Sigh, new house surprises...
So, as you might know... we have moved back to Australia from Europe pretty recently, and well... the housing market on both sides was pretty red hot. So, we sold on the other side below what we could have really hard-bargained for... but we liked the people that were purchasing, and we didn't want them to miss it due to some hard-core investor that could just plunk down lots of cash on the table...
... however, on the other side, we found ourselves fighting pretty hard to get a place. Eventually, we did find a place that we liked... an older place, but with a good layout on a very large block of land that had a crazy amount of trees and shrubs. It was a place that all of us liked very much, but we knew that we would have to put some work into the house and the surrounds.
With some places, you find out the hidden surprises sooner... and with other places, these things rear up much later down the track. For us, we have had a doozy pop up in the first couple of months.
So, the first hint was with a bit of heavier rain... we saw that the downpipes were overflowing... and so, we thought that there was a bit of a blockage with the downpipes due to the leaves from the many trees.. and the overflowing gutters when we took hold of the property.
The building report had made no mention of water under the house... but when we had the pest control in to have a look around, they had said that they had visited the place before, and that there was water under the house. Now, according to the regulations... the inspectors don't need to go further than a certain distance under the house... depending on the height of the clearance.
... now, I'm a little guy, and I'm not bothered by going under the house.. but I've never done it before. I figured that this would be the time to learn and explore!
So.. as far as I could see, there was going to be very little difficulty for me to get through the entire length of the house. Like I said, I'm little and so there would be no problem unless the height clearance got to be less than about 30 cm!
Gross... this is one of the toilets... the old terracotta pipes will probably need to be replaced with PVC at some point. I wonder if they always look like this, or if there was a problem in the past?
This is the laundry section... I do wonder what all that stuff is... again, the PVC piping from the more modern fittings above feed into an older system of clay pipes.
This is the area under the bath. Now, all that filling and "dust" stuff is the wall insulation that was done before us... thankfully, not asbestos... but it does seem to get everywhere! Interestingly enough, there is very little between your naked butt and the earth floor of the house! Everything up above is but a shallow facade by the looks of things!
Hmmmm... the other toilet... that pipe is only just making it! I probably should get the plumber to have a good second look at this one... don't want a bad mess down there!
... and after a light rain, there it is... the first evidence of water getting in from outside... not such a good thing.
...followed by more wall insulation finding itself all over the place...
A slightly splintering support beam marks the very end of the house from the access panel at the other end... so, it was definitely possible for people to go this far... if only they could be arsed to do their jobs properly... or at least in the spirit of the law, rather than the literal wording of the law.
... and oddly enough, the worst of the pooling water was on the other side to where I would have expected it to be... most of the outside surface pooling was happening on the other side... but it is definitely more present here.
... like, really quite present...
even with a bit more towards the middle support column.
... and running further down the side.
... seriously, this is what holds up the support cross beams. My family in laws who work as tradies do tell me that I really don't want to know how houses are really built... I'm starting to see why. Apparently, this is not a problem and quite normal!
... not a problem...
Oh, so that is where mice go to die after they have been poisoned!
So, in the end, after a bit of digging up... it appears that problem was much more than the expected drainage from the downpipes... but the actual storm water was completely screwed and will need a complete replacement. We have a number of quotes coming in, and the range is quite phenomenal... from about 18k AUD through to nearer to 60k AUD! Well, interestingly enough, the cheapest price is from a recommendation from our tree guy... and we really like the tree guy, and that particular plumber worked for him for a bit... before forming his own little company.
Meanwhile, the really high end quotes are from large franchises. We are definitely tempted to go with the local plumber (he lives in the next suburb...), he was the most up front about many of the questions and said that he would also be getting the government inspections and all of that... which none of the others had talked about.
Doing it with the local company means that we do some of the preparation clearing work ourselves... but that is a decent enough deal to bring the price down.
So, this is my temporary hack job to catch the water from the now freely draining downpipes.. it is okay for light rain...
... but this evening, we saw a bit more rain... and so, I had to jury rig up a slightly more robust version in the downpour... it works, but lets see if it survives the night. Come the daytime, I will try and make a bit more of a permanent temporary jury rig... as it will be a few more weeks at least before the storm water can be properly redone, and during that time, we can't really expect the rain to hold off and the weather to fully co-operate!
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Yikes! They don't call it a crawl space for nothing.
I think what you really need is a sump pump. That should keep your crawlspace dry. I would also extend your downspouts so they release the water further away from the house.
I don't know how much rain you get (I am in Canada) but you could get some rain barrels to collect the water and then use it later on your garden.
BTW I shuddered when I saw those spiderwebs. Is it even safe to crawl around in crawl spaces in Australia? :-P
Good luck!
Ah, thanks for those additional tips! We definitely need to get the stormwater fixed, and then we are looking at a larger sump (maybe with a pump might be a good idea...), and then also a sub-soil drainage on the back end as well.
Spiders... hadn't really thought about it! Lol... I'm more scared of snakes when it comes down to it... but you have bears!
I always hear terrible things about Australian spiders--like everyone has to check their shoes before putting them on, or that poisonous spiders lurk in the mailboxes. We also hear that pythons are waiting around every corner to squeeze the life out of you AND that kangaroos roam your streets looking to punch people out. Is that really what its like?
About your water problems, you may want to consider a 'rain garden', which is a garden bed in a slight depression that is planted with thirsty plants. You make them 10 to 20 feet or so away from the house and direct your downspout into it. At the same time, your sump pump, which is in a hole in the crawl space where water would collect, can also pump water into this rain garden.
I don't think what you have going on under your house is that unusual for a dirt floor crawl space. You just need a little sump pump set up and your problem will be solved.
I had a dirt floor cellar in a century old house built on a rock foundation. Seriously, I mean a foundation made out of a pile of rocks. I never understood what stopped it from collapsing, but it stood for much more than a century so there is that. Animals, water, people, all flowed through it. We just had a homemade sump pump system in a bucket set into a small hole someone dug decades ago. When we lived there my husband dug a little channel in the dirt to ensure any water from the Spring melt would flow into the hole. Somehow we lived and despite how it sounds, it was a really nice house. :-P
Haha... Australia isn't all like that... I mean, a little bit of care with spider and snakes, but they are rare (the snakes at least...) in a suburban area. The only thing is that Canberra is really bush adjacent (part of the appeal!). Most of the time, they are more scared of people and as long as they aren't cornered, they will just try and escape.
We did have a kangaroo go down our road the other day... but no punching, just passing by! And an owl dropped in the other night as well... and there is that little baby cockatoo that keeps crying until it is fed in the morning! They are pretty damn loud...
Thanks for the water advice! I will run some of those ideas past the plumber. I think we are planning a ag-pipe (subsoil drainage) to divert water from the slope around the house... and well, the under house water problem is mostly due to the blocked stormwater pipes that should be directing the flow into the city stormwater. Luckily the sewers are unaffected for the moment!
Your house sounds really cool! It is amazing what lies underneath everything...
I really miss that house!
Thankfully we do not really have snakes in Canada. I mean we have snakes, a lot of them, but they are mostly garter snakes which do not have venom. There are a few rattlesnakes. Except for garter snakes, I have never seen a snake in the wild. Thankfully it is frozen arctic alllll the time :-P
We do have grizzly bears that will eat you, or alternatively, black bears that will break into your house and make themselves sandwiches.
I have only been to Canada once, it was just in Toronto for an orchestral audition... it seemed like a really nice place. And the wilderness sounds really quite fantastic!