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Greener way to drain this corner? It leaks through the crawl space wall plate

ylekyote | Posted in Green Building Techniques on

Water from snow pack and freeze-thaw here in western CO. There is no drainage presently. Corner wall is about 44″ deep, plus footing. It’s leaking at the corner into the wood components and wicking into sub floor and sillplate.

There is gas, sidewalk, and electric, in that order starting 4′ from one side of corner. And other wall has about 5′ before a narrow sidewalk.

Only thing I can think of is to put plastic onto wall corner 8″ up and the across current ground about 24″. Then put a few inches of sand (to deter weed growth) on top of that sloping down/away a few inches from the house and then another sloping plastic tarp on that with landscape material and replace the medium sized rocks (which are there now).

If I trench anything it can’t go more than 5′ in either direction.

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Replies

  1. GBA Editor
    Martin Holladay | | #1

    Andy,
    I assume that this house has a crawl space foundation. Is that correct?

    It looks like there are several factors contributing to this situation. One thing that jumps out at me is that your stucco contractor forgot to install a weep screed at the base of your wall. (See the image below.) A weep screed is necessary to prevent rainwater that has soaked the stucco from being wicked into the wooden components of your floor assembly. The lack of a weep screed also makes it easier for ground moisture to wick upwards, following the stucco.

    It's always best to terminate the stucco at least 8 inches above grade, and to leave the concrete foundation exposed. If you want to disguise your foundation, or if your foundation has exterior rigid foam insulation, you can stucco the foundation separately, with a horizontal interruption at the weep screed.

    The second issue concerns roof gutters. Do you have any? If so, are they clogged with debris, or is everything working just fine -- with the roof water conveyed to a conductor pipe that carries water away from your foundation?

    The third issue concerns grading. Do you have a properly graded yard, sloping away from your house in all directions?

    .

  2. ylekyote | | #2

    Hi. I'm not sure how it's constructed down there at the crawlspace junction.

    Without tearing all the stucco apart, is there a way to temporarily fix this until I get to re-stucco?

    The lawn mostly slopes away, however I'm on a slight slope. This corner is the uppermost part of the lawn slope.

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