden hose, perhaps, to suck out your main pipe as you go.
Good luck, and try to think of it as no worse than just another cloudy day at the beach!
Aitchkay
Sump pit, pump, drain away from house 30 ft.
I second carlmccarthy's recommendation of a Borzit. I bought one at my local Ewing Irrigation supply two years ago.
I first used it to run a 60' length of 3/4" pipe under an asphalt driveway. I stretched a stringline from my destination 120' with it passing over my starting point. I leveled the string and by keeping my drill and pipe assy parallel to the stringline and directly under it I bored to within 6" of my target (60 feet from my starting point).
I later used it to do something like you are describing to bore underneath a concrete patio to insert a 3" drain for a sunken concrete planter box.
The Borzit is really simple and impressively effective.
Karl
Edit to add that the borzit only works well if you have a low area to drill uphill from.
Edited 1/8/2009 12:40 am ET by karl
So what - does borzit run on compressed air - like from a tow behind compressor?
No, You power a borzit with a low speed 1/2 inch drill motor. It is basically a device that couples a pipe to a drill motor and allows you to feed water into the pipe while it is being turned by the drill. You thread a "drill bit" onto the other end of the pipe and the combination of turning and water jetting/flushing while you push with a moderate amount of pressure on the drill motor feeds the pipe through the soil. I can't recall exactly but it seems it took about 30 to 45 minutes to feed three twenty one footers of 3/4" pipe. I hit a few small roots and it cut through them. A big rock or substantial root would have stopped it dead in my estimation. I would have had to start a new hole or direction of attack.The thing is amazing what it can do for how little it costs. I think I paid less than 200 dollars.Karl
Is there such a thing as wonderful crawl space work?
It is when ya overdig 'em... subs love me<G>http://www.tvwsolar.com
I went down to the lobby
To make a small call out.
A pretty dancing girl was there,
And she began to shout,
"Go on back to see the gypsy.
He can move you from the rear,
Drive you from your fear,
Bring you through the mirror.
He did it in Las Vegas,
And he can do it here."
Hey Holly, nice web site!
Thanks Toni... I forgot to add the crawlspace pic, dang... look at the end of the Bingham Ridge page... I could live in that one!http://www.tvwsolar.com
I went down to the lobby
To make a small call out.
A pretty dancing girl was there,
And she began to shout,
"Go on back to see the gypsy.
He can move you from the rear,
Drive you from your fear,
Bring you through the mirror.
He did it in Las Vegas,
And he can do it here."
Trained muskrats work well but they are tough to find.
RMB