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Hi-
Have a basement that was added on in the 60’s that is roughly 20’x20′, with 6-1/2′ high walls (measured from the inside) made of 12″ foundation block. Two of the walls have some moisture/humidity problems and are accessable from the exterior (if excavated around), two are not accessable and do not appear to have any problems anyway (original house and crawl space are on the other side of these two walls).
What I would like to do, based on reading, is the following:
1) Excavate along the two walls down to the footings with a small backhoe.
2) Clean the block by pressure washing it.
3) After it drys, apply plasticized roofing cement to the whole of both walls, which I’ve read is good for use below grade.
4) Wrap both walls with two layers of 6 mil poly sheeting
5) Place 2″ rigid foam board against the walls up to grade level
6) Backfill
And finally the questions:
1) Does this sound acceptable or is there a better way?
2) What can I expect to put in time wise being a novice running a rental backhoe, excavating 7′ down and 40 lineal feet about the walls ?
I plan to do all the gutters, regrade, etc. but feel this is necessary too.
Thanks for your comments!
Replies
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I would go down on the side (not below) the footing and install drain tile and run to daylite/sump it out to somewhere legal. Cover pipe with landscape cloth, backfill with clean 5/7 gravel all the way up to grade. Take a look at this system for insulation/watercontrol: http://www.tuff-n-dri.com. It might give you some more ideas. Best of luck.
*Agreed, a good drain system is important. JLC has a pretty good 4 page article on this starting at:http://www.jlconline.com/jlc/archive/foundations/foundation_drainage/index.html
*> 40 linear feet, 7' deep... You are going to need to slope the excavation away from the house for safety reasons (we don't want to be going to any funerals), and in any case, a b lotof dirt is going to come out of there. Make sure you plan on enough room to stack that much dirt.> Small backhoe... I have actually found that a small backhoe can be harder to operate than a medium sized one, and assuming that the soil is somewhat hard, (clay, etc) the medium sized machine will dig much faster. Neither will be easy to operate for a beginner. Further, are you sure that this small machine will comfortably go 7' deep? Around here, getting the utilities located (marked with spray paint on the grass, etc) is free. Go ahead and get them marked now so that if there is a situation, you can plan for it.A few other thoughts: Don't rule out a track machine. And..., are you sure you can't find someone close by to do the diging for you? You may find that you can hire it out almost as cheap as you can rent the machine. Digging right up next to the house is not the best place to learn.To answer at least one of your questions, it sounds like at least a 3 day job.
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Hi-
Have a basement that was added on in the 60's that is roughly 20'x20', with 6-1/2' high walls (measured from the inside) made of 12" foundation block. Two of the walls have some moisture/humidity problems and are accessable from the exterior (if excavated around), two are not accessable and do not appear to have any problems anyway (original house and crawl space are on the other side of these two walls).
What I would like to do, based on reading, is the following:
1) Excavate along the two walls down to the footings with a small backhoe.
2) Clean the block by pressure washing it.
3) After it drys, apply plasticized roofing cement to the whole of both walls, which I've read is good for use below grade.
4) Wrap both walls with two layers of 6 mil poly sheeting
5) Place 2" rigid foam board against the walls up to grade level
6) Backfill
And finally the questions:
1) Does this sound acceptable or is there a better way?
2) What can I expect to put in time wise being a novice running a rental backhoe, excavating 7' down and 40 lineal feet about the walls ?
I plan to do all the gutters, regrade, etc. but feel this is necessary too.
Thanks for your comments!