Making the Cellar Dry 
A PRACTICAL SOLUTION TO A PROBLEM FACED BY FOUR OUT OF EVERY FIVE HOUSE 
OWNERS—WHAT TRENCHES TO DIG—DRAINAGE—WATERPROOFING THE WALLS AND FLOOR 
by George E. Walsh 
P HYSICIANS have long realized that damp cellars are the 
cause of a good deal of household sickness, and to guard 
against it architects and builders have in recent years designed 
many methods of making cellars dry. Despite this, it is esti¬ 
mated that fully eighty per cent of all present cellars are more 
or less damp. It costs a little more to secure dry cellars when 
building a new house, and there is no question that it pays di¬ 
rectly in the end. The common problem of to-day is what to 
do with cellars that are damp in houses already constructed. It 
may be easy enough to correct the evil in future houses, but 
must all those built in the last twenty or thirty years go on breed¬ 
ing sickness through the accumulation of dampness? 
This is a real and vital problem — one that concerns nearly 
four out of five owners. Some may escape the evil because of 
their fortunate situation on high, dry and 
well-drained land, but even many of 
these houses have damp cellars during rain 
Storms that continue for several days in 
succession. Waterproofing inside and fin¬ 
ishing off with a concrete lining may 
prove sufficient for many of these houses, 
but for those located in low regions where 
springs and the water level make the soil 
perennially wet in rainy seasons, this will 
not suffice. 
The problem can be handled without 
very great expense, however. In the first 
place, the cellar floor should be dug up and 
a layer of several inches of crushed rock 
or stones should be put down. A drain pipe should be laid in 
this layer just below the surface of the floor, and at one end it 
should be connected with the cellar at its lowest point. The 
floor of the cellar should slope just enough toward this drain pipe 
to carry all the water toward it. After the layer of stones has 
been leveled, a surface of concrete should be put on and tamped 
down. Then on top of this should be applied a waterproofing 
coat of hot coal tar or dehydratine paint or any of the standard 
waterproofing material. Above this an inch thick layer of cement 
finishes off the floor. 
This work is not so expensive as it may seem in the telling, 
for inexpensive labor can be employed for digging up the floor 
and laying the surface of concrete. The object of the drain pipe 
is to carry off any water that settles under the cellar floor from 
the sides or from springs. Such a pipe should connect with 
the sewer some distance from the house, with vent pipe and traps 
to prevent the backing up of sewer gas in the house. It should 
not connect with the sewer drainage pipe system in the house. 
This method of protection from rising waters, however, will 
not prevent water from leaking through the walls on the sides, 
which may cause as much dampness as any water that backs up 
under the floor. That part of the problem must be dealt with 
independently and from the outside. All around the foundations 
of the house dig a trench about two or three feet wide, and to 
a depth just below the cellar bottom. A four- to six-inch porous 
drain tile should be placed at the bottom of this trench, 
with the slope toward the sewer pipe. The joints of 
the pipe are not cemented, but placed together rather loosely 
in their sockets. When the pipe is laid and connected with the 
Showing the drainage for the cellar floor and how 
outside trenches divert water 
sewer, the trench is filled up with broken rocks or loose stones 
to within a few inches of the grade line. On top of this soil 
can be placed for sowing grass seed. The drain tile opens into 
this trench at the lowest point and has a gentle slope toward its 
sewer connection. Thus the water that ordinarily leaks through 
the walls of the cellar enters the trench filled with loose stones 
and follows it to its lowest level, where it enters the drain tile, 
and is thus carried away. 
In very wet situations, waterproofing of the walls of the cellar 
on the outside is essential, even where such a trench has been 
dug. After days of very heavy rains the water may fill the trench 
and clog the drain pipe. It will then leach through the founda¬ 
tion wall. If a waterproof course is applied to the outside of 
the walls when the trench is dug all danger from this will be 
avoided. The waterproofing paint, tar or 
other material can be applied directly to 
the outside of the foundation walls and 
then a coat of cement placed over it. This 
cement should be of one part cement to 
two parts sharp sand. Apply it and 
smooth down with a trowel. With such 
a protection no amount of rain will fill 
the trench sufficiently to leak through the 
waterproof course. 
There are exceptional places where un¬ 
derground springs make it very difficult to 
waterproof a cellar and always keep it dry. 
This is usually in low regions where the 
slope of the surrounding land pours an 
abundance of water toward the house. For a cellar located in 
such a wet place another trench six feet from the house is some¬ 
times necessary. This is dug all around the house at a uniform 
distance from the trench close to the foundation walls, and has 
a drain pipe laid in it and connected up as the former. This 
trench, however, need not be so deep. If it is carried down 
well below the frost line the result will prove satisfactory. It 
is intended chiefly to catch the surface overflow from the higher 
ground and thus relieve the inner trench of a surplus of water. 
This trench is filled also with coarse material, and a surface soil 
left on top sufficient to provide nourishment for the grass. 
Two such trenches with their drain pipes will relieve any house 
of all dampness. No matter how wet and springy the soil may 
be, none of the water can find its way into the cellar. Houses 
treated in this way have stood on meadows and in swampy re¬ 
gions with their cellars perfectly dry. Too much dependence can¬ 
not be placed upon waterproofing. Great as this may prove, in ac¬ 
tual practice water will accumulate around the house and cause 
dampness unless trenches and drains are added to carry off the 
surplus in very rainy seasons. Of course, some houses built 
on high ground with the natural drainage away from it may not 
need the trenches, but, even so, trouble may be occasionally ex¬ 
perienced in exceptional weather. 
Occasionally we find a house which is comparatively free from 
water, but during wet weather of a prolonged nature the inside 
of the walls are covered with little drops of moisture. There 
is never sufficient to cause water to collect in a stream or puddle, 
but just enough to produce general dampness. It is not neces- 
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