basementgardeninglandscaping
To help divert water away from my home's foundation, I am trying to improve the grade of the landscape around the perimeter of the house. I suffered a flooded basement (about 1" or so) from hydrostatic pressure after recent rain storms that lasted over 3 days.
Question: When I grade the area around my home, what kind of soil mix should I use to help divert water away from the foundation?
Note: I have rose bushes that will need to go.
For a complete repair there are 2 obvious directions to cover which you mentioned. I'll go over what I would do in your situation.
One product I would use is a hydraulic cement which can be found easily at your local home improvement store. This stuff is great for fixing large leaks in the basement.... if you can find the source. Hydraulic cement would be more permanent than a concrete filler or sealant and is commonly rated to 2000lb to 3500lb of hydrostatic pressure. Stay away from your cheap concrete sealant you would find somewhere like Home Depot. Most of these are water resistant, but not at all made for stopping leaks. Assuming you do find your leak source and fill every hole, the main cause is still unaddressed. For that we go outside.
Fixing grading and downspouts will help a lot, however, in torrential downpour you may still get heavily saturated earth around your foundation, which is a bad thing. Even worse, (depending on where you live) is water expansion as it freezes in the cracks. This could seriously worsen the issue.
Probably one of the best (and probably the hardest solutions) is to use a polyethylene foundation wrap, something like this, in conjunction with a proper drain system at the bottom of the footing. Below is an example installation from the DMX installation guide found here.
A perforated drain pipe, crush rock, and proper drain or drainage field is necessary to keep the water moving. Below is an example of a proper drainage system as provided by the EPA
Hope this helps, and best of luck!
Just insulating the ceiling will keep the ground-floor floors warmer, if you walk around barefoot, but won't save much energy (air-sealing is a better investment for that) or keep the basement any warmer.
If you want to improve the basement climate, any insulation of the walls will help retain a corresponding percentage of the energy you're losing. Air sealing helps a lot here too, as does an indirect-vented boiler or furnace (so you aren't pulling cold air into the basement to make up what's used for combustion).
Best Answer
Grade looks good to me. The ground level should drop 6" within 10' of the house. From the pic, it looks like you have this covered.
If I'm right about the grade being correct, then the water in your basement isn't going to be solved by grading, BC grade isn't the problem.
Give your rain gutters an overhaul. Make sure they're all dumping water a good distance from the foundation. Youight need to step up your gutter cleaning regimen. I use the gutter attachment for my leaf blower - saves a lot of time. With an old maple and am ancient walnut near my roof, I have to clean them 2-3 times a year.
The rose bushes should be fine where they're at. You can pack soil around them if you're hellbent on adding grade.
To answer your question: it doesn't really matter what you use. Grading is to keep water from pooling against your house. Topsoil is fine, as long as it's sloped.
However, the grade looks okay and there's a proper amount of foundation above ground. I suspect faulty gutters are the issue here. The runoff from clogged gutters can spatter your foundation. It can even splash upwards into your siding - but that wouldn't cause an inch in your basement. The spatter against your foundation, or a cracked wall, would.