The result of the ice we got last week is that outside grade level was about four inches above the garage slab . We then got a warm front from down south with a mess of rain and my garage flooded .
I had about an inch of slush throughout the whole thing . Took us most of last week to clean out the depressing mess .
Tonight they promise more rain. . . SO . . .
I spent three hours yesterday smashing the ice and frozen ground outside with an axe to create some ditches to give the water a place to go .
Painful . . .
Exhausting . . .
And the result is an ugly mess
Three more hours of toil and pain today to divert more flow around the back of the garage .
Water seems to be flowing briskly
Have I mentioned how much I disdain winter ?
I can see your next career choice... being a ditch digger! You do it so well! Have you thought of raising the grade in your garage? I know that involves a lot of backbreaking labor, but your garage hopefully won't flood again...
ReplyDeleteI'm knocking on the door of sixty here so I'd like to not be digging any more ditches. Raisin the slab in the garage is simply not an option. However I may try to build up some concrete dams around things to see if it helps. If I can get them three inches above slab grade it would help a lot. Trouble is a lot of water comes in right under the wooden doors to the Volvo shed and there is not much that can be done to remedy that.
DeleteHad a similar problem three years ago before I poured the slab for the Volvo.
https://isserfiq.blogspot.com/2019/02/reason-5473-why-i-despise-winter.html
and
https://isserfiq.blogspot.com/2019/03/quasimodo-emerges-from-his-ice-tomb.html
and pouring the slab
https://isserfiq.blogspot.com/2019/10/how-do-you-eat-hefalump.html
You need to set up a curling rink, Mike! Pebbled ice like that is awesome!!!
ReplyDeleteHmmmm.... you, Phil, Cederq and STxAR vs me, Jack Quartermain, and Pete? A Tournament Of Stubfarts!!!
I'll warn everyone: I am very good at shouting at the stones...
Sounds good to me... I'll even put up the beer and eats. Trouble is today we hit about 55 degrees F and most all of the ice and snow is gone but for a couple of piles where the snow blower heaped it up. Quarter of nine in the evening now and we've dropped to 20 deg F and the mud is now frozen rock solid.
DeleteI don't know how to curl... I am an Oregon boy originally, we don't curl there, we tip cows. I don't even know if Phil knows how to curl. I am not sure of STxAR, does he curl? Do you curl Mike? My hair is straight, but I do have a little bit of a page boy flip if I let my beard grow...
DeleteHey Kevin, the only curling I am familiar with is the 12 and 16 oz kind. I am sure the boys are up to speed on that variant. Being relegated to the light weight category, these days I stick to the 12 ouncers myself.
DeleteI used to pull ribbons across scissor blades when we wrapped presents. Down this way, ice is put in tea. Wouldn't want to waste a valuable resource.
DeleteYour winters are just built differently to ours!
ReplyDeleteHey Kev, yea this year its been a real doozy. Not much snow. Usually we will get about eight feet of it a year. This year so far its only been a couple feet and it did not stay. Temps were in the 20 degree F below zero for a spell and then we got a massive hail and sleet storm that froze everything over with a layer four inches thick of rock hard ice. Barely managed to clear the driveway of that and it required a digger as you call them. Then we got a storm system from down south with 50 degree F temps and a ton of rain that flooded the garage. Now its hard cold below freezing again. I see you guys got hit by a bit of wind over there. Saw some pretty impressive images of trees toppling over and roof blowing off.
DeleteI'm old enough to be one of the last boy scouts to trench around a canvas pup tent. That was well on it's way out when I was a pup. But it works. Maybe a membrane that acts like a curtain. It would keep the water away from the foundation / wall? I'm thinking it would look like trailer house skirting...
ReplyDeleteYes, I am thinking if I dig a trench foot down around the garage and apply a Bituthane skirt on wall to extend well bellow the slab grade. Then pour a concrete retaining wall to be three to six inches higher than the garage slab around the perimeter. On the Vinyl siding side it will be more difficult as I'd need to remove the vinyl siding first and that is a royal PITA. And then I'd have to come up with a temporary coffer dam to put across the inside of those wooden doors after I put the old Volvo to bed in December. The flooding does not happen every year. It only occurs when we have little snow and extreme cold (ground rises as it freezes hard) followed by an ice storm and then a warm spell with lots of rain. Also every year the ground level rises a bit more with organic accumulation. Eighteen years ago when we moved in here the ground level was well bellow the bottom course of the vinyl siding. And so the punch list of projects gets longer.
DeleteThat is our lot in life Mike, to toil and hardship and endless project that take up our allotted minutes on this earth... like it was preordained or something...
DeleteYea, its all rather like that island penal colony off the pacific coast of Colombia. There is a beach with a pile of rocks at each end, and all the convicts do all day is move rocks from one pile to the other pile perpetually.
DeleteLooks like a mighty fine start for a french drain.
ReplyDeleteA french drain is not going to work when the ground is frozen rock solid like granite four feet deep. As far as your other suggestions regrading the door seals that is not the issue and they are not applicable to this situation.
DeleteCool. From what I can see, though, you should prob should get the dirt away from the building and bring your grade down to below slab level after the thaw. Just looking at it from a civil engineer's point of view. Sorry, I didn't mean to ruffle your feathers. I'm 63 and can't imagine tackling your issue without help. Hat's off to ya. I'd pitch in if I was there.
DeleteYes , the grade along the side wall of the garage needs to be made lower. But without grading the whole half acre property, if I go any lower along the side of the garage all I will do is create a pond which will create a bigger problem, as that side of the garage to the front of the property has very little pitch as it is. So what I need to do somehow is divert any runoff from the back of the property behind the garage to the opposite side (by the van) where there is better pitch.
DeleteGotcha. You know the best course of action while I'm simply an old guy looking at pics...lol. It's all I can do to get on the roof to clean out the gutters anymore. I had to buy a special trailer hitch attachment that allows me to roll the garbage can up to the street. Getting old sucks. All the best to ya. Will be looking out for your solution.
DeleteYes, even standing right there it is hard to tell the pitch and contour of the grade. The flow of the water in thee video gives you an idea of how little pitch there is. There is less than a couple inches of drop along the 32 feet of the side of the garage. Same along the back under that big window of the Volvo shed. The high point is the near corner by the wooden door. And that's low point of the back of the property. The slab I poured inside the Volvo shed two yeas ago is an inch and a half above the rest of the garage slab. Yet no sufficient to overcome when the ground outside rises a couple inches due to frost plus four inches of ice... So the garage slab becomes the low point and that's where any water will naturally go.
DeleteBut hey, if the asshole in Moscow starts lobbing ICBMS it probably won't matter much anymore, right.
Hell, sell out and move down here to Alabama. Real estate is really cheap, you get a big bang for your buck. The weather is generally moderate except in the summer. You'd like the general mindset and laid-back attitude of the folks down here as well. We've always been 20 years behind the times and we like it that way. Contrary to popular belief, we have paved roads, shoes, and teeth. Don't tell anyone, tho. lol.
ReplyDeleteYea, something like that is the eventual plan. Unfortunately both of us have senior parents that need looking after. So leaving is not an option right now.
DeleteIs the ditch digging done yet? Say that three times fast...
ReplyDeleteFor now it seems so . . . at least for the draining ditches. We may be digging bigger ones soon. Right now just keeping my head down doing my best to keep out of the line of fire in the current pissing contest.
Delete