Foundation & drainage design passes winter/spring test!

Swale behind house drains to left/east


Swale designed to catch rain & roof runoff

Berm catches slope runoff on north (back) side

When we were planning the rubble trench foundation and the grading around the house, we were working with good, time-tested ideas (Frank Lloyd Wright and others), but many people were skeptical. One friend was concerned that we weren't tying our grade beams into the bedrock below. Another thought we should insert waterproofing between the grade beams and the crushed stone. Someone else was convinced that since parts of our rubble trench extend only a foot down---where it meets ledge---that our grade beams would heave (below-frost standard is four feet in Maine).

Me, I was concerned that the swale we designed to carry water around and away from the house wasn't deep or wide enough. It looks like a dent---not the ditch I expected. But the ground is graded gently toward the swale, which goes around the side and back of the house and then extends down to the site's natural drainage area.

The snow has melted and we have had our share of spring rains. We took the opportunity presented by the soft spring ground to fine-tune the grading. But it didn't need much: we are pleased to report that the swale scheme, combined with Nick-the-excavator's marvelous berm, worked. The berm, in addition to providing some protection on the north side of the house, stops/diverts water from the north slope before it can reach the house. The swale takes care of water that falls around the house. Our shed-style roof sheds most of the water behind the house, where the gentle swale channels it down the slope to the property's natural drainage.
We are very pleased---okay, pretty damned excited---to see it working so well.

The other design features that are working really well, drainage-wise, are the extended (2.5-foot) roof overhangs and the compacted gravel berm that our grade beams sit on. High and absolutely dry. No water, no frost, no heave, no trapped moisture.