Forrest and Trevor digging in french drains along the front of the house.
Forrest installed the 2" foamboard along the shallow frost protected foundations and they are ready for backfilling.
The MiraDri and MiraDrain material attached to the retaining wall and the french drain at the base of the footer. This area is ready for backfill.
Kevin Jenkins spent half a day with a small tracked excavator digging shallow trenches for the DWV (sewer drain system). I had placed sleeves under the footers where needed at the correct depth to create a constant 1/4" slope to the network of pipes. Drain pipe was laced through the sleeves and glued together. Vertical pipes were placed in the correct locations where toilets, sinks, tubs, showers, washer and vents go. The location of these vertical pipes will be checked several times before the concrete slab is poured to make sure they are correct.
Our son Forrest Crawford, flew on from San Francisco while on break from school to help for a week. With Trevor Green providing assistance they installed French drains along the entire front of the house. Forrest then cut 2" foam board to attach to the shallow frost protected foundations. Another piece of foam 2' wide was cut and put flat on the ground at the base of the foundation and at a slight angle to shed any water away that might find its way down to this depth. This sheet of foam was just above the french drain. Once this work was completed, we back filled the exterior of the foundation.
Work on waterproofing the retaining walls began once the concrete had cured for seven days. Werner Heiber helped me apply a very sticky waterproofing membrane from Carlisle called "MiraDri". It forms a bulletproof seal to keep water from penetrating through the concrete but is miserable stuff to apply in hot weather. Once the 3' wide sheets become warm they stick to themselves, us, or anything else they come in contact with. We worked early in the day and stored the cut sheets in the shade until we were ready to attach them pulling one out at a time.
Werner headed off on vacation (well earned) and Ed Oaks came on board to help attach another Carlisle product called "MiraDrain" over the "MiraDri". This product is a dimpled plastic board covered with a drain fabric which forms a space across the entire retaining wall surface for moisture to flow down to the french drains dug in at the base of the footers. This stuff was pretty easy to install. Ed and Trevor then worked on french drains along the base of the back retaining walls.
We are now ready for backfilling the tall retaining walls. The land profile around the building will be contoured and we will start to see how the house nestles into the slope.
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