[Greenbuilding] basement help

[Alan Abrams]

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On the next house I would like a basement - a DRY basement
>>>>

In addition to conventional water proofing (not "damp" proofing) methods, I
recommend installing a drainage mat (like Enkadrain  --  see:
http://www.colbond-usa.com/getpage.html?pgid=106&pgtype=5 ) 

Assuming you are on a community sewer system, and that the house sewer
lateral is lower than the basement floor--I also recommend backfilling the
sewer trench with a healthy section of gravel or washed stone, lined or at
least capped with filter fabric.  I've done this on sites with serious
ground water problems, and had bone dry basements with comfortable living
spaces.  On one site with literally bottomless wet, plastic soil, our
engineer designed a buoyant footing system, with reinforced spread footings
poured over 18" deep trenches backfilled with crushed stone--again a dry
basement, no cracks in the concrete walls, for nearly 20 years. 

-AA