I’m having some slight moisture issues in my basement and belive it’s a grade issue with exterior water flowing down grade and hitting the side of the basement as it contiunes down.
I dug some investigative holes(to see if anything weird was going on) in the area and have discovered a strange occurrence.
When I was digging, it started raining hard. After a while, random channels of water began appearing, almost like there were mini tunnels in the soil
I’ve developed the theory that it’s old roots that have died, rotted and created these tunnels to enable efficient water movement.
1. Is this remotely feasible? Is so, is there a name for this?
2. What’s the best remedy? My assumption is to dig down, remove any organic material and repack soil with a tamper.
Thanks in advance
Replies
yes
I trust your powers of observation. once channels open up, they can be self sustaining, as water erodes more material through those channels.
the only thing I would add is that if some of the slope of your property is towards your house, you should probably install a french drain directing water around and below your house.
k
did a study on the "porousity" of different types of surfaces, a plowed field turned out to be less porous than a field that had been unplowed for a couple of years, turns out all the little critters, worms etc form micro chanels through the soil and this allows the water to pentetrate more efficiently. Plowing the same field fractures all these channels and the water sits on, rather than leaking into the top soil, kind of counterintuitive to what we had originally thought ..