GOT MY PLANS!!!

[hoboken911]

Hello guys and gals.

I bought 7 acres in middle Georgia at the end of last year and have spent the last few months deciding on what to build.  We finally decided on the 20x30 1 1/2 story and our plans showed up last week.  We decided on the 20x30 as a kinda starter home to which to can add on to later. 

I won't be able to do the framing or foundation work myself as I work a lot (96-120 hours a week). Everything else is going to be all Hoboken911!!! 

Our land is flat, I mean pool table flat.  Good for farming, bad for basement.  What I am hoping to do is to dig down approx three feet, pour a monolithic slab/footer and then build a 3 foot  block stem wall to bring the total height of the basement/crawl area to 6 ft.  We are going to need the extra storage space, yet I don't want to have to walk up 10 stairs to get to the main living space. 

My question is; Would it be better to set up a sump and pump to remove water around the foundation or just set up a french drain/dry well kind of thing.  Assume that the soil will drain well.

I also having been looking at the dry stack method of concrete block.  Is it really that much more waterproof than traditional mortar?

[glenn kangiser]

Cool.

How about a dry well with a sump pump backup.

Dry stack is likely easier if you are not a block layer.  Parging looks like a lot of work but more waterproof than untreated block.

[John Raabe]

If you're doing a crawlspace and can get your perimeter foundation drains to daylight that may be all you need unless there is a water source under the house. If doing a basement however, a sump is a good idea even if you have footing drains. Plumbing can leak, things backup, etc. My brother had a house in St. Louis that he left for the winter. An indoor pipe froze, broke when it thawed and the next thing he gets is a call from a neighbor that there was 3' of water in the basement. They checked it out when they saw water coming out of the sliding door.

Since he was getting the house ready to rent, all my brother's stuff was stored in the basement.  

[hoboken911]

No way to get the drains to daylight without a pump.  Half of the heighth of the basement will be underground.  I like the idea of dry well with sump backup.....sometimes the answer is staring you right in the face.  Freezing is not a big issue here.  Most frozen lines here are from unprotected lines at the well.   

My biggest concern is that I am basically creating a 3' deep swimming pool that I hope will never have a drop of water in it.