why is there still water under our house by May?

Hi everyone,

Last rain, our newly purchased home was mildly flooded. The house is sitting on a steep slope. I was thinking maybe the water from uphill during the rain was draining into the bottom of the house, and that the sumpump was not working fast enough. However, I have found that even almost two months after the rainy season there was still water building up around the sumpump. Could the house be sitting on a spring? I checked all pippings for leakage. None found. What should I do. Thank you for all of your input. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

When they dug the foundation for your house, they could have reached into some rock that has water flowing thru it.

How long since your last rainfall?

How deep is the foundation, was there any rock in/around it when dug?

As long as the sump pump can handle the water coming in around it I wouldn't worry about it to much, at least you don't have to worry about the dirt around your foundation drying out and cracking and causing foundation problems ( hopefully ).

Our old house which was on the side of a hill had lots of water moving around under the hill. My neighbor and I had to put some pretty extensive drains in to get it channeled out to the storm sewer. He dug a one foot deep hole to plant rose bushes and had water coming right up out of that hole from then on until we put a feeder to our drain tubes right there.

I would have to disagree with the last post. If there is water under your house something needs to be done. As a Real Estate agent one of the biggest concerns nowadays is mold. Mold always comes from moisture. You may need to regrade around the house, or put in a perimeter drains , french drains or something, but you need to do something NOW!
Both of the last 2 siminars I attended dealt with the mold, moisture problem. The National Real Estate Assoc. has been talking of the problem for a couple years and now some lending instutions are starting to require an inspection checking mold as an enviromental hazzard. I would seek some professional advice as to how to take care of the moisture problem before it becomes a health problem, and then a economic issue.
I don't mean to scare you, and I try not to cry wolf, just an issue you need to address. HTH, latter, Nat

If there is a directionality to the water, i.e. if it is flowing in a discernable direction then an intercepting trench "upstream" of your house may help a lot. I have ground water that averages a few feet above my basement floor but no water problems at all. I have an intercepting trench and French drains.

An intercepting trench is a ditch dug as deep or deeper than your fondation a few feet "upstream" of your house. You install a French drain in the ditch cover with geotextile and back fill with septic gravel or sand to within a foot of the surface then another layer of geotextile and then dirt and topsoil.

Undersurface water flowing toward your foundation "FALLS" into and is intercepted by the trench and its French drain. The French drain must have a way to drain downhill to daylight or a storm drain or similar. I recommend that you have gutters and downspouts and that the downspouts conect to undersurface drain pipes to cary the water away from the house. Those near the intercepting trench can go there.

Covering all exposed dirt underneath the house with heavy plastic vapor barrier will help reduce the relative humidity under there. Lowe's and other big box stores sell foundation vents that are thermostatic. They work well (I have used them for years) automatically opening when it is warm and closing when it is cold. This gives you ventilation when it won't impact your heating bill. These are about $10 each.

French drains at about the top of the foundation both inside and out are good (great for new construction) but much harder to retrofit than an intercepting trench.

I personally prefer and have implemented natural, i.e. passive drainage rather than powered drainage (sump pumps.) Sump pumps are better than flooding but engineering a solution that requires no pumps is better. What happens if a pump fails, clogs, power goes out in a heavy storm, etc???

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]