San Dimas ADU Construction From a Soak Test
A San Dimas ADU planned from a timed soak test in the yard, which sets where roof water can go, how footings suit the soil and where drainage stays clear.
The first measurement on a San Dimas lot is how fast the ground drinks. We bore a test hole near the spot where the unit's roof water could be released, soak it, refill it and time how far the water level falls in an hour. A fast drop means the yard can take the runoff where it lands. A slow one sends the water off by pipe and raises a question about the soil under the footings.
Reading the result
Water that disappears quickly points to coarse, gravelly ground, and the plans can show a dry well or a stone-filled trench near the unit to receive each downspout. Water that lingers points to clay, which may swell when wet and shrink as it dries. Then a soils engineer may test it, and the slab and footings are designed for that movement, sometimes reaching below the layer that moves. Whichever way the test goes, the answer becomes a drawn detail on the drainage sheet: the size and location of a dry well, or the route of a pipe to an approved outlet.
Keeping the older footing dry
Saturated soil carries less weight, and an old footing has little margin to spare, so no dry well or soak area sits closer to either building than the distance the engineer sets. Between the unit and the main house, the ground is shaped into a shallow swale that steers water toward the chosen spot. If the older house's downspouts already spill into that side yard, they can be led into the same swale. The drainage sheet marks each slope with arrows, and the footing trenches are inspected open before any concrete arrives.
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Usually by gravity to the house's lateral, once its depth is known. If the unit's floor sits lower than the rim of the next manhole upstream on the street sewer, the plumbing code calls for a backwater valve on its drain, so a backup in the main cannot rise through the shower. Power and water reach the unit through a trench planned along with the drainage sheet.
Usually, and the space above its new ceiling needs air. A garage roof may have no vents at all, since nothing below it was ever heated. Once a ceiling and insulation go in, that space gets vents at the eaves and the ridge, or the insulation moves up under the roof deck in a sealed assembly. Either keeps moisture from condensing on the old boards.
Corners give a plastered house away. Older stucco often turns its outside corners and window edges in a soft curve, though plenty meets at a crisp edge. The unit's plasterer sets a rounded corner bead wherever the house shows that curve, and the window openings are wrapped the same way, so both walls catch the light alike.
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