House owner blues: Erosion

[deckeda]

Our lot is sloped. A small creek runs behind the houses on our street.

Erosion on one side has the air conditioner unit tilting. The pad it sits on needs to be shored up somehow. I'd like to know if I can do this myself before the unit falls off, rips away from the wall and rolls down into the back yard without removing the air con unit.

It's not quite that severe yet, but still.

Next up, I've got a small (about 3x3') cement pad acting as a landing that's pulled slightly away from the house and is sloped now too. Is there a way to lift it up and toss something under it to level it back? Part of some deck stars rest on it.

[kap]

[quote deckeda]Is there a way to lift it up and toss something under it to level it back? Part of some deck stars rest on it.
Calling the engineers of the Italy's famous leaning tower of Pisa!

[OWC Jamie]

http://www.erosioncontrol.com/ec.html


Stones are (practically) free in my little rocky nook.

Building walls like these : http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/11/18/tr...stone.html
are a LOT of work.

[modelamac]

Just raising a concrete pad that size isn't much of a task, usually. The part about a Deck using it for support is the ringer in this story.

You have to raise it. Takes 2 people at least, using 2x4s on edge with a large fulcrum point. The second person puts the paver stones or whatever you use to keep it at the desired height when the first person pushes down on the 2x4.

The cause of the problem has to be addressed. It sounds like terracing with stones, heavy bricks anchored with mortar is in order. The trick will be to make it decorative as well as functional.

[deckeda]

[quote modelamac]The cause of the problem has to be addressed.
I agree. In the case of the A/C unit it's easier to see, as it's on the side of the house and one can imagine how water runs down that side. There are shrubbery and such also on that side, which doesn't exactly deter rainwater (dirt ground, not grass along that side of the house.

The small concrete pad with the deck only has about 2 inches of the handrailing that was resting on it (they set it on the concrete before it dried, so now that it's pulled away you can see the exact indention.) But the thing about this one is that it's set right up against the back of the house, so water erosion has to be coming from down the house wall because the pad butts right up against it.

[OWC Jamie]

This show had some interesting foundation and slab problems addressed.
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/tv/house...52,00.html

I caught program #2622
but missed all the others

watching that slab lift back up by the concrete lifting contractor without back-breaking labor nor cracking was pretty slick.

[kap]

[quote billb]This show had some interesting foundation and slab problems addressed.
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/tv/house...52,00.html

I caught program #2622
but missed all the others

watching that slab lift back up by the concrete lifting contractor without back-breaking labor nor cracking was pretty slick.
Don't mean to hijack the post but how are those homeowners selected for the show? And does the show pay for all the renovations?

[OWC Jamie]

A pretty good explanation and history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Old_House
explains some of the product placement :-)

The show did get kinda absurd with quite expensive home renovations and projects a while ago.
Show after show of million dollar home projects may have sold magazines at the Home Depot counters btu I'm not so sure it increased PBS viewership. Maybe it did.
Shows seem to be a bit more down to earth, lately. I could be watching old shows and not know the difference. I don't have any sort of TV watching schedule. OTA programming appeals less and less to me, so I have PBS on in the background while reading sometimes.

I think PBS actually did a show (or there was an article somewhere) on how they decided which projects to run with. I do recall that on some of the programs homeowners went over budget (even with some of the manufacturers [donations and discounts] assistance.
Watch what all the show hosts drive. :-)
There must be a few perks.

[mattkime]

the usual solution along riverbeds is placing large boulders along the bank. while dirt erodes fairly quickly, cement or rock will take much longer. to prevent the hillside from erosion due to rain, use a combo of geogrid/geotextile and good old plants. willows like the constant water that streams provide.

[Don C]

My sloped driveway dropped more than 6" from the time I bought the house a decade ago. Bad grading and water from a downspout going under the concrete had the whole slab dropping. Fortunately, it dropped in one piece and did not break up.

We had the concrete filler folks come out and raise the driveway slabs up. They drilled a hole and pumped concrete under the slabs. We then had the sidewalk brought up to the new (original) level since it too had washed out. Then we raised the floor of the garage which also had sunk a couple of inches. Talk about bad grading!

Anyway the job worked well for us (so far).

One other thing you might consider for the air conditioning unit would be to make a deck-like structure for it to sit on. Four 4x4's on the corners drilled deep enough that any further erosion would be above the them with a wooden floor on which the compressor sits.