Excavation Granite Ledge

This new home on a tight lot in Belmont Hill specified an extensive list of below grade amenities, including a two car garage, an elevator shaft, a finished basement living space, plus a room for utilities. Given the design, the neighborhood and the space available, there was nowhere to go but down. The issue was that the site is located on an outcropping of granite ledge, so the excavation had to be made deep into solid rock.

Structural Stability and Building Soils in Greater Boston and Cambridge

If you are buying or remodeling a house in any of the historic neighborhoods of Cambridge or greater Boston, it can be useful to know about the history, and geohistory, of the building soils that underlay them. The urban landscape appears to be one undifferentiated expanse, but due to glaciation, there is some variety to the materials we find below grade. If you are noting any subsidence (sinking) or cracking in the foundation area, and are concerned about the stability of the structure, understand that this can be a function of the composition of the soils that it was built upon.

Prevent Winter Freeze Ups

By Doug Hanna

As I write this, we have a daytime high temperature of 9 deg F with a 22 mph wind, which makes me very thankful that I am no longer required to be outside swinging a hammer in all kinds of weather.

DIVERTING GROUNDWATER FROM BASEMENT

What goes on below grade will have a major impact on the livability of your property. A damp basement is not only unlivable, but it is unhealthy, as it promotes mold, not just in the basement but throughout the structure. There are effective basement waterproofing methods that we use, but often it is possible to divert the water elsewhere, using subsurface pipes terminating at drywells or cisterns that store the water as needed, and disperse it through a recharge system of perforated pipes, extending into the adjacent soils or installed gravel beds. In other words, we don’t try to stop the water, we just guide it elsewhere. We have even directed groundwater flows into water features on the property.

Excavating More Headroom for the Finished Basement

by Doug Hanna

Here in the Boston area, real estate prices seem to keep climbing higher and higher. As a result, homeowners are trying to find usable space wherever they can, and naturally look to under-utilized areas of their homes, such as attics and basements for the solution. Development or expansion of these spaces, whether they are finished or unfinished, can add to the livability of the home, but can also come with unique challenges.

The Basement Waterproofing Solution for High Water Tables

By Doug Hanna

Basement waterproofing is especially important if your property has a high water table, such as many in Cambridge, MA or Boston's Back Bay. S+H Construction has developed a unique process for waterproofing the basements of older and historic homes and structures. Rather than allowing water to penetrate foundation walls and then redirecting it to a sump pump, as many other systems do, our method absolutely STOPS WATER AND MOISTURE from entering through walls or slabs. We have performed hundreds of jobs over the last ten years using this method and have had ZERO callbacks.