# How to grade away from house with little room to work with



## twopair2s3s (Jun 24, 2014)

Hello.

I just bought a new home and it has negative grade on the side of the home causing hydrostatic pressure on my basement walls causing mold on the paint and a slight bow. As you can see from the picture I have little room to create a slope as my property line is where the fence ends. How do I keep the rain from running back to the basement?

THANKS!


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## wkearney99 (Apr 8, 2009)

The most common way to do it is to dig up the outside of the foundation, put a barrier on it and put a drain tile system down at the bottom. Run those lines back into the basement to a sump pit. Put a pump in that pit that sends the water back out at a point where it'll drain away from the house. The idea is collect the water and manage it. Get it into the drain and pumped away before it has a chance to do further harm to the foundation.

First step, however, is the existing rain gutters. Make sure they're set up in such as fashion as to bring the water down and into points that will keep it away from the foundation. New houses around here do this by using hard 4" PVC from the bottom of each gutter over to a dry well. This way the water is collected in the pit and leaches slowly out of it into the surrounding soil. Rather than just dumping out onto the soil and possibly running back to the house. That and it keeps the water on-site and not dumped into the already overloaded metropolitan storm drainage system.


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## twopair2s3s (Jun 24, 2014)

There is no water in the basement and the inspector had a moisture detector and said it is just a little more moist on the wall than a normal basement. So i dont think its leaking water so I dont really want to add a sump pump and all that. Do you think french drains would work or just fixing the grading with build up around foundation then slope out>?


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## wkearney99 (Apr 8, 2009)

Slight bow and mold don't jibe with being 'just a little moist'. Pictures of the inside condition would help clarify.

Do you mean a drain tile on the outside down at the footer? If so, where's the water going to go once it's collected down there? Or are you thinking about doing something up near the surface?

Where's the water coming from? The pictures don't show much of a negative grade. So I'd wonder where all the water is coming from to be causing your troubles?


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## twopair2s3s (Jun 24, 2014)

these are the pictures of the wall, and yes the negative slope isnt dramatic but if u look at the ac block u can see the degree of slope. And this house is 90 years old so I think the mold and bow isnt bad for 80 years of rain slowing flowing back in... but idk heres the pictures


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## AllanJ (Nov 24, 2007)

French drains require a sump pump or other means of removing the water collected in them.

A not so rare problem is backfilling the foundation after pouring it and the backfilled soil is not well compacted or has rocks leaving voids against the foundation. Water collects in the voids and takes its time soaking the concrete as well as seeping downward.

Waterproofing the outside of the foundation helps immensely here although you need to dig around the foundation and after the waterproofing is done, backfilling again.


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## mikegp (Jul 17, 2011)

To answer your original question. Lift the ac unit and add dirt. There's not much to it. Make a slight slope running to the property line.


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## wkearney99 (Apr 8, 2009)

If you go that route, don't buy the dirt by the bag from a box store, order it in bulk. It's much less expensive. Prepared to be surprised just how much it'll take.


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## ritelec (Aug 30, 2009)

Concrete. Like a small walkway so the water runs into the earth like 2' or so away, away from the house.

(you could leave it, or color it green, or mulch or something on top)
Just a suggestion.


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## twopair2s3s (Jun 24, 2014)

Ya i haven't decided the final method. As the grade isnt super negative i might just make a minor slope out but the concrete thing sounds simple to. also 100% drylok'ing my basement walls.


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