I have a tough problem to tackle in waterproofing my crawlspace. The home is on level flat lot with little elevation 50' from a large lake. It is a small log home 24' x 28' with block foundation walls and 4" poured concrete floor in the crawlspace. The county insisted the footings go deeper than what the builder wanted. Pumps had to be used to vacate water from the forms when pouring the footings. The crawl consistently slowly recharges (takes over a week) with a constant 2" of water. I've seen more in the spring... perhaps as much as 6". The house sits at a low point in a large natural recharge zone for the lake.
Option 1 Sump pump: Problem: The builder and the plumber both believe installing a crock and sump in the basement floor is not the way to go. They believe opening the slab will just make the problem worse and at best the pump will always run. At worst it will not keep up with the volume.
Option 2 Exterior waterproofing and tile drains: Problem: Per county I can't run the tile drains to the lake to empty them. The lake would be the only point lower than the footings (and I'm not really sure the footings are higher than the lake). Only thing I could think of to vacate the french drains is to bury an underground tank and use a pump to empty it. I can manage the job of excavating, waterproofing and installing drains, but not plumbing a below ground tank. Nor can I find a plumber or water proofer (Kalkaska Mi area) that has experience with this or wants the job.
Option 3: Bring in a concrete pumper truck and pour another 8" of concrete on top of the existing slab to raise it above the water table. Might work, if not I'll cut the 36" of headroom in the crawl by 8" and have the same problem and curse myself for life.
Option 4: Use the miricle product Sanitred and pray for the best. If it doesn't work, I can contemplate what I would have done with that thousand bucks and decide what to do next.
I've been thinking about what to do for almost 2 years. For better or worse I need to jump on it this Spring.
Two inches of water over that floor area is about 112 cubic feet of water. There are 7.62 gallons in a cubic foot. That means you have about 850 gallons of water on your floor. You say it takes over a week to get to that level, so say it's 8 days. That's a little over 100 gallons a day coming in.
A day has 24 hours times 60 minutes or 1440 minutes per day.
Obviously, a pump that will discharge at the rate of even one gallon per minute will have almost 20 times the capacity required to keep your sump empty. And 1 GPM is a pretty pathetic pump.
Put the sump in, disregard old wives tales, and forget the exterior drains. Had anyone done a little arithmetic, you would have had your answer.
Architect (NY) and Home Designer (PA)
Posts: 2548 | Location: Tobyhanna, PA | Registered: 24 October 2005
I have a tough problem to tackle in waterproofing my crawlspace. The home is on level flat lot with little elevation 50' from a large lake. It is a small log home 24' x 28' with block foundation walls and 4" poured concrete floor in the crawlspace. The county insisted the footings go deeper than what the builder wanted. Pumps had to be used to vacate water from the forms when pouring the footings. The crawl consistently slowly recharges (takes over a week) with a constant 2" of water. I've seen more in the spring... perhaps as much as 6". The house sits at a low point in a large natural recharge zone for the lake.
Option 1 Sump pump: Problem: The builder and the plumber both believe installing a crock and sump in the basement floor is not the way to go. They believe opening the slab will just make the problem worse and at best the pump will always run. At worst it will not keep up with the volume.
Option 2 Exterior waterproofing and tile drains: Problem: Per county I can't run the tile drains to the lake to empty them. The lake would be the only point lower than the footings (and I'm not really sure the footings are higher than the lake). Only thing I could think of to vacate the french drains is to bury an underground tank and use a pump to empty it. I can manage the job of excavating, waterproofing and installing drains, but not plumbing a below ground tank. Nor can I find a plumber or water proofer (Kalkaska Mi area) that has experience with this or wants the job.
Option 3: Bring in a concrete pumper truck and pour another 8" of concrete on top of the existing slab to raise it above the water table. Might work, if not I'll cut the 36" of headroom in the crawl by 8" and have the same problem and curse myself for life.
Option 4: Use the miricle product Sanitred and pray for the best. If it doesn't work, I can contemplate what I would have done with that thousand bucks and decide what to do next.
I've been thinking about what to do for almost 2 years. For better or worse I need to jump on it this Spring.
Yes a good sump system is the ansewer for the problem . and possibly a good dehumidifer in in order .I am not sure what part of michigan you are from but any basement systems dealer can help you web site is basementsystems.com. there is a listing of the product line also.
p.s please do not try adding the 8 in of concrete .it never works!!!!
