Hi all,
My question involves exterior drainage around my foundation.
I moved into my house this past fall. It’s a three storey brick home, 100 plus years old, with a stone foundation. The foundation and the brick are in great shape. The basement is fairly dry, especially for the area in which I live. The sump pump comes on briefly, only when the snow melts, or during prolonged periods of torrential rain. The rest of the year, the basement is dry and the sump hole is as dry as a bone.
The previous owners built up a grade of dirt around the foundation. They then covered the ground with plastic (though they used the wrong kind of plastic according to our home inspector) and they covered the plastic sheeting with stones. The grade extends about four feet away from the house. This was of course, to keep the water out of the basement. The stones are ugly, and they take up space that would otherwise be taken up by gardens. The house also has no eavestroughs (gutters), so when it pours rain, the water pours right down onto the rocks. Most similar houses in our neighbourhood have eavestroughs, some do not.
This summer or next we’ll need to redo the grade around the foundation, and replace the plastic liner with a new liner or with landscapers fabric. We also plan on putting up eavestroughs to deal with the water. *We would much rather get rid of the stones and replace them with a nice English style garden.*
My question then is this: Can I simply get rid of these rocks, and if so, do I need to replace it with anything? Is installing Eavestrough enough to keep the water away from the foundation? Is there another, less obtrusive solution that will allow me to plant a garden? I realize that the stones are there for a reason, however, I have yet to see a house in our neighbourhood with a similar system.
I caught wind of a similar problem on Ask This Old House a few weeks back, where a homeowner dug a trench around his foundation, then filled it with gravel and a drainage pipe in order to whisk the water away from his house, out into his lawn. Hopefully I can do something like this.
Thanks in advance.
Replies
You need to assure that the soil is at least gently sloped away from the foundation for those four feet, and that there's no place for water to stand within ten feet or so. If you do that then with gutters you should be in pretty good shape. The drain tile thing can be done, but you need to make sure that you can drain it "to daylight" somewhere.
Note that another reason for the rock is that without it, and without gutters, the rain will dig a hole in the soil at the drip line.