Investorguy
Silver Member
Okay, we bought our house just about a year ago. It was built about a year before that. It was perfect when we got it, except for a good 3-4 inches of water all around the crawl space. House is still new so there was no mold. However, vapor barrier is not meant to float on top of water, so something has to be done.
There are a few important details to consider.
*I'm in a very wet area. See this thread for more details. As an example, if I go walk out in my field, even 30 feet away from my house, I'm not walking in standing water, but you squish with each step like you're walking on a sponge. If you listen, you can literally hear the water running over the surface of the land.
*I have a 5 foot crawl space. At least that much. It's more like a "walk-hunched-over space". So it'd be very easy to get work done in there.
*The 3-4 inches of water is about 2-3 inches from any wood. You can see the highest the lines go when it's dry; there's not danger of the water actually touching the wood.
*The water level appears to stay pretty constant throughout the wet season. Doesn’t really go up or down. Its pretty much either there or it’s dry. It dries out in about May I think and gets wet in November.
I have no visible mold yet, but I need to get this taken care of permanently this summer. I’m not all that handy (but I’m working on it) with tools and such, but I’m good enough at making people money on their investment portfolios that afford to pay people who are much better at this stuff than me. Clearly I want to keep costs to a minimum, but it’s much more important to get the job done right.
I’ve had these solutions presented to me:
1. Pea-gravel. My father-in-law is a pretty handy guy w/ contracting experience. He suggested I blow out a foundation vent and put a spread 3 inches of pea gravel all around. This won’t do anything to the water, but it will allow the vapor barrier to sit on something solid instead of floating on water. He seems to think that would allow the vapor barrier to do its job and the problem would be effectively solved. Sounds pretty simple. Almost too simple.
2. I talked to a guy who dug some drainage ditches for me last fall. He supposedly was an expert in this field (even though I caught him putting the berm on the wrong side of my ditch). He said he’d solved numerous water problems and would solve mine the same way. He would dig a small trench around the inner perimeter of my crawl space, then do the perforated pipe thing w/ rocks and gravel and send it out to the road or connect into my footing drain pipe. I am skeptical of this fix b/c I think the foundation was simply dug beneath the water table. The footing drain pipe runs constantly all wet season. I think they may have put the footing drain too high, but that’s another story. Anyway, I asked him if he would guarantee that it worked. I haven’t heard back from him on that.
3. The most interesting solution appear to be one suggested by a crusty old guy that goes to my church and seems to know something about everything. I love people like that; I hope to be one when I’m old and crusty. Anyway, he said that I need to “7-sack” waterproof cement and get a truck to pump a floor into my crawl space. He says if I get a few inches of that all around then the water won’t be able to come up and the problem will be solved. I really don’t know much about working w/ concrete, but it seems like this is promising. I wonder a bit if the new cement will create a waterproof bond with the old footings? I know that putting some really heavy rock on land will squish the water out and away to areas. This stuff should be pretty heavy. However, if it doesn’t work, then it’ll be REALLY hard to drain the crawl space. Also, wouldn’t I need to put down crushed rock or something first? Or will I need rebar or some kind of wire mesh? The floor won’t be carrying any kind of weight from above, but the water will be pushing on it from below.
So there is my predicament. I want to get things rolling to get this all lined up to permanently deal with this summer, so I thought I’d throw it out to the most knowledgeable group of folk I’ve met yet on the internet.
Thanks for reading!
There are a few important details to consider.
*I'm in a very wet area. See this thread for more details. As an example, if I go walk out in my field, even 30 feet away from my house, I'm not walking in standing water, but you squish with each step like you're walking on a sponge. If you listen, you can literally hear the water running over the surface of the land.
*I have a 5 foot crawl space. At least that much. It's more like a "walk-hunched-over space". So it'd be very easy to get work done in there.
*The 3-4 inches of water is about 2-3 inches from any wood. You can see the highest the lines go when it's dry; there's not danger of the water actually touching the wood.
*The water level appears to stay pretty constant throughout the wet season. Doesn’t really go up or down. Its pretty much either there or it’s dry. It dries out in about May I think and gets wet in November.
I have no visible mold yet, but I need to get this taken care of permanently this summer. I’m not all that handy (but I’m working on it) with tools and such, but I’m good enough at making people money on their investment portfolios that afford to pay people who are much better at this stuff than me. Clearly I want to keep costs to a minimum, but it’s much more important to get the job done right.
I’ve had these solutions presented to me:
1. Pea-gravel. My father-in-law is a pretty handy guy w/ contracting experience. He suggested I blow out a foundation vent and put a spread 3 inches of pea gravel all around. This won’t do anything to the water, but it will allow the vapor barrier to sit on something solid instead of floating on water. He seems to think that would allow the vapor barrier to do its job and the problem would be effectively solved. Sounds pretty simple. Almost too simple.
2. I talked to a guy who dug some drainage ditches for me last fall. He supposedly was an expert in this field (even though I caught him putting the berm on the wrong side of my ditch). He said he’d solved numerous water problems and would solve mine the same way. He would dig a small trench around the inner perimeter of my crawl space, then do the perforated pipe thing w/ rocks and gravel and send it out to the road or connect into my footing drain pipe. I am skeptical of this fix b/c I think the foundation was simply dug beneath the water table. The footing drain pipe runs constantly all wet season. I think they may have put the footing drain too high, but that’s another story. Anyway, I asked him if he would guarantee that it worked. I haven’t heard back from him on that.
3. The most interesting solution appear to be one suggested by a crusty old guy that goes to my church and seems to know something about everything. I love people like that; I hope to be one when I’m old and crusty. Anyway, he said that I need to “7-sack” waterproof cement and get a truck to pump a floor into my crawl space. He says if I get a few inches of that all around then the water won’t be able to come up and the problem will be solved. I really don’t know much about working w/ concrete, but it seems like this is promising. I wonder a bit if the new cement will create a waterproof bond with the old footings? I know that putting some really heavy rock on land will squish the water out and away to areas. This stuff should be pretty heavy. However, if it doesn’t work, then it’ll be REALLY hard to drain the crawl space. Also, wouldn’t I need to put down crushed rock or something first? Or will I need rebar or some kind of wire mesh? The floor won’t be carrying any kind of weight from above, but the water will be pushing on it from below.
So there is my predicament. I want to get things rolling to get this all lined up to permanently deal with this summer, so I thought I’d throw it out to the most knowledgeable group of folk I’ve met yet on the internet.
Thanks for reading!