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I had a wet basement problem and I got some excellent advice from a very knowledgeable home inspector on how to fix it. He said I had to re-grade the land arou

I had a wet basement problem and I got some excellent advice from a very knowledgeable home inspector on how to fix it. He said I had to re-grade the land around the entire house so that water would drain away from the foundation, and that it should be a shallow slope (no more than 1-in-12) and go out for at least ten feet. One dump truck's worth of fill dirt later, a month of manual labor, and a large bag of grass seed, and the problem was solved, and hasn't recurred for 8 years so far. I had contractors quoting me tens of thousands of dollars to dig up the entire basement to install French drains, put in more sump pumps, seal the concrete walls, and re-drywall everything afterwards, but all of that would've just been expensive band-aids over the real problem, which was that water was falling on the lawn and flowing towards the house instead of away from it. Fortunately I already had good gutters that drained to the street, but if I hadn't, the home inspector definitely would have recommended that too. I have more money now so if I were to do it again I'd just hire a guy with a bobcat to do the grading instead of doing it all by hand with a wheelbarrow, shovel, and hand tamper. With the right tools it would only take half a day (and cost $1k or less).

HeyLaughingBoy 6y ago
> I had contractors quoting me tens of thousands of dollars to dig up the entire basement to install French drains That's criminal! Before I bought my first house, my realtor would show me how some of the houses we looked at either already had, or would have foundation/basement issues due to land grading and warned me to always make sure the ground slopes away from the house. And that was free advice from a guy who just wanted to sell me a house and get his commission! These guys clearly knew better but just wanted to get more work.
bleepblorp 6y ago
For the benefit of others reading this: water management techniques are site specific and the optimum strategy will depend on how water is approaching a building. Grading the ground to slope away from a house will work wonders if your problem is surface water, but different techniques will be required if your problem is ground water or roof run-off. Further, the degree of water protection required will depend heavily on both climate conditions and soil type. If you have fast-draining soil (e.g. sand) drainage will take care of itself regardless of how much rain you get. If you have non-draining soil (e.g. clay) you will need to go to a lot more trouble to keep water out even if it doesn't rain too much. Further, most of the techniques people are discussing in this thread--surface grading, french drains, exterior foundation waterproofing, roof rainwater diversion--are building code requirements in most areas. Any house built in at least the last 20 years, by competent contractors and in a jurisdiction with adequate code enforcement, should have all of these features built in. Older properties may, or may not, have water management features. Whether this is a problem will depend on local soil conditions and climate. If in doubt, consult a qualified engineer.
- toast0 6y ago
  > Any house built in at least the last 20 years, by competent contractors and in a jurisdiction with adequate code enforcement, should have all of these features built in. For those not in the construction business, this sentance needs the following addition ", but you need to check." Relying on code inspection and competent builders is like relying on software to follow RFC must and should. They should do it, but there's a significant chance they didn't and it's going to be your problem if they didn't, so you should confirm before you buy. You also can't rely on home inspectors to find this kind of thing; again, they should.
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 6y ago
    My general experience dealing with contractors in a large city with a decent permitting system demonstrates that you have to basically force the contractor to comply - they won’t even do a permit unless you mention it first and some will even actively go out of their way to try to convince you not to get one. Not every contractor I’ve worked with is like this but more often than not it is the case.
    - sulam 6y ago
      Permits are often time-consuming to get and can be expensive. If you go shopping on price, you will likely find contractors who believe the best thing they can do for you is to avoid the time and expense. After all "I'm going to build it to code anyway." Having done a lot of work on two houses now, I don't shop on price, and my contractor always gets permits and does inspections.
- just-juan-post 6y ago
  What is the best way to self educate on these topics? I know I could buy and comprehend some used college text books. I am also interested in other related topics related to home / building construction and maintenance. What related topic(s) do you recommend? Any suggestions on how to approach formally learning these things from trusted sources?
Tiktaalik 6y ago
Pains me to read this since I know that this is 100% the solution for my basement problem, but due to my site context, it's impossible for me to adopt this solution. My ancient house sits pretty much directly on the lot line next to the paved lane. The house is slightly below the grade of the lane and some runoff is bound to just go directly into the house. Of course I have basement water problems! The true solution of doing what you've said is not possible unless I managed to convince the city to regrade their lane. Unlikely!
- antsar 6y ago
  > convince Sounds like a job for a lawyer. Not that it will be cheap, but I’d guess neither is water damage?
- daniellarusso 6y ago
  They have in-ground ‘drains’ that you can pipe to another area of the property or to a basin w a pump to remove the water. Also, for inside the basement, you can have a bit of the floor removed at the edge and have a drain channel that empties into a sump pump.

HeyLaughingBoy 6y ago

> I had contractors quoting me tens of thousands of dollars to dig up the entire basement to install French drains That's criminal! Before I bought my first house, my realtor would show me how some of the houses we looked at either already had, or would have foundation/basement issues due to land grading and warned me to always make sure the ground slopes away from the house. And that was free advice from a guy who just wanted to sell me a house and get his commission! These guys clearly knew better but just wanted to get more work.

bleepblorp 6y ago

For the benefit of others reading this: water management techniques are site specific and the optimum strategy will depend on how water is approaching a building. Grading the ground to slope away from a house will work wonders if your problem is surface water, but different techniques will be required if your problem is ground water or roof run-off. Further, the degree of water protection required will depend heavily on both climate conditions and soil type. If you have fast-draining soil (e.g. sand) drainage will take care of itself regardless of how much rain you get. If you have non-draining soil (e.g. clay) you will need to go to a lot more trouble to keep water out even if it doesn't rain too much. Further, most of the techniques people are discussing in this thread--surface grading, french drains, exterior foundation waterproofing, roof rainwater diversion--are building code requirements in most areas. Any house built in at least the last 20 years, by competent contractors and in a jurisdiction with adequate code enforcement, should have all of these features built in. Older properties may, or may not, have water management features. Whether this is a problem will depend on local soil conditions and climate. If in doubt, consult a qualified engineer.

toast0 6y ago
> Any house built in at least the last 20 years, by competent contractors and in a jurisdiction with adequate code enforcement, should have all of these features built in. For those not in the construction business, this sentance needs the following addition ", but you need to check." Relying on code inspection and competent builders is like relying on software to follow RFC must and should. They should do it, but there's a significant chance they didn't and it's going to be your problem if they didn't, so you should confirm before you buy. You also can't rely on home inspectors to find this kind of thing; again, they should.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 6y ago
  My general experience dealing with contractors in a large city with a decent permitting system demonstrates that you have to basically force the contractor to comply - they won’t even do a permit unless you mention it first and some will even actively go out of their way to try to convince you not to get one. Not every contractor I’ve worked with is like this but more often than not it is the case.
  - sulam 6y ago
    Permits are often time-consuming to get and can be expensive. If you go shopping on price, you will likely find contractors who believe the best thing they can do for you is to avoid the time and expense. After all "I'm going to build it to code anyway." Having done a lot of work on two houses now, I don't shop on price, and my contractor always gets permits and does inspections.
just-juan-post 6y ago
What is the best way to self educate on these topics? I know I could buy and comprehend some used college text books. I am also interested in other related topics related to home / building construction and maintenance. What related topic(s) do you recommend? Any suggestions on how to approach formally learning these things from trusted sources?

Tiktaalik 6y ago

Pains me to read this since I know that this is 100% the solution for my basement problem, but due to my site context, it's impossible for me to adopt this solution. My ancient house sits pretty much directly on the lot line next to the paved lane. The house is slightly below the grade of the lane and some runoff is bound to just go directly into the house. Of course I have basement water problems! The true solution of doing what you've said is not possible unless I managed to convince the city to regrade their lane. Unlikely!

antsar 6y ago
> convince Sounds like a job for a lawyer. Not that it will be cheap, but I’d guess neither is water damage?
daniellarusso 6y ago
They have in-ground ‘drains’ that you can pipe to another area of the property or to a basin w a pump to remove the water. Also, for inside the basement, you can have a bit of the floor removed at the edge and have a drain channel that empties into a sump pump.