Grading around 30yo house

[nobull1]

Here are my opinions based on what I assume, and have been told. Starting with the easiest first

1. Dig out the old French drain and go to what is a reasonable/possible depth below the footings. This might fix your problem without any further work. The French drain should be easy digging, and a lot of the material should be able to be used again. From what you say the gravel in the FD is only down to a depth of about 2'. This depth is not near enough to control your problem. This is the cheapest, easiest and fastest way.
2. Remove the deck and grade away from your house as far as is reasonable to the surrounding land, as was suggested. Then put a French drain all along the outside of the graded area, to a depth below the footings. I assume that the current FD is already at the outer edge of where you would grade to, and could possibly be used.

There are a couple of things that I would and wouldn't do regardless.​

1. Don't cover the FD with grass, topsoil or geo-textile. I have played with all the previous things and find that they just slow the flow of surface water to the drain. What I try to do is turn the FD into a walkway/path around the house. With a little pea stone and some creative thinking you can make it look natural and still be effective. Next month I have two of these to do and when finished it will be me and the home owner who know what the path really is. I do realize that some people don't want this effect, and then you have no choice but to cover it with something.
2. Make sure that you use geo-textile on the bottom and sides of the French drain. This will help to keep the mud out of the FD gravel, and it should help it to work fine for many years.

Get a Geo-Engineer, or a the very least talk to a local excavating company to find out about the soil conditions and the possible solutions that work in your area.


All this is just my opinion based on what I assume and understand of what has been said, and assuming you are looking for a solution that is inexpensive. I hold the right to change my opinion at anytime as more info becomes available, or just because I want to

Brian​

 

[bigballer]

great responses - thanks for the input guys. i didn't want to spend alot of money on this but doing this work will be protecting my biggest asset so i am taking ALL options into consideration. i also just spoke with a drainage contractor who is highly regarded by my neighbors (has done work for several of them including hillside regrading around my adjacent neighbors new house the original contractor left in a mess). we happen to share the same hillside. he is going to come up this evening and survey the site to see what should be done. i'll update the thread with his recommendations and plan of action.

highbeam - thanks for the photos and info - i'd definately like to come down and check out your work but at this point my weekends are pretty booked, as you said, winter is coming.. ;-) good luck with your project. and thanks again to all those that responded to this thread so far..

Thanks!