Siding sitting on ground - help!

I recently bought a somewhat older home. The exterior of the house is aluminum siding and brick. On 2 sides of the house, the siding is touching the dirt, which I know is a no-no. I've already pulled all plants touching the siding. The siding itself is in decent shape - no visible signs of water damage or termites.

So far I basically pushed back the dirt so that 2 inches of the concrete foundation shows. I read you want at least 6 inches of the concrete foundation showing, but that's not going to happen. To do that I'd have to dig a trench, and that's no good. The lot is flat; any trench I dig near the house will slope the ground into the house.

I know I need to fix this, but I have no idea how. Any suggestions would be really be appreciated. Thanks.

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Reply to
jarredsc7
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I recently bought a somewhat older home. The exterior of the house is aluminum siding and brick. On 2 sides of the house, the siding is touching the dirt, which I know is a no-no. I've already pulled all plants touching the siding. The siding itself is in decent shape - no visible signs of water damage or termites.

So far I basically pushed back the dirt so that 2 inches of the concrete foundation shows. I read you want at least 6 inches of the concrete foundation showing, but that's not going to happen. To do that I'd have to dig a trench, and that's no good. The lot is flat; any trench I dig near the house will slope the ground into the house.

I know I need to fix this, but I have no idea how. Any suggestions would be really be appreciated. Thanks.

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Reply to
jarredsc7

There are several ways to deal with that situation. Google 'swale' and 'french drain' to start and see if that works for you.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

Remove the bottom row of siding. Of course if this exposes the wooden frame, dont do it, but if it only exposes concrete, remove it. Another solution would be to jack the house up 8 inches and add one row of 8 inch cinder blocks all around the entire house. The last solution would be to have a dozer remove 6 inches of your yard over the entire yard.

By the way, termites do not eat aluminum siding.

Reply to
jw

No but they do eat the framing lumber under the siding.

Reply to
jamesgangnc

I've got a similar situation. Only concern has been possible termite access that you cannot see. Neighbor had them and treatment appears to have removed any from area. I'm not worried about it but treat perimeter of house with an ant block mainly for occasional ant problem.

Reply to
Frank

responding to

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jarredsc7 wrote: What if a dug a little trench and filled it with gravel? Would this create a useful buffer to deter bugs? Or would this screw up the drainage issue even further?

Reply to
jarredsc7

Dig a little trench, all around the house, and then run a drain from the trench to anything that is lower, like maybe the street?

Reply to
hrhofmann

while making certain the top of the gravel is well below the bottom of the siding...

termites will make mud tunnels to reach food, and they prefer moist food....

Reply to
bob haller

If yard is level, how is siding buried on only 2 sides? Fixing yard is proper solution, but you need more than a trench. I passed up one otherwise interesting house while house-shopping because of buried siding. Drove by a few months later, and they had about a 3-foot gravel path around house where they had dug it out, with a railroad-tie retaining wall about a foot tall on the other side. To my eye, it looked like there would still be water problems in heavy rain, and with spring snowmelt.

Any water problem is fixable, if you throw enough money at it. Trouble is, the required amount of money can quickly approach what the house is worth. Need to find these problems before you buy, if at all possible.

-- aem sends...

Reply to
aemeijers

I thought your big or at least anticipated problem is termites. If it's filled with gravel, they might make their tunnel and you not notice it.

You should keep your eye on the 2 inches of foundation that you do see. Either 6" is longer than a termite tunnel will be, or they mean it gives you 3 times as much time to notice the tunnel before it's complete. Ask a termite specialist.

I have seen them make longer tunnels in my fence pickets, only the old ones and only ones in the shade, and they were longer, but most of the hole was in the wood, only a little bid their brown things, sort of like a 45 degrees of a circle canopy. For that I just replaced the pickets and a couple of the rails. The wife of a termite guy in the area, with 20 years experience, said "Don't use poison for fences. It's not worth it. Just replace the bad parts of the fence."

Reply to
mm

The first thing you may want to do is see exactly what is behind the aluminum siding near the ground level and why the siding was put in that way. It may be something similar to what I describe below about a property that I own. Does your property have a crawl space or basement under the area where the siding is located? If so, you may be able to go in there and see from the inside what the problem is. If it is built on a slab, that may not work. In my case (see below), the property has a crawl space so I can see what is going on from underneath on the inside.

I have a similar situation to yours on one side of a property that I own. On the other 3 sides, it has a block foundation and brick walls on top of the block. But, on the one side with the vinyl siding (the front), there is a block foundation which comes up to ground level, and then a wood frame wall on top of the block foundation. The vinyl siding is attached to the wood frame and goes down to the block foundation at ground level. Like you, there is no opportunity to "lower the ground" along that wall because the ground is flat and it would not be able to be graded away from the house. And, of course, raising the whole house is not a realistic option.

So far, there is only one possible idea that I can think of, but I haven't tried it yet. I am thinking of cutting back the bottom 2 or 3 rows of vinyl siding which will leave the frame walls exposed in that area. Then, cover the exterior of the frame walls in that area with flat roll aluminum with the top of the aluminum tucked under the new bottom row of vinyl, and the bottom of the aluminum running down over the front of the foundation a few inches.

After that, I am thinking of digging a small trench and building a plywood frame to allow me to pour a 3 or 4 inch wide wall that will go from about a foot below the existing foundation up to near the new bottom row of vinyl. This new wall would be on the front of (attached to) the existing foundation, not directly on top of the existing foundation siding. Then, at the top of that new wall, I would create a slight bevel so rain water would run off of the top. In the end, the new concrete wall would stick out from the house about 3 or 4 inches, and the existing vinyl would then come down to the top of that wall. My idea is that the new wall would create the barrier that I want between the ground and the wood frame wall of the house that is now under the vinyl siding.

Reply to
RogerT

I thought it was only termites you were wroried, about

Termites won't come out into the light.

Reply to
mm

not but they will build mud tunnels to suitable food.

does the OP have a daylight place to send the water too below the elevation of their home?

Reply to
bob haller

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