Making the Moat of It Owner Desireé MacSorley learned that unforeseen issues always arise in remodeling after the structure of buildings are exposed. One such issue on this project was the wood-framed house. It was built on a crawl space with dirt extending down 2 feet from the floor on the back of the building. “We needed to raise it to meet ADA requirements and have an entrance on grade,” MacSorley says. However, the wood siding on the exterior of the house also extended down past the base of the floor level.
Contractor Karl Doerre came up with the idea of building a moat around the house to preserve the exterior while providing the ground level entry to meet ADA requirements.
The 8-inch block wall extends out about 10 inches from the side of the rear of the house and holds back the ground-level dirt. The base of the moat is filled with gravel and a drain that ties into the extensive drainage system across the back of the entire building. “We put in 45 feet of that and allowed for landscaping around it so it did not look like it was sitting up in the air,” Doerre says.