Water Water Everywhere

mhdhinc

Hello all i am new to this forum and it seems quite impressive. So i thought i'd give this a shot. I am a Custom Builder who does mostly Spec homes IN NJ. We usually do the foundations our selves.. (its a father son shop with employees and pops was a mason) but i am at a loss. We are dealing with a VERY high water table. Doing crawl space down 40" and we have at least 2 feet of water in hole (with all the rain we've had).. Any suggestions..
we dug a trench out about 30' with a hole at end.. and where going to rent a mud sucker and pump it out.. when it gets dry enough dump a few tons of 2" stone in and set forms from there with mudsucker going.. is that our only option... ANYONE in Central Jersy wanna do it for me!!!.. in Red Bank area..
thanks
Steve

mdshunk

I was on a new gas station job last year with a really high water table like that. They drilled a couple of wells and had a generator running pumps 24/7 for the duration of the project. After the slabs were poured and the blacktop BCBC was down, the pumps went away. This has only been a year, and the inside of that store already smells like an old mildewed musty basement. I only say this so that you take the necessary steps to assure a dry crawl space for that home.

Kgmz

Are you sure it is a high water table and not the rain. If you were to go and dig a hole when it is not raining, does it fill up with water and how high.

If this ground is clay underneath with a shallow topsoil layer above and the surface water drains into the ground but sits on top of the clay, I would not put a foundation into the ground that deep. It is going to be too much work trying to keep the water from collecting under the house, since that is going to be the low point. Unless you want to do a lot of dirt work putting in french drains etc. and you have somewhere for the water to go (somewhere else that is lower). The best thing is to raise the house by putting the foundation above the water layer and then hauling in soil around the house to raise the ground up to the house and sloping it away from the house so any rain water is moved away from the house.

I have done this before since a lot of areas around here have a lot of clay.

mhdhinc

Thanks both for your replies.
KG -- yes i am sure that its water table as 3 buckets down and the hole filled. We are about 300 Yds from a major river and 800 from a marsh..
the crawl space in the existing house (this is a renov/addtion) had water in it during rain/high tide/full moon etc. I am shooting myself for not going for an FPSF at on set.. now i have a 4' hole filed with water and with the past 2 days anyone wanna ice skate. unfotunate part is i had a quote from a sub for 30K.. about 120 ft lf of crawl space.. that was a blow out considering with out this little tad, coulda had it done for 1/4 that

oh well will still listen for any suggestions..
thanks
steve

cleveman

There are some holes which you are best to walk away from. Good suggestion to raise the building (not dig so far to begin with). If you can't get it to drain now, then you have to wait. If it is a water table problem, make sure you install plenty of waterproofing and drainage.

mhdhinc

cleveman.. thanks for your the update. .but anything else?
I was looking at using fast-foot.. have you had experience with it.. will it hold the flood at bay? I cant wait till spring and i dont think it will get any better.. should i fill the hole and go ask if i can go for an FPSF?

savant

Yeah, probably. If you can't keep the water out enough to form it up, and adding soil is not an option, then as a last resort, you can go for a FPSF. It's a risk depending on the language of your contract, and the likelyhood of power outages. It seems like every year part of NJ is flooded or without power in the winter. Depending on the soil, there could be a lot of risk.

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savant

fast-foot is just a loose footing form, it's not gonna stop water over the top.(unless you use as a dam)

Come to think of it, I'm not sure how you'd resist the tendency for collapse of the fabric long enough to pour the footings, let alone ensuring the proper position of the rebar.

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Don't rush a miracle-man. If you rush a miracle-man, you get rotten miracles.
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Tommy C

mhdhinc, on a side note, I just tried to send you a private message, but you must have not selected to receive them. I'm from NJ as well, and would like to ask you a few questions about the Red Bank area. If you wish, can you shoot me an email at tommyc_37 @ hotmail.com? I'd appreciate it!

Sorry for hijacking the thread!

tgeb

300 Yds from river and 800 from marsh but what kind of elevation differences are we dealing with here? You could still be able to get drainage. Pump system is the only other option I can think of.

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www.gebcon.com

joecrete

draining tiles and a sump pump has always been the best solution to keep water and moisture from the foundation, many times we had to retrofit draining tiles in older homes and it alway worked.