Do I have to dig down to the footers or can I just dig down a few feet and lay some gravel sloping away from the house to waterproof the exterior?

Thanks,
mplshouse

 

To waterproof the wall you need to excavate all the way down to the footer. Digging down a few feet and backfilling with gravel won't do anything but allow the water to drain deeper. Have you tried piping the downspouts away from the foundation? does the grade fall away from the house any?

almost forgot welcome to the forums!

 

quik answer is ' no one knows ' sometimes it works, others it don't,,, IF the wall's exterior surface ends @ the footer, mark's correct,,, however, pls re-read your question as written,,, you don't say IF you have water leaking thru the wall so why ask ?

we have 2 jobs now which might be helpful examples: 1 is a retaining wall - the engineer spec'd digging down 4' & waterproofing,,, when we finish, i expect the collected wtr will run down past applied wtrproofing & eventually leak below it,,, 2nd was last yr - eng spec'd digging down 2', wtrproof exposed wall, install membrane in open trench, & backfill,,, we eventually had to correct the latter & i expect we'll do the same w/the former, too.

pay us now OR pay us more later

 

Stadry, you just need to start working with competent engineers, instead of guys/gals who don't know what they are doing.

But having been there (as a consultant engineer on public and private projects), more often than not it's the clients who dictate that they want the absolute cheapest "fix" for a problem, even after the we (engineers) explain why such may not work or be a long-lasting solution.

 

i agree - $ is ALWAYS a controlling issue, bridge - maybe private pe firms pay more,,, but rarely did we ever have issues w/private eng concerns,,, we often found them more open to suggestion - value engineering,,, it was the public eng depts that gave us ( & most other contractors ) fitz i remember, in particular, 1 region's director ( a pe ) telling an attendee @ a public forum for a proposed highway relocation project - ' What do you know ? Are you an engineer ? '

he wasn't - he was a local farmer but he knew the right guy at the state dot level to order the job redesign'd,,, notice many state dot's now contract out their major hgwy & bdge designs to private pe's

 

bdge, you'll LOVE this,,, so back to the original question,,, yesterday we waterproofed a 12' high cast-in-place conc retaining wall,,, we excavated 4' down, scrubb'd it clean, coated w/aquafin, installed 19mm pond liner, & backfill'd to original grade.

we had originally proposed removing the 2 arborvitae trees ( 23' tall ) & misc landscaping w/full depth work,,, ' no, this is what we want ! ', said the HOA's board,,, so we did as directed & expect to return to complete as we proposed,,, i see a larger boat in my future