Water Under Sill Plate Question(garage)

landcrafter

I have a customer that we did some drainage work for on the side of his garage. The property next to him is elevated considerably and we've eliminated a lot of the water issues. When the soil becomes extremely saturated, water is seeping in under his sill plate and into his garage. There's a build-up of soil over the sill and several layers of brick, somebody installed a grate drain along this side of the garage to try and eliviate the pressure, but it's not working. Our tile work in the swail has been very beneficial until the soil gets really saturated. It seems pretty obvious that the sheathing along that sill seem is comprimised somewhere. It's not a lot of water but it is puddling. He wants me to try and fix this because I've done a lot of work for him and is very satisfied. I don't think it's that tuff but I do want to do it right. Once I expose this seem, do I need to put in new sheathing or is there a better solution? (caulking seem then sheathing, put on some type of membrane and sheath?) Any help would be greatly appreciated.

neolitic

I know that people love to do it,
but aesthetics can't trump common sense here.
One cannot pile dirt against the framing, period.
Grade must be 6" below frame.
The problem won't go away 'til the dirt does.
Re-grading is the only real long term solution,
then one can address the existing damage.

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landcrafter

This house is on a corner that travels down hill, the garage was built parallel to the street the house is on,behind the house of course. Well, on the side of the garage (which is actually the back of the property) there is about a ten foot easement and then another home which is at a higher grade. The garage was built into a hill (about a 100yrs ago; literally). It was obviously a problem many,many years ago because of the sheathing they used. Like roofing sheathing. We're not going to be able to take 2ft. of grade out of here. I need to expose the sill, it's not rotted out,so the sheathing was working for a considerable amount of time, I just want to know if there is a better solution than the sheathing.

thom

By my code

Earth must be 6" below framing. Either excavate the dirt or cut out the framing and install a stemwall.

neolitic

Not sure tat I followed all of that
but what about cutting it away from the building a couple of feet
and installing some of this?
http://www.americanwick.com/applicat...7&app_cat_id=3
Even if it would require a low retaining wall.
Don't know any good way except keep water and dirt away from wood.
Got pix?

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georgia dawg

I added a small permanent wood foundation (PWF) to a basement wall that was accidently poured below grade. Checked it out two years later and it was still dry as bone. Just follow the instructions to the letter. Be sure to use the right graded wood/plywood and cover it properly. Google PWF construction or check out the IRC code section for more info. If an inspection is required, run it by your local inspector, first. They may not be hip to this stuff.

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