drainage from home

[anton]

I am wondering or looking for solutions. My home sits below a rather lage hill and I need to build my grading up in order to keep water flow away from the home. My challenge is this. Currently my siding is at the most 2-3 inches above my grade but i feel I need to take it higher in order to have decent flow from the house. It was recommended to me to place some industrial plastic ontop of the current soil and continue it up along my home another 6-

12 inches and then just back fill with dirt until I reach my desired grading, thus the plastic protecting from rotting and insects. My siding is the concrete based Hardee Plank but with this plastic recommendation it seems there would be no vapor barrier and over time I may have a larger problem on my hands. Am I off on this or has anyone ever had the same challenge and come up with a solution?

Thanks Anton

[aemeijers]

Grade level should never be above the wooden sill plate, no matter what protective layers you put above it. When house shopping, I looked at several otherwise-interesting places that had situations like what you are proposing. Every single one of them had evidence of water leaking in, and wood starting to rot.

Only correct (but expensive) solution is heavily regrading the yard to make the low spot 15-20 feet away from the house, with a route for the water to go from there. If a simple swale is not possible, you are looking at terracing and a retaining wall, and probably drain tiles in the yard to lead the water elsewhere. And shame on the builder that didn't grade the lot properly in the first place, and didn't raise the foundation a foot to get the house up out of the mud.

aem sends...

[EXT]

Don't put plastic against the house with dirt against the plastic, this will form a very inviting home for mould, insects and problems. You need to create a swale or shallow ditch or dry creekbed around the house to take the water away even if it means creating a retaining wall to hold the dirt and slope away from the swale.

This is how it should have been done from day one.

[DanG]

Absolutely not.

You will need to create the drainage by digging lower than the house out away from the house. There should be 6" of concrete showing below the bottom of the siding. The grade should then fall away an additional 6" in the first 10 feet. This foot of fall will establish the absolute highest point of your valley. You will need to establish somewhere for the water to go from there. If you cannot make grade to the street or some point lower than you, might look for a storm system in your area to pipe to. This would probably be owned by your municipality and I'm sure they will require a licensed utility contractor to make the connection after the system is engineered (read between the lines: expensive). If you are rural, you can do your own piping if you can make daylight somewhere.

Look up dry wells, sump pumps, and French drains for additional reading. A sump system large enough to deal with a serious rain would be fairly large.