Bought 2 acres late last year for our first homestead. I'm spending the first year not growing anything and instead spending time on home repairs and infrastructure for the homestead after repairs such as chicken coop, garden beds, etc.
With the exception of alterations to the main water line done by my plumber neighbor I did this foundation repair myself in 11 days. Rushing at the end to beat an incoming storm.
We have cracks in the foundation letting a lot of water in the crawlspace and the ground was sloped into the home.
Not shown in the pictures is about 3 cubic yards of river rock around the 90 feet of foundation I repaired. 10 pronged pitch fork did a pretty good job of getting most of them. Shovel was much harder. Also a lot of plants and bushes pulled from behind the home.
Unhooked AC (I'm an HVAC tech) Dug down a little over 3.5 feet with a tractor backhoe. Repaired the 4 major cracks by chipping them out a bit wider and filling with hydraulic cement. Painted all exposed foundation with 3 coats of rubber sealant. Added dimple mat over the top. Used 4 inch congregated perforated pipe in a sock at the base of the foundation as a French drain. Solid 4 inch pipe sent out the back of the house down hill as drain. Covered all perforated pipe with #57 gravel. Used about 2 cubic yards. Dimple mat fixed to the foundation with concrete nails. And mat topped with manufactures recommend flashing again mounted with concrete nailed. Sealed all nails and flashing with rubber sealant. Backfilled and tamped dirt down as I backfilled. Hooked AC back up.
Unfinished work-
While I properly sloped the back and side of the house. It's currently backfilled 1 brick high instead of stopping at the top of the foundation. I'm expecting settling and will reslope and remove from siding once it's settled if it's still on the brick.
Back needs sloping. Again waiting for settling.
Need to clean up the area and throw some grass seed. Add some rock around
Mistakes made-
While driving the tractor close to the house to help tamp dirt once it was tall enough I hooked and ripped off a shutter.
Dimple mat flashing is supposed to be mounted every 8 inches with concrete nails. With my foundations 55-year-old concrete. The nails sometimes were just taking chunks out of the concrete even though I was using a concrete nail gun. so I started going every one to 1 and 1/2 ft depending on if the concrete failed to take the nail. I should have just gone to the store and got a masonry bit to pre-drill the holes for the nails as the lack of nails caused the flashing to heavily warp in the Sun causing large gaps that were difficult to seal with the rubber sealant so I had to fill them with caulk.
This is the largest project I've ever taken on and had no experience doing so. I got to say this was a miserable process. I had really long days trying to get this done in time. But after looking at some quotes for repairs from contractors. I felt it was definitely worth my time to do. I had a month off for some parental leave after we had our second child and I used that time to do this. I spent probably $2,500 to 3,500 in materials as long as you don't count the tractor… If you're picky and do count it, it only added $45,000. But I had enough upcoming projects. I felt it was worth getting a tractor. Once we save up some more money I'm going to use it to put in a fence. Part of that $45,000 was also a post hole Driller.
Even including the tractor I came in significantly cheaper than the quotes I got for repairing the foundation. While I didn't reinforce the areas with the cracks with pylons underneath. At the moment they are not causing damage to the house. And by removing the water that's getting under the house this should stop them from getting worse. Several of the bids I got for repairing the foundation including things like encapsulating the crawl space or putting pylons under the areas of the foundations that were cracked. But no one recommended to waterproof the outside which would just lead to more cracks in the future as water got under the foundation and allowed the house to settle more. I'm not willing to pay around 70k for repairs that aren't going to stop additional damage in the future.
TL:DR; repaired cracks and waterproofed my foundation in 11 days instead of spending $70,000 for repairs that wouldn't have prevented future damage.
by Wannabe_Gamer-YT
26 Comments
Keep the sub updated on how the repairs hold up. Could help someone in the future save money like you did.
Thanks for posting this OP. I have to do the exact same thing and have been putting it off for years. This gives me some courage to finally start. Cheers
Wow that’s a lot of impressive work. Good job OP!
What did you use for rubber sealant?
Looks really good! Props
Looks great, only thing I can think you could’ve done better was add geotextile to keep the dirt from mixing with the drainage rock. Did you regrade the yard as well? If not, still time to add french drains
Impressive work and documentation. Saved for future reference that I am sure to never check again.
Good work! Also good example of why foundation work is expensive.
Materials arent crazy, but it takes sooo much time and work.
Great job
I wish I had that level of slope
Looking pretty good.
Couple of things, waterproofing can cause hydrostatic build up and MORE damage. However you already mitigated that with the French drain moat around the house. I would still watch for crack expansion, stair stepping, etc.
2, you probably already did this but just in case. Get drain extenders to drop your roof water at least 2 feet from the house.
From your picture you appear to be on a hill so Id also investigate what is causing the water damage to your house and work on diverting that too.
Best of luck with everything. As an aside, $45,000 dollars for a tractor. Damn we rip off farmer!
That’s a monster project. Nicely done!
You should add a flexible downspout extender to take water away from the house so it doesn’t even reach the drainpipe. Also, I hope you put geotextile fabric between the drain gravel and the soil backfill!
That’s alot of beer. Nice work.
My live reaction: “French drain? French drain 😍!”
Amazing – thank you for sharing!!
What a pretty house! Well worth the work you’ve done. Looks like a great job.
Saved yourself 50k
Hate to tell you, but that attempt at a French drain is going to fail. It is absolutely MANDATORY that the rock gets burrito-wrapped with geotextile fabric. Without that, fines will fill the void space in the rock and enter the pipe, eventually filling it and rendering the system ineffective.
Source: degree in landscape architecture.
Great job. Looks good get some black 4inch pipe for those down spouts, get the water away. I have done that same project. That was hard work. Be very proud of yourself.
Of all the crazy sh*t we see on this website….
Good job, OP. Real good job.
How did you learn about the whole process? Any link to share? I’m sure a lot of us would benefit
Looks great. When you say solid 4 inch pipe, did you use corrugated? Because smooth PVC will perform better for solid pipe runs.
I have one 20 foot wall I want to do this with. Crawlspace, and will need to dig about 3 feet down. The rubber sealant and dimple board for that small section will cost me $250. I’m just going to do it with a shovel, because I’ve already dug up other areas to bury pipes in the summer and I know I can handle it.
Dang, I will never complain about having to do just the east side of my house last summer again! Looks great OP
I love me some good drainage.
Having worked in crawlspace encapsulation for years:
1. Cool, very nice
2. Pair it with crawlspace drainage and encapsulation for truly excellent performance against moisture and humidity
3. Very ambitious, cool to see
Holler if you want more feedback on crawlspace info