The narrow space between me and my neighbor is filled with dirt, and during heavy rains and snow melt my basement leaks. It is an unusable space and my neighbor doesn't mind if I just fill it in with concrete. How far should I dig down before filling it, and should I put in some gravel or something before filling it? Or, should I not concrete and do something else?

Hello, I have a concrete side porch and steps (a stoop, really) that is crumbling terribly. The concrete has a very sandy texture and even a stream of water from a garden hose nozzle will cause it to break up even more. It looks like it was a bad pour, and then someone put about a 1/4 inch skim coat over it to buy some time, and that time is now up. Anyway, I don't know how well it can be repaired, but I think ultimately I'd like to remove and replace it with wood steps. I'm wondering if this is going to be an issue, mainly because of where it's situated, in a corner with part of it attached to a stone foundation, and part of it attached to a newer concrete block addition. In the basement, I can see what looks like two large bolts going through the concrete block and into the stoop. I'm wondering if this means that either the stoop is holding up a the wall(s), or the walls are holding up the stoop? Does this majorly increase the scope of the job? [ATTACH]62864[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]62865[/ATTACH]