Any ideas with this?

JulieMor

One corner of my house meets up with an upward slope. The foundation isn't high enough above grade at that point and that's making things difficult.

Years ago I laid down 6x6 landscape timbers away from the house and raised up the grade so that water runoff wouldn't go directly to the foundation wall.


The remains of the rotted timber are on the left






You can see how much the ground settled by looking at the spray mark on the foundation. That was over 20+ years. It was more, but I filled in some of it the other day.

The timbers are mostly rotted away. I removed some where the piece of laminated beam is (in the past, we used that as a base for splitting firewood but it's just rotting away now).

There's about a foot of pea gravel under and around the bay widow. The foundation wall does not extend out for the bay.

I'm going to remove the rotted paneling and trim. Under the window I'll replace it with the same siding and replace the trim to match. Where the electrical boxes are, I plan on replacing the rotted wood with a piece of PT plywood and then re-installing the sub panel, eliminating the not so WP box and installing GFI receptacles for landscape lighting.

Until a few days ago, the AC condenser sat there and I think that's why the wood rotted so bad but you can see where the AC disconnect was the wood rotted there too. That's why I want to go with PT lumber. Plus it will give me a solid base to mount the electrical on.

Now for the question mark - I want something to go against the exterior wall of the house so I can bring up the grade, most likely with stone. The top of the grade will be higher than the top of the foundation wall. So I need something that will be waterproof.

This is what I drew up: (E)=existing (N)=new

I was thinking of starting off with waterproofing membrane on the house siding then laying CMU on top of stone and some finished retaining wall block on top of that. Then flash it as necessary. In the future we'd like to lay pavers in this area.

I don't know if this is doable. Can you put waterproofing membrane over the siding? Should I replace any siding that would be below grade with PT ply? Can I set the block against the siding or do I have to leave a space? (I'd rather not to avoid critters inhabiting the void under the bay.)

Any ideas?

jcarlilesiu

I think it would be much easier, less possibility of failure, and overall a better long term solution to re-grade the area outside of that wall to the appropriate height with appropriate slope away from the foundation.

JulieMor

The problem is I can't grade a slope away from the house without creating a swale or installing drain tile and both would have to be very close to the foundation or I will end up having to do a lot of digging.

JulieMor

The problem is I can't grade a slope away from the house without creating a swale or installing drain tile and both would have to be very close to the foundation or I will end up having to do a lot of digging.

mae-ling

French drain?
https://www.google.ca/search?q=frenc...w=1264&bih=726

mae-ling

Siding should not be below grade.
Siding down to say 16" from ground then skirt below that with pargeing or ????
What is under the siding below grade?

JulieMor

A French drain would require me to dig a trench under the deck, about 40', to the lower grade side of the house.

We're planning on replacing the deck planking this summer. Maybe when we do we can look at some sort of drain system to carry the rainwater off away from the house.