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3-27-04 Finally, after three weeks of very warm and dry weather, we were able to officially break ground. But, of course, nothing is this easy. We can never just dig the footing and pour the cement. Nope, that would be just too easy. So, while the footing were be dug, we notice that the left side of the house and a " river " running down the footing. If we could not get that to stop we would be in big trouble because the inspector would not be able, pass the first inspection. Well, we decide to "daylight" out the footing to help draw the water away from the house. We then placed a small sump pump down in the hole and pumped the water out of the hole to the drainage easement. While Bob let us use his pump and generator, we just waited for the footing to dry out. Problem was the hole would fill back up with water as soon as we turned the pump off. After bob and I talked, we decided to install a French curtain drain 6 feet deep and around 3/4 of the house to the south. We made a " U" with a backhoe, then got some plastic and 200' of drainpipe. Then we laid it in the trench and back filled $1000.00 of 3/4-drain rock. Our nice neighbor to the south of us didn't like the water running over his pastor to his pond so Bob suggested to him, "if you like we could rent a trencher and install a 4" pipe that would go to his culvert and then into his pond". He responded back saying he would think about it. Problem is though, we have a drainage easement and I can run it over his property without any consideration from him . On Thursday the 25th, it rained like cats and dog flooding the footing and our deep day light trench. Bob's sump pump would not even tough the water level. There was more coming in then going out. Therefore, this is what we are doing. Today, I went and bought an automatic 1/4-horse sump pump with a float on it. Drained it 20 min. Our neighbor to the north is very, very nice and they let us put a GFCI outlet in their electrical panel for us to use. So after getting some 22" PVC pipe from Jerry (Amy's dad) I made a temporary culvert and got the sump pump to work without a generator. Now everything is working just fine. The sump comes on by itself and drains it out to the back. Now, hopefully, we can pour next week. |
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