Field Practicing Manual for Basement and Foundation in Waterlogged Area.

(under
construction)
Author: Engr. Faisal Rehman [FR]

NOTE: Please note that the interpretation of this document requires Expert Engineer Opinion. It is
effort to create filed practice manual for basements and foundation in waterlogged areas that can serve
as guidance for engineers. The solution pertains to basement with settlement issue in waterlogged area
in Taru Jaba District Nowshehra, KPK, Pakistan.
Disclaimer: The author and mentioned engineers hold no responsibility for any damage caused by
techniques mentioned in this document without prior Engineer Advice.

Here we have 02 problems:

1. Water seeping through floor due to high water table.
2. Settlement below columns due to low bearing capacity of soil.

What happening here is that water is shifting the atterberg's limit of soil to plastic and then liquid,
hence, soil fails in shear causing settlement.

To prevent water seepage in basement:

Solution is to provide french drain also known as drain tile pipe along both sides of foundation at level
of foundation base. If the pipe is not available, you can make one from a thick pvc pipe with 2in
approx. internal diameter and inserting holes in lines at equal spaces. That holes edge of pipe shall face
down. This pipe shall be covered all around in boulders of atleast 2in grade. and shall be greater then
holes in pipe. The water is collected in these pipes, which is then pumped using sump pump into sump
tank.
To prevent soil settlement:
Once the soil is dry, ensure the size of footing width or area to match the bearing capacity. The bearing
capacity in this area is less then 0.2 tsf. Considering 03 story as you mentioned i.e., basement, ground,
first, and second, then, we have service DL on footing under column equal to 48.6K and live load of
16K, hence required area of footing shall be 145 sft. Note that other soil improvement techniques must
be considered which is a separate topic beyond the scope of this report.

Treatment:
1. Hold the floor beams with jack .
2. Excavate 4ft below the foundation base.
3. Pump out all water and fill it with shingle+cement mixture (1:4) to provide firm soil with high
bearing capacity to hold footings.
4. The depth of this shingle+cement around the sides of footing shall be 2ft, the next 2ft layer shall be
boulders (2in size). Then, place drain tile pipe and cover it with boulder of 2ft layer on top of drain tile.

5. Join the pipe to sump tank and sump tank to sewage line. And sump pump facility to drain water
from sump tank to sewage line.
6. Fill foundation to basement floor with compacted granular base, then crush+sand and then basement
floor.
7. Total time taken will be around 2 months.
8. In taro jaba, clean water table is at 40 ft, and pure water starts at 50 ft. So hard strata is much below
80ft and due to high rise water table, friction piles may not work alone unless water around is drained
by mentioned techniques.
9. Add zero size chip plaster on wall to prevent wall leak. Without roughing the surface, it will not
work. I can recommend that, apply plaster 1/2inch thick with added admixture called Vapro blue color
75Rs/kg and then apply Zero Chips/terrazo with added admixture called Sika Lite 100 PK. Its a powder
used for integral waterproofing. Use 1 Kg in 50 KG Bag of Cement.

When water table is permanently above basement:

If you don't have head of room reduction problem, then first put 6 in concrete which doesn't retain
water. Then course chips layer and then another 6in concrete at base. This total 1 ft thick slab at base.
For side walls, first put a layer of high bond paste but mind that here locally lots of them are 2 no.
Original is german and manufactured in karachi. It is a flexible material. After this put layer of chips
better to be zero chips. The total wall thickness shall atleast increase atleast by 1 in or more.

If there is head room reduction problem then you have to excavate as well.

It also take care of hydrostatic pressure generated by water.

Reference:
1. Guide for french drain with drawing details in footer of page:
http://www.wbdg.org/design/env_bg_wall.php
2. Details of basement floor cross-section:
http://www.wbdg.org/pdfs/edg/bg_132.pdf
3. Guide for preventing basement leak from interior perimeter:
http://www.inspectapedia.com/.../Basement_Perimeter_Drain...
4. Case study of wet basement diagnosis and treatment:
http://www.inspectapedia.com/Wet.../Basement_Water.htm
5. There is interesting video on french drain:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=957571627627936
6. Engr. Shah Faisal Recommendation on use of available admixture mentioned in point 9 at end.
7. Recommendations by Prof. Dr. M. Ashraf for water table above basement.