Working Towards a Paperless Home
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8 years ago
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MtnRdRedux
8 years agosjhockeyfan325
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Grade slope toward house help
Comments (7)What you don't want is moisture to seep into the wall and get close to wood inside. I would first establish where the grade should be (disregarding that part of the wall is brick). Mark it out with a chalk line. Extend the bituminous waterproofing (such as what has already been applied to the concrete) to that line, including the brick that will be buried. Backfill and establish a proper grade. I wouldn't worry that a small amount of waterproofing will be above grade in the end. It will be covered by plantings. The scheme of filling a trench with rubber mulch will not work because it, too, will hold moisture which will eventually work its way into the wall. It is waterproofing DIRECTLY ON THE WALL that you need. Forget all the landscape fabric, plastic, etc. This stuff will not do the job of waterproofing. Ultimately, it will be in the way -- probably fairly early on -- and will get torn up, at which point it will become a mess....See MoreSide yard slopes towards house
Comments (16)The plan and sketchup perspective are helpful. It was the deck along the side that I wanted to know about. If you limit the width of the swale to only about 4', you may not be able to achieve enough capacity to hold all the water during a torrential storm. I'd widen the swale to about half the distance between house and fence. Making it wider is fine, but the wider it is, the larger the retaining wall must be. Though I said I'd avoid creating the swale below the deck, I will now eat my words. Often, in a remodel situation--especially with limited space and where everything around is already built up--one cannot do everything in the perfectly ideal manner. But in creating it under the deck, I'd make sure it's wide enough to have sufficient capacity. In the sketch, I'm showing the deck using the wall as a support, but whether you could do that, or not, depends on how things shake out in the relationship of finish floor elevation (ffe) to existing grade. You seem like the kind of guy who would have a nice laser level, or need an excuse to buy one. You might some evening use one to mark the ffe directly on the grade (with paint) so you can get a nice visual of what you're dealing with. Depending, you may be able to create a secondary swale at the top of the wall and disperse the water before it goes into the primary swale. But because of grade and roots, that might not work out. You also might build the wall higher than I show and connect the deck to its side. Or, the deck may be independent of the the wall. Hopefully, you can understand the sketch of the drainage scheme. The arrows indicate that you must drain water away from your house at ALL sides. Near the back, it collects in the swale and is moved around the house to lower elevations on its way toward the front. I would not be much concerned about the tree roots. The prior disturbances are long ago and trees have nothing better to do than grow replacement roots, so they've long ago been re-established. The rear-most tree will maintain more than 3/4 of it's roots in spite of your building a wall in its vicinity. Near the front-most tree, if you end the wall aiming directly at the trunk, as I've shown, you will have little need to remove many large roots. It can recover from other excavation you do in the vicinity. (See the part of the sketch, in red and black, floating above the deck.)...See MoreBuying a home with backyard sloping towards house?
Comments (10)I've lived in houses that were on a slope, and agree w/what Logic said, it depends on whether the slope ends at the house, or if there's a drainage swale in between so the lowest point is not right next to the house. If the lowest point is next to the house, drainage problems can cause leaking basements, foundation failure, sinking of one side of the foundation, and water can even come up thru the floor in houses built with a slab on grade foundation. Can also get in vents where builders put vents in a slab foundation. Water in crawlspaces, too. It can be remedied but the best thing is to prevent it by proper site grading and foundation construction. Remedies after the fact are usually expensive; often, the damage has already been done. And yes, Logic is also right that people will conceal water damage. I know of someone whose new house had a drainage problem that led to a basement leak. Rather than pursue the builder for proper repairs they finished the basement so the leaks are concealed. Everything in their basement reeks of mold. They are taking their chances that no one can prove it and sue them when they sell. Stupid and unethical, but it happens. Far too many new homes are built on slopes where you see every house has the lowest point of their lot against one side of the house as you go downhill. Even on a slight slope it can wreck the foundation to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. Just for future reference to any reader, I would not buy a house with a negative grade unless there was evidence a proper drainage swale and everything else required had been built right in the first place. I have lived in such a house and it never had any of the above problems even with a slope in the yard....See MoreInstead of Going Home After Work I Went to Home Depot Jade and Lithops
Comments (9)Thank you also. I do love the Asian look in all aspects. I love the pot also, but have been told if I keep the plant in it too long, I will never be able to get it out of the pot, due to the shape. But I am not ready to repot yet... I really love the looks of the trunk on this variety...seems to look different from other jades. I have had it a few years now, not sure how many, exactly. Good luck with yours. Christopher...See MoreOutsidePlaying
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