On Sun, 31 Dec 2006 14:08:53 GMT, "Winston Smith"
wrote:

I caught your drift and I agree with you. There's no way to give specific
advice without actually seeing the problem first hand. Years ago, I worked
for a contractor who made a great living fixing these problems. The
solutions were mostly low-tech and labor intensive. They often involved
moving massive amounts of dirt, digging up around foundations and installing
water-proofing, gravel and French drains,

He never said his basement was wet. If it were, I think he would have
mentioned it prominently. At least that is the way I take it.

He also didnt' say how big his yard was. If it were my yard, the wet
part was centered 60 feet from the house and a pile of dirt 10 or 15
feet wide would have had no effect on how wet it was in my crawlspace,
especially since this part of the yard was downhilll from our house.

resloping the entire yard,
building heavy-duty retaining walls, etc. It was neither cheap or easy, but
when we were done, the job was done right. You could take that to the
bank.

A lot of our customers finally called us after they had tried the quick
fixes and cheap-o solutions. One of my favorites was the water-proof paints
applied to the inside of the basements. Think about it. By the time the
water has infiltrated into the blocks you have a huge problem. You're
asking for cracked walls and a collapsed foundation. Painting the walls
with water-proof paint was like putting a band-aid on cancer.

Well, that worked for us, in the house my mother lived in before she
married my father. She kept it to store possessions of her late first
husband, and as a rental. A tenant who was supposed to fix the place
up and get paid for it instead fell behind on his rent** and called
the building department. It was the head of the building department
who suggested waterproof paint, and I was 12 years old and got the job
of painting it, amidst cobwebs iirc. I didn't really think it would
work, but it did. My mother was surprised a bit too. IIRC, we got no
more complaints the rest of the time my mother managed the property.
When she was moved to another city she disposed of all her husband's
property, and sold the house.

I put that paint on in 1959. Surely they have even better paint now.

Didn't wash the walls first either. In fact I painted some of the
cobwebs onto the wall.


**The tenant did make a payment of a month or two's rent a week or two
before he moved out. So I don't think he was trying to gouge my
mother. Because he surely could have escaped without making that last
payment. I wish I had the chance to ask for his side of the story.
He actually got a discount on the rent for fixing the place up,
especially the wet basement, the very thing he complained about to the
building department. I can imagine that he decided he couldn't fix
it, but he should have lived with it or moved, or started paying full
rent and asked my mother to have it fixed. Instead he surprised her
by complaining to the city. LIke I say, it's strange and I wish I
could hear his side.


If you guys read my reply, I addressed the yard area, as well as the
area immediately around the house. Yes, I told him what to consider
close to the house FIRST, because that area is most important. Who
knows what's going on there, which way it's graded, etc. It would be
pretty stupid to fix a low spot 20 ft out in the yard by adding fill
and not look at what is most important first. Without considering
that, he could just add fill and wind up with it graded sloping towards
the house.

In reality, there isn't a lot that anyone can tell him about how to fix
this without knowing more about the situation, most importantly the
grading possibilities, given what he has as boundary parameters.



If you are inclined to email me
for some reason, remove NOPSAM :-)