re: Standing water under raised house

We purchased a house that had huge trenches dug under it for the pier foundations that would fill with water.

And due to the underside being slightly lower than the yard we had 20+ 18 yard loads of sand pumped under the house...cost just over $5000 to do it and that was back in 2003...I can't imagine what that would cost now.

Need to pour a slab.

But DO NOT forget the visqueen. Concrete will sweat so much it'll be like a lake.

Got a similar issue but not trying to sell; currently have to live with it.

I had someone who installed a lot of vents, and that seemed to help out a good bit. It HAD been closed up, except for the entry to the crawlspace.

I've got another problem that I would be interested in hearing... my lot is still staying pretty wet (and the backyard in particular). I've heard people mention regrading/raising the lot with sand or similar, but what do you do with UNDER the house? Wouldn't that drive more water under it?

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-install a drain from under the house to a low spot somewhere nearby (usually there is a low 'trench' between lots in the older areas of BR). This can be as simple as a plastic 4" perforated, corrugated drain pipe that you trench away from the house.

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I did this for same problem. Found the low spot and took it out.

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good advice. also call Norm Ryan. LINK

He's the man

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Is that something Norm would do? I know he's the man when it comes to moisture intrusion, but confined leveling seems like an entirely different animal.

I had a moisture issue at my old house and talked to 4 contractors who were absolutely clueless to the problem. The problem was actually obvious to me, but I didn't have the equipment to fix it. I didn't want to hire a contractor that didn't understand the root cause, though. I finally talked to Norm and he basically finished my sentence for me.

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Do you have a picture of the plastic tray or could you explain how it looks or how it was built. I have a load of top soil to put under a shed that is about 2 1/2' off the ground.

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You're looking for a drywall mud pan. People use them for mixing drywall compound, concrete, etc.

Lowes has one that would be perfect for your needs.



Click the pic...

My parents have a liner pool in which they've set up a well point with a float switch in a box. Whenever the water in the ground floats that switch, it kicks the pump on which has about a dozen points in the ground around the pool it sucks water out of.

The pool is more complicated, but I don't know why you couldn't set something like this up under a house. It's just a sprinkler system pump and you could just put the well points 2-3 feet in the ground in the low spots. Then run the pump line out to the back of your yard.

Fill dirt would fix the visible water, but it still may hold water in the soil. Which termites love wet ground.

Not that it would be th OP's issue at that point.

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I've got another problem that I would be interested in hearing... my lot is still staying pretty wet (and the backyard in particular). I've heard people mention regrading/raising the lot with sand or similar, but what do you do with UNDER the house? Wouldn't that drive more water under it?

Sloping or regrading the yard is a start. But you have to get the water under and around the house out. If your yard is higher than whats under the house you will hold water. Installing gutters and french drains around the house to funnel water away is a huge start and often times solves the issue. If not, then fill needs to be spread under the house and "turtle backed" to the edges. If you have a chain wall foundation closing off the underside, then make sure you have proper flow vents needed for cross ventilation.

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Thanks for the reply. I recently had the house leveled, and the contractor did add some vents to aide in drying underneath.

Looks like my problem is my yard is a little lower than the neighbor's, and my back yard catches the runoff. It's been bad since the winter, it seems like with any significant rain I get standing water back there, that comes up to the house (and is beginning to give me problems at one spot, that is on a slab (was a closed-in garage, at ground level, below the rest of the house which is up on piers). Seems like if I were to add dirt to the yard to raise things, that would address the runoff... but I suppose I need to raise the level under the house too, so it doesn't create a lake under the house.

Gotta figure out a way to drain the backyard, toying with running a small ditch out to the drainage ditch at the road, would have to snake around a bit.

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Well four of us spent the last two weekends removing 3300 sq ft of pink fiberglass from the underside to switch to closed cell spray foam (which was installed yesterday) because the fiberglass was falling down...

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Who did the spray job? Do they charge by the SQ foot?

Just curious how many yards of dirt are needed?