Basement wall slightly below grade

[Shadow01]

Sorry been out of town on vaca. Yeah it's hard to see from the pics but the landscape bed on the front of the house does slope towards the house. Along with the area where the small tree is planted sloped towards the house.

Yes around the corner of the house there is an ok grade. Also the front landscape bed slopes downward towards the side of the house which probably helps the water flow from left to right on the picture that shows the front of the house.

However I still have 3 rows buried below ground. Which results in the top of basement wall along with the sill plate being under ground.

The foam is where the jut out out is to the left of the window. About 10 years ago a critter dug a hole there and found a gap there. The jut out is just a small void area and not part of the basement. I put some metal screen there and expanding foam.

The way it is now if I dig out the bottom 3 rows of bricks and a little extra I'll below the yard level. So this creates the issue of how to proceed.

I don't mind the idea of the guy I had to look at by installing a waterproof membrane on the first few rows of bricks and down the basement wall a couple feet. My only concern is that I know brick is porous and what happens to any water vapor behind the bricks that now cannot escape out the bottom row. Not that it can now since it's buried. The guy seems to know his stuff but I'm concerned about fixing one problem and creating a new one.

You would want weep holes in the brick above the new waterproofing. That still may not allow the entire moisture to escape from within the bricks. You may want to consider the retaining wall idea at the front edge of the landscaping and then drop the grade of the mulch area to below the brick and add an additional drain along the basement wall that extends out to a location low enough for it to help keep that area dry. Maybe a french drain?

you have to provide a path for the water that has less resistance than the existing path into your basement.

another issue could be the downspouts. They need to be draining in an area that won’t allow water to run back towards the home. Further out is better.

 

[Tryin']

Double check that it isn't just brick ledge at the top of the wall, with concrete behind the brick. I used to do foundations, and it was semi-common for brick ledge to be set too deep for the grade. Still not ideal,not even great, but way better than top-of-wall actually being below grade.

Ledge can be commonly set from 4" - 24" below TOW.

 

[ws6guy]

Double check that it isn't just brick ledge at the top of the wall, with concrete behind the brick. I used to do foundations, and it was semi-common for brick ledge to be set too deep for the grade. Still not ideal,not even great, but way better than top-of-wall actually being below grade.

Ledge can be commonly set from 4" - 24" below TOW.

View attachment 283508

I do have a brick ledge but it's likely only 1 brick tall, estimating from pictures the original owners left us.

Also I'm basing my measurements to the bottom of the sill plate. So unfortunately I still have a slight problem.

It's only about 18 foot section of the wall that's causing an issue. I need mull over the reverse retaining wall idea, if it will work well and how to tie it into the rest of the landscaping.