I finally began the job of installing a perimeter drain around my foundation. I've had water problems, but less then once per year. I would get about 1-2" of water in my basement when the ground was saturated and I got another 4-5" of rain.



I have already dug to the footer on the back side of the house and have a pipe sloped and daylighted.



From the looks of things, this wall was supposed to be finished in brick, but instead the cinder block holes weren't even closed! No wonder I have a water problem.

So how should I go about fixing this? I was thinking of mortaring a row of bricks to the top which would effectively cap this area.

Also, the daylighted french drain should prevent water from reaching this height.

Suggestions? More pictures?

Thanks.

Install a row of 4-inch concrete bricks on top of that ledge, apply two thich BRUSH (not spray) coats of bituminous dampproofing starting just below grade level, and then embed a sheet of 6-mil polyethylene film in the fresh dampproofing.

And then hang the builder who left the foundation like that in effigy.

Thanks Richard. I also want to put insulation on the outside. Any reccomendations? Sould I install the polyetholene barrier before or after the insulation board?

Thanks again.

Waterproof first, then place the insulation. It will serve to protect the waterproof membrane from anything like rocks in the backfill, although hopefully you will backfill with pea gravel or the like. Use 2-inch thick styrofoam (the pink stuff) which is labeled for underground use. That will give you R-10.

If it were mine, the anal side of me would want to fill the holes with quikcrete before capping it. Probably not necessary but a little cheap insurance never hurt anyone.

Thanks Jay! I thought about that as well.

The wall with the open block is 30 feet wide and 3 or 4 feet deep. If my math is right, that's about 60 to 120 cubic feet, depending on how the blocks are set.

What would be the best way to pour the concrete?

Define "best"? If there is that much block, then your cheap insurance isn't so cheap anymore. The "best" way is to get concrete trucks to deliver concrete and have as much help as you can with you with wheelbarrows. The holes in the block aren't big enough to pump it directly into so it will have to be done by hand, scoop and pour and repeat. The faster this can be done, the less time that you have a big hole in your yard from all the excavation.
Next, if time is on your side - you can go to your local lumberyard and get bags of cement and mix it yourself and put it in the voids. This is a lot of work and is very time consuming.
Honestly though, with this much block, I wouldn't worry about it. It would be very expensive to do and as long as you could seal it good on top then there shouldn't be any problems.

OK I measured the open blocks. There is 64 square feet of cinder block. I have no clue how many bags of cement I would need. I might poor the cement into the corners since the opening are a foot lower than the middle of the wall. The opening are 4' wide by 2' deep, then 16' wide by 3' deep, then 4' wide by 2' deep. So my intial estimates were way off. I almost have the wall dug out. I'll shoot some more photos tomorrow morning right after I shoot the builder. The house is 30 years old.

Here's my motivation for finishing this job quickly. Unfortunately, I don't have any time that I can take off of work.



Thanks for all y'alls help!

The water always came in from the corners first and now I know why. The bricks in the corner are lower than the ones in the middle.

Would it be possible to use this product to fill the cavities of my cinder block?

QUIKRETE® Fast-Setting Concrete Mix (No. 1004) is a special blend of fast-setting cements, sand and gravel designed to set hard in approx. 20 to 40 minutes. Sets posts without mixing. Pour dry mix into hole and soak with water.

This seems like it would take me less time and I wouldn't have to worry about mixing.

What do you think?

Although I can't really tell from the picture, it looks as though the builder used 10 inch block then switched to 6 inch. Hopefully not 8 inch to 4 inch. In any case, I would be tempted to continue the wall by laying up 4 inch block to at least above ground level. It looks like you have plenty of overhang so I guess you could run the block up to the bottom of the framed portion of the house. Then waterproof the wall from ground level to below the new block seam. One advanvage is that your waterproofing won't have any sharp corners that could tear through from stress sometime down the road. This is the kind of thing that brought us building codes and inspectors.