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We’re building on a hill, water streams down the recently punched-in road even on dry days, our foundation has been dug, and the work was halted when water crept into the excavation. It was pumped out, and our footings are going in a bit higher than originally planned. There are some puddles around the footings.
Any suggestions on what we should be sure to do to have a bone-dry basement?
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In order of importance:
1) Get all surface water heading away from the house
2) Have the gutter downspouts daylight far away and downhill of the house
3) Install drain pipe, sloped at 1 or 2% around the perimeter of the foundation below the bottom slab. Bed in gravel, then cover with gravel and geo-tech fabric.
4) Good waterproofing on the foundation walls.
5) Slope the land immediately surrounding the house away from the house. Consider a shallow drain system.
6) Look at details in FHB (1-2 years ago?) about subsurface insulation covered with waterproofing.
7) Put gravel-filled French drains under the slab and slope them to a sump-pump sump.
What kind of soils do you have that create such an effective bathtub?
Building a slab-on-grade on well-drained clean sands in Alaska,
David
*The FHB article David refers to is Details for a Dry Foundation, issue 111, Aug/Sep 97.
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We're building on a hill, water streams down the recently punched-in road even on dry days, our foundation has been dug, and the work was halted when water crept into the excavation. It was pumped out, and our footings are going in a bit higher than originally planned. There are some puddles around the footings.
Any suggestions on what we should be sure to do to have a bone-dry basement?