patrickg
Veteran Member
Re: Why aren\'t basements built in the south?
Nice thread! I have been running around in 8 ft deep trenches in slop that theatens to go over the top of my rubber boots off and on for a few days now. We have completed the excavation for my walk out basement. It is only under the central portion of the house. Digging was not easy after getting down through the sandy soil and hitting pretty hard rock in several places. The basement excavation is about 8 1/2 feet deep. Water runs out of the walls where the sandy soil lies on the rock. Ground water is currently about 5 ft below surface and this is with 90 days or more since last precip of note. Since it is a walk out basement it can't be an indoor swimming pool.
I have trenched around the basement about 5-8 ft out from the basement excavation to intercept the ground water as it comes down the slope. I am putting 4 inch perforated roll pipe with a cloth sleeve over it in that trench. This drain pipe will have 4 in of gravel under it and 4 inches over it with the whole thing wrapped in geotextile. One end of the trench goes to a creek just up from a pond and the other goes into the pond. This intercepting trench will reduce the amount of water getting to the foundation of the basement and also protects the leach field site from ground water.
I am using rigid perforated pipe as perimeter drains for the basement foundation. One loop outside but adjacent to the foundation and the other loop just inside the foundation. I have trenched in 4 each 4 inch drain pipes from the southeast corner of the basement excacvation to the nearest pond. I plan to have the northwest corner of the basement the "high point" and the southeast corner (where the drains are) as the low point. The outer loop attaches to the two outer drain pipes and the inner loop to the two pipes in the center so no pipes cross over another. The intercepting trench "Y" into the trench with the 4 rigid pipes downslope of the south side (down hill side) of the basement.
The idea is to intercept the ground water as it flows down slope before it get s to the basement. Of course, some water will get to thte foundation, whether by sneaking past the intercepting trench somehow or by falling as rain between the intercepting trench and the basement wall. Anyway the dual perimeter drains inside and outside of the foundation wall should take care of that.
Why a basement in south central Oklahoma? This walkout basement will contain the mechanical spaces and its noises. It will provide a fairly secure (tornado resistant) guest bedroom, a second small kitchen, a bathroom convenient to the back yard, space for both a direct vent propane gas log fireplace AND a small wood stove AND plenty of space for at least an 8 ft if not tournament (9 ft) pool table. I am still debating the window situation for the guest bedroom. I will probably go with a pair of fairly small windows with internal safety shutters which will be out of sight behind the drapes. Probably 1/2 inch steel or as advised by competent authorities. The guest bedroom door is not visible from the window wall of the "Pool Room" so I haven't decided if it gets a FEMA approved saferoom door.
The master suite of this house will have foot thick steel reinforced concrete walls, will sit on a slab floor, and will have a cast concrete ceiling. I am still debating windows for the bedroom which has an adjoining sitting room (within the master suite) which has a window wall on the south side and a fireplace. The master bath, bedroom and walk in closets will be inside of the reinforced walls and have concrete ceilings.
My wife's digital camera started acting up and I am remiss in getting a new battery so am missing many photo ops. I think it is the batt as it works fresh off the charger but not a while later. If anyone is interested I could try to get some snaps of the building site. Looks like a war zone. Track hoe, back hoe, two 10 wheel dump trucks and a dozer (I returned the rented Bobcat with 500lb hammer chisel on front.) Huge dirt pile over 30 ft high. Building a dam for another pond and repairing another one with the excess dirt.
We brought the grade down a variable amount to get a slope from the walkout basement exit to one of the ponds. Near the pond we took out about 7 ft high penensula and made it about 3 ft above the water. There is a 6 ft drop from the basement excavation to the water surface in the pond. We will use about 3 ft of that as slope to the back yard and I will raise the water in the pond about 3 ft by repairing the spillway.
In theory everything is going to drain as all drains have redundant paths and it is downhill from the basement to the pond. There is a closer pond which we are not draining to because its water level is higher than the basement. It has a very nice thick dam and I am installing a 14 inch steel drain pipe (0.4 inches thick) and contouring the land where its overflow is so that even in a very significant rain event, the worst that should happen is some water may cross the lower portion of the back yard but in a wide and shallow situation that will not cause erosion nor harm the lawn. The dam I am building is upstream of this higher pond and that pond will moderate the creek flow to this pond. The new pond will also have a 14 inch overflow pipe and the dam will be significantly higher than the drain pipe for good surge storage.
By now you can probably tell we wanted a basement and a high liklihood of it NOT being an indoor water feature.
I like the idea of a walkout basement with a south facing window wall but if done properly a conventional basement can be bone dry, even with several window wells. Musty wet basements are avoidable, especially with the modern technology at hand. It is a shame that so many poor basements are built, it fosters the notion in the uninitiated that all basements are mildew farms.
I think I'll quit before I need chapter headings...
Patrick
Nice thread! I have been running around in 8 ft deep trenches in slop that theatens to go over the top of my rubber boots off and on for a few days now. We have completed the excavation for my walk out basement. It is only under the central portion of the house. Digging was not easy after getting down through the sandy soil and hitting pretty hard rock in several places. The basement excavation is about 8 1/2 feet deep. Water runs out of the walls where the sandy soil lies on the rock. Ground water is currently about 5 ft below surface and this is with 90 days or more since last precip of note. Since it is a walk out basement it can't be an indoor swimming pool.
I have trenched around the basement about 5-8 ft out from the basement excavation to intercept the ground water as it comes down the slope. I am putting 4 inch perforated roll pipe with a cloth sleeve over it in that trench. This drain pipe will have 4 in of gravel under it and 4 inches over it with the whole thing wrapped in geotextile. One end of the trench goes to a creek just up from a pond and the other goes into the pond. This intercepting trench will reduce the amount of water getting to the foundation of the basement and also protects the leach field site from ground water.
I am using rigid perforated pipe as perimeter drains for the basement foundation. One loop outside but adjacent to the foundation and the other loop just inside the foundation. I have trenched in 4 each 4 inch drain pipes from the southeast corner of the basement excacvation to the nearest pond. I plan to have the northwest corner of the basement the "high point" and the southeast corner (where the drains are) as the low point. The outer loop attaches to the two outer drain pipes and the inner loop to the two pipes in the center so no pipes cross over another. The intercepting trench "Y" into the trench with the 4 rigid pipes downslope of the south side (down hill side) of the basement.
The idea is to intercept the ground water as it flows down slope before it get s to the basement. Of course, some water will get to thte foundation, whether by sneaking past the intercepting trench somehow or by falling as rain between the intercepting trench and the basement wall. Anyway the dual perimeter drains inside and outside of the foundation wall should take care of that.
Why a basement in south central Oklahoma? This walkout basement will contain the mechanical spaces and its noises. It will provide a fairly secure (tornado resistant) guest bedroom, a second small kitchen, a bathroom convenient to the back yard, space for both a direct vent propane gas log fireplace AND a small wood stove AND plenty of space for at least an 8 ft if not tournament (9 ft) pool table. I am still debating the window situation for the guest bedroom. I will probably go with a pair of fairly small windows with internal safety shutters which will be out of sight behind the drapes. Probably 1/2 inch steel or as advised by competent authorities. The guest bedroom door is not visible from the window wall of the "Pool Room" so I haven't decided if it gets a FEMA approved saferoom door.
The master suite of this house will have foot thick steel reinforced concrete walls, will sit on a slab floor, and will have a cast concrete ceiling. I am still debating windows for the bedroom which has an adjoining sitting room (within the master suite) which has a window wall on the south side and a fireplace. The master bath, bedroom and walk in closets will be inside of the reinforced walls and have concrete ceilings.
My wife's digital camera started acting up and I am remiss in getting a new battery so am missing many photo ops. I think it is the batt as it works fresh off the charger but not a while later. If anyone is interested I could try to get some snaps of the building site. Looks like a war zone. Track hoe, back hoe, two 10 wheel dump trucks and a dozer (I returned the rented Bobcat with 500lb hammer chisel on front.) Huge dirt pile over 30 ft high. Building a dam for another pond and repairing another one with the excess dirt.
We brought the grade down a variable amount to get a slope from the walkout basement exit to one of the ponds. Near the pond we took out about 7 ft high penensula and made it about 3 ft above the water. There is a 6 ft drop from the basement excavation to the water surface in the pond. We will use about 3 ft of that as slope to the back yard and I will raise the water in the pond about 3 ft by repairing the spillway.
In theory everything is going to drain as all drains have redundant paths and it is downhill from the basement to the pond. There is a closer pond which we are not draining to because its water level is higher than the basement. It has a very nice thick dam and I am installing a 14 inch steel drain pipe (0.4 inches thick) and contouring the land where its overflow is so that even in a very significant rain event, the worst that should happen is some water may cross the lower portion of the back yard but in a wide and shallow situation that will not cause erosion nor harm the lawn. The dam I am building is upstream of this higher pond and that pond will moderate the creek flow to this pond. The new pond will also have a 14 inch overflow pipe and the dam will be significantly higher than the drain pipe for good surge storage.
By now you can probably tell we wanted a basement and a high liklihood of it NOT being an indoor water feature.
I like the idea of a walkout basement with a south facing window wall but if done properly a conventional basement can be bone dry, even with several window wells. Musty wet basements are avoidable, especially with the modern technology at hand. It is a shame that so many poor basements are built, it fosters the notion in the uninitiated that all basements are mildew farms.
I think I'll quit before I need chapter headings...
Patrick
