Like virtually every house ever built, we have issues with soil next to the foundation subsiding and water running back toward the house. Infiltrating, it then leaks into the basement.
One side of our house has gables and the valleys both feed into a 16' run of eves trough. 800 square feet of roof dumping into 16' of eve trough, especially when it gets some trash on the screens, does not make for a happy day.
Mrs ERJ suggested that we do something about it before the snow flies.
One wheelbarrow load of dirt is about enough to raise 2' of foundation/ground interface. I really don't want to have to do this again in another ten or fifteen years.
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| A very hostile environment for grass. It is underwater for weeks at a time. The grass in the picture is probably genus Echinochloa. Either Echinochloa frumentacea or Echinochloacrus-galli |
The dirt is coming from our all-purpose burn-pit/shooting-range/cow-pond. The easiest dirt to dig is from the bottom of the pit. It is as heavy as the wages of sin but rich in clay. Each shovelful is carried by hand and dumped into the wheelbarrow. Then the wheelbarrow is pushed uphill to the house.
We knocked out about 20 feet today. Only another 150 to go.
Tis big muscle exercise that improves the value.
ReplyDeleteSweat equity is gooooood.
I have a method to do tasks like that with very little effort and only a bit of preparation: have my children do it.
ReplyDeleteThat is FANTASTIC!
DeleteWhat will it cost to ship them up to Eaton Rapids?
Depends on what's for dinner.
DeletePorridge
DeleteSomewhere in the year 2543, they said.
DeleteIs there a downside to putting a piece of 6 mil plastic down first and having it go up against the house and then sloping away? Plastic is much more impervious to water than clay rich silt.
ReplyDeleteEaves Trough!
ReplyDeleteWhat a quintessential Michigander colloquialism.
Anywhere outside of Michigan most people tilt their heads quizzically.
-rightwingterrorist