Foundation Issues

[vaughan1974]

I did not see a forum dedicated to foundations, so i am putting this here, as this is the closest match for my issues I think.
I just bought a house, and am now living it in it, but there is so much wrong with it. The house is technically 3 story, you have the garage/basement area which is 3/4 of the entire house, then a waist high retainer wall across the entire basement with sloping earth behind it. Above the basement is the main living level which was pretty much gutted and remodeled about 10 years ago by the previous owner except for the both room and the laundry room (the laundry room is apart of an addition which is a completely different topic). And above the living area used to be an attic space, but one of the previous owners tore out a closet in one of the bed rooms, added a stair case, and turned the attic into a full length bonus room.
I knew before I bought the house that there was a water issue in the basement. we removed the HVAC unit outdoors and installed a new heat pump unit, and the earth was above the hole the ducting went through so I thought the water was running down hill to the HVAC sysem and coming in through the ducting hole. So i dug the earth out to where it was a large area 6-8 inches below the window. After I took possession of the house, we had a real good rain and water still came into the basement.
The garage/basement area is actually divided into two separate areas. You have the garage area, and to the side of it, you have a work/whatever area. On the work area side there is a built in work bench/counter top. It was walled up all around it with peg board and then wood over the peg board so that shelves could be hung. from the access I have on the garage area, I was unable to see behind this wall into the earth area, so i decided to tear out the peg board wall to gain access to the earth area to get in there and lay plastic.
After I opened the wall I found all kinds of issues with the foundation. First thing I noticed was the discoloration of the lower area of the foundation walls - keep in mind, this is on the opposite side of the house of where the ducting comes in where I thought the water was coming in. then I noticed holes in the foundation. I know that pretty much all that wall area I see in this area is covered with earth on the outside. so I dont know what is going on, one of the holes is atleast 5 feet under ground on the outside.
I guess what I am hoping for by posting here is that I am looking for information as to what the discoloration is, what caused it, and how to stop future whatever....
I am not sure how many pix I can attach here so bare with me.

[vaughan1974]

here is a pic of the work bench/counter with the wall opened to gain access to the earth area behind it.

[vaughan1974]

ok, i just went into the area to measure for plastic, and moved the existing plastic, and i could not help but notice the earth in this area was moist. not so much that I could say it was wet or saturated, but there was living roots in it. I was able to pull a root up and ripped it out of the earth to the outer wall. Is this normal? or is there just too much moisture? I know I have several issues that need to be addressed, and I am working on pretty much no budget at all. I looked at the holes in the walls, and am thinking it might be easy to clean them out a bit and fill them with great stuff. ?? is that acceptable? Come the spring I think I might be able to gain access and use to a backhoe/tractor and dig out the top side of the property to add a ditch to drain off any run off towards the house, to prevent it from coming in. But for now, I am more curious about the moisture issue and how to fix it in the earth area now.
The moisture is a very big issue, not to mentions mold issues, and health from that, but I do leather work as a hobby and leather is very susceptible to moisture mold issues and all. I ideally would love to put my leather work bench on the work bench pictured above. Use the wall to hang all my leather tools and all that.
What I would like to do is stop any moisture from coming in through that wall. Lay plastic over the earth, and fill the holes in the foundation, then stud the wall at 16s, run electrical, then cover it all with plastic from the back side. I would need to run the plastic down the wall and under the bench top and attach it to the brick to prevent the moisture from coming up through the top of the bench too. I am not sure if I should rip out the bench top and rebuild, what do you all think of that? When the bench top was built, whoever did it I think did it when the house was built, and built in a nice size hidden drawer too. Should I remove the bench top and rebuild it too?
Pix attached are of the bench top from the work area and from the earth area. first pic is of how it is set into and on top of the brick dividing wall. second still shows the brick wall and how the bench is set into it. third forth and fifth is of the back of the wall and shows how the earth goes under the bench top.

[pushkins]

I think what your seeing is the effect of a little moisture penetration in the crawlspace area, the white your seeing is called "efflorescence" it's basically salts coming out of the cement due to moisture, nothing to seriously worry about, but it's a good indication of presence of moisture.
Check the grade on the exterior of the house, it should fall 6" in 10' away from the home, make sure you have no downspouts dumping water close to the foundation.
If you decide to add a permanent wall make sure you check to see that there is enough venting for that crawlspace, you will need to leave or add enough to cover the 1sq. foot venting for every 150sq. foot of area, if it's less that 150 sq. feet you still need to have two venting positions, to allow air in and out and to circulate.
Make sure any plastic added to any wall is added to the INSIDE of the wall.
Seeing roots inside the crawlspace is not uncommon but should be monitored, if they are small fibrous roots from small shrubs, it's no biggie, BUT if you have big tree's outside close to the foundation like Oaks then they could well become an issue with lifting and cracking of foundations.
Where you dug out under the exterior ducting and under the window you should add a window well surround to this area, tall enough to be higher than grade away from the house, when you install it add soil around it to direct water away from it, also add some rock to the inside of it this will avoid splashing of mud on your window.
Adding spray foam to any small holes you see in the foundation will help with water penetration but you really need to address why the water is heading that way to start with.

As a footnote....that electrical wire laying on the plastic really should be stapled up to a floor joist etc...

[vaughan1974]

Check the grade on the exterior of the house, it should fall 6" in 10' away from the home, make sure you have no downspouts dumping water close to the foundation.

6 inch to 10 feet?? I have fall away from the house on three sides. The side that is on the other side of the wall in the pix is a hill that comes towards the house.... when I get enough money, I will be digging it out and putting in a ditch so there can be fall away from the house. the earth out there is at the highest point allowable on the side of the house - its like an inch under the siding.

If you decide to add a permanent wall make sure you check to see that there is enough venting for that crawlspace, you will need to leave or add enough to cover the 1sq. foot venting for every 150sq. foot of area, if it's less that 150 sq. feet you still need to have two venting positions, to allow air in and out and to circulate.

The wall that you see in the pix with the peg board is pretty much a permanent wall. I just want to rebuild it so that moisture from the other side does not play havoc with my leather. But the area behind the wall will not need any venting. imagine the area in my basement/garage is 30 foot by 40 foot. the garage door is on the 30 foot side, on the left, and the depth is 40 feet from the garage door to the exterior foundation wall. But that 40 feet is stopped short about 10 feet from the foundation with a short 3 and a half foot wall with earth behind it all the way across the 30 foot span. in the middle of the 30 foor span is the center load bearing joist that runs the whole 40 foot of the house. Along this on the short wall they built a brick pier and a previous owner built a wooden wall along the load joist to separate the areas. but the whole earth area is connected and the peg board wall is only on half of it, it continues 15 feet past the wall onto the other side of the basement.

Make sure any plastic added to any wall is added to the INSIDE of the wall.
Seeing roots inside the crawlspace is not uncommon but should be monitored, if they are small fibrous roots from small shrubs, it's no biggie, BUT if you have big tree's outside close to the foundation like Oaks then they could well become an issue with lifting and cracking of foundations.
Where you dug out under the exterior ducting and under the window you should add a window well surround to this area, tall enough to be higher than grade away from the house, when you install it add soil around it to direct water away from it, also add some rock to the inside of it this will avoid splashing of mud on your window.

I am attaching pix of the hvac system how it hooks to the house... the grade outside calls for the hvac system to be 2 feet higher than the exit where the ducting comes out. The ducting does come out of an old window opening that has been opened a but larger than the original size to accommodate the ducts. the earth under the ducts at the bottom of the window sill was at the same height as the window sill, so I dug it all out about 8 inches lower than the window sill because I was thinking the because the grade coming down to the house from the hill right there was coming in under the sheet metal and entering through the window because the earth was right there at the same height as the sill. but we has one real good rain after I dug that out and I did have some running/pooling water in the basement. it comes in behind the short wall in the earth area, and finds its way out from the earth area into the concreted area. so I am not totally sold on the idea the water is coming in through the window now.

As for the wire, yeah, I know how it should be ran. I am actually an electrician, it was stuffed up above the feed ducting and I pulled it down so i could trace it to see where it came from. There is a bed room above the area and whoever originally built the peg board wall just ran it up into the wall and tapped into an existing outlet in the bed room. I will run a new circuit to the panel and disconnect that line from the outlet when I get around to building the wall.
But I will not be getting to the wall for a little while... I am finishing my new decks, and then ripping out the laundry room and attempting to rebuild it... and it is plum nasty.... rotted wood, a porch that was built around 1945, a 3 foot extension added to it, then enclosed than roofed... water backing up into it because the previous owner did not realize the gray water drain was clogged with roots and he did nothing about it.... rot, mold.... just a mess... I relocated the washer and dryer, re-plumbed it from 1 1/2 inch drain to 2 in drain, added a trap, and added a 2 clean outs. the drain goes into the earth under the utility room and then crosses under the driveway infront of the garage door, I put in a clean out on both sides of the driveway. I snaked out the line and pulled back hand fulls of small roots. but I still cannot get the snake to go farther than 19 feet. I stopped at a local plumbers office that is about half a mile from the house to see how much they would charge me to come out and snake out the pipe with a root blade on the end.... and they told me it would be $145. I said thanks and left. I will rent the snake from the orange store and do it myself for about $40.
I do however have a septic, and have no clue where it is. I have cast drain pipes and I am hoping that if I get a metal detector I will be able to pick up the pipes and follow them out the the tank. I know from teh previous owner he had the tank pumped about 5 years ago, and he lived alone and did not occupy the home for the last year before we bought it from him, but he was not here when it was pumped, so he doesnt know where it is either.

[pushkins]

Code calls for earth to be no closer to a non treated wood material than 6". Now I know you said it's 1" from the siding BUT behind the siding is wood, they would have nailed the starter strip to wood therefore it would be a good guess to suggest that the wood siding behind the vinyl is 1" above grade.

[vaughan1974]

i will have to go out and look on that side of the house, but I know on the other three sides, the siding came down about 5-6 inches over the foundation. so if the siding comes down the same on that side too, then the earth is atleast 6 inch below the wood under the siding. will check it later and post back.