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When I purchased my house the builder flipped the stairs and grilling deck. I can’t figure a way to fix the grade issue at the bottom of the stairs and along the back wall. The steps lead to an approximate 3’ x 3’ cement pad butted up to my foundation, which carries on to a cement walkway.

The problem is that the ground is graded on a slight downslope where water temporarily pools during rain. The issue is my septic tank comes out of the wall a few feet away. I can’t downslope the ground away from cement pad because my septic tank is too high. If I try to raise the cement pad it will affect walking down the deck stairs(only 4 steps) and also become higher than the walk. I am getting water droplets under a large portion of my crawl space vapor barrier.

I believe the water intrusion is because of the grade issue. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you

isherwood
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Joe
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    pictures and/or drawings would help – DMoore Jan 30 '20 at 16:41
  • What does "flipped.." mean here? Why do you think droplets hanging on a vapor barrier have anything to do with this-- where exactly is the water pooling? Is this crawl space **under** the house or somewhere else? Also where are you? in most places a waste line (not the tank itself) needs to be deeper than the frost line t begin with. – Carl Witthoft Jan 30 '20 at 19:49
  • He put the steps on the wrong side, it’s temporarily pooling between the bottom of deck stairs and the foundation on the cement pad.Live in NC, I think water is getting in under the vapor barrier, maybe wicking thru cement or dirt. Only that side has water droplets under the vapor barrier. I can see the septic tank handles. – Joe Jan 31 '20 at 00:38
  • Wow.. a bit late, but you should have had a building inspector or two warn you away from this property long ago! The tank cover should be at least 15-20 cm below grade so that your lawn or whatever can grow properly over it. If the steps are on the wrong side, the contractor is responsible for removing them and putting them in correctly. – Carl Witthoft Jan 31 '20 at 17:58
  • Thanks, the inspector let it it pass, I didn’t catch it until the following year, after we had some heavy rain storms, and the grass was dying and erosion started. I am responsible for not doing my due diligence. – Joe Feb 01 '20 at 01:09

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