Foundation question-Update with more photos
When the foundation was poured Missouri was slammed with an overabundance of rain. I had a pool in my yard. Fast forward about six months. Entry to crawl space was forced open by the dogs. I have standing water under my house. Contractor installs a French drain under the house to a four inch pipe.
Ground is a lovely shade of Missouri clay. Anywho I got a wild hair to start working on the landscaping around the foundation. Started digging/removing all the green stuff growing to prep for flower beds. On the upside of the slope I noticed moist ground. Dig down and found this. There is a concrete lip. Is it retaining water? Should I rent a backhoe and finish the dig to install an exterior French drain?
The contractor installed the crawl space drain along the lengthwise side going to the down side of the slope. So the crawlspace French drain outlet is on the opposite side of the house.
UPDATE: Took the day off yesterday to celebrate Mother's Day with the neighbors. Today checked the channel and water was only in the low area. Dug deeper and wider. Determined water appears to be what is pooling against the foundation above the lip. It is slowly seeping out in that area.
We've had an untold amount of rain. Still have puddles in the yard and the ditch bullfrogs are still enjoying standing water. Rain is on its way again. The crawlspace has plastic/visquene liner.
Going to get gutters installed with drains to fill rain barrels. In the meantime, I will put some creek gravel in the channel to give the water a place to go. Thanks for the help. Will probably rent a ditch witch to lengthen the runoff channel. Clay soil everywhere here in the area, Ozark Mountain foothills; clay and rock are the norm. 15-20 miles east and it would be sandy delta.
The channel is about 5 feet long and 3 feet deep now.
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What Forge' said. Get that drained or you're gonna have issues. It's not an 'if', it's a 'when'! 3 -
Where does the "contractor installed" 4" drain go to? If it's a french drain for the crawl space, then it has to go under the foundation footing, which should be lower than where you're at in your picture, and I'd think that you could tie into it depending on the distance for slope. Even at .01%, you should still have enough fall to get rid of the ground water... 0 -
When foundation was finished there should have be a waterproofing ,tar like, material placed on the foundation anywhere it would be below ground. Next step is to install a drain pipe with holes or slits in it to collect the water(hole or slits down) around the foundation and run to daylight. Looking at the picture you may be running the drain a long way. Next step is a layer of clean gravel at least 12 +- inched deep and on top of that a layer of filter cloth to keep the dirt from working it's way into the system and stopping it up. Place you dirt back in place and nope for the best. This should be enforced by the building inspector when home was built. Gutters, that is another water in crawl space preventer. 0 -
Water under any crawlspace is a bad, bad thing. There are many ways to fix as suggested above. Guttering is a must for any home with a crawlspace. The lot should have been elevated or sloped to prevent water from getting under the house before any construction. There should always be a vapor barrier on the ground as as well. Visqueen works well.
A concrete lip as you put it should be on the high side of the lot to divert water away from the foundation.
From the looks of your house, it is outside the city or in an area where no building inspection was required. I could be wrong but drainage is absolutely the first thing any builder must consider before anything is done.
In most places, the footing or slab is introspected by a county or city inspector before any framing is done. This inspection specifically looks for water and drainage issues.0 -
Whats the water table like? Down here in the south clay that could be normal in some places LOL, it doesn't appear to be draining into the soil? Could their be a leak on the back side of that faucet?
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Water control is a national code issue, inside or out side of town, now weather the inspector, and yes you may not ever have one that looks at issues like that. NC building code says a house must have gutters or something on the ground to control the runoff.Rarely ever enforced around here though.It is so wet around here you can almost hit water with a PHD. Lot of septic systems overflowing and we are in the mountains.
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Updated OP showing today's status and further findings. No leaks, just lots of rain. All spring we've had floods and flash floods. Like Butchdog2 said, I could put a pipe in and have a wellhead in a matter of minutes. Hopefully installing gutters will divert enough away to stop the problem.
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when I built our house the concrete guys poured a footing and 3 days later they formed up the walls and poured them on top of the footing. it looked just like your pics of the ledge . I laid a 14/16 inches of clean gravel up to the top of that ledge ( top of the footing) then laid a drain tile pipe all the way around my foundation and let it daylight out where the fall of the land allowed. put an end cap on it and drilled some holes in the cap so everything can drain. then put another 12/14 inches of more clean rock on top of the tile. and also painted the black tar like sealer on the concrete wall to just about as high as the dirt was to go. that was 16 years ago without any issues . 0 -
Sounds like the gravel on the bottom and top is working for you but the pipe should have been on the bottom.In all reality the pipe just keeps a channel open so the water can follow the gravel. If gravel were to get stopped up with dirt you have a moat 14 inched deep around your house before it drains out the pipe.
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