G'day Team,

Tried this under the structural thread with no reply. Perhaps by chance a plumber may drop by this thread and be able to provide some advice as it is probably more of a plumbing than a structural issue.

The issue: A 1900s home in Newcastle, originally built on stumps and two storeys high at the front. Along one side of the house a single skin brick wall was constructed. The wall is is L shape where it comes to the master bedroom has a few engaged piers and ranges in height from 1 to 2.4m or so. At some time in the past someone decided to build a retaining wall at the front of the property and backfill against this one brick wide wall. To make matters worse the fall is towards the L corner and there is no drainage.

As you can imagine the pressure of the fill has overcome the wall and, combined with the effects of water, resulted in foundation failure, pier movement and a bow in the wall. In fact I am surprised it is still standing.

The front retaining wall is adequately built and has a set of stairs adjacent to it for access to the "front" entrance. It runs the full width of the property.

My plan is to excavate the fill, build a new wall, to standard, adding an addiitonal 3m for an ensuite above and extend the bar below. I am then stuck with the water issue. I can not raise the ground level as it is now a side hill cut and the front retaining wall and adjacent property do not allow the discharge to be routed that way. There is a small stormwater discharge point at the opposite side of the property.

My cunning plan is to run a series of sub surface drains at juast below the surface, 1m and 2m into a pit and use a submersible pump to disperse the ground and stormwater to a suitable discharge point. While I'm positive I can make this solution work are there other options, preferable cheaper and easier, than what I am considering.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Cheers and Beers

Craig


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