We were advised to have a soils engineer test our soils and determine the feasibility of putting a basement under our Eichler.

This step seemed ridiculous.

However, we engaged Jerry Freeman (from Saratoga) and he arranged for a drilling company to drill a 20 foot deep hole in our front yard using a truck-mounted drilling rig. Also, the same driller used a hand machine to drill a 12 foot deep hole in our back yard. Jerry would take core samples every fivefeet in the front yard (4 samples) and every three feet in the back yard (four samples).

Truck-Mounted Drilling Rig

Drilling in the front yard

During the sampling in the front yard, Jerry showed me the core at 14 feet that ‘glistened’ and indicated a trace of water. This was cool. We moved to the back yard.

Core Sample

Core Sample with a Trace of Water

The drillers got the hand rig going and we started drilling.

Hand Drill

Everything was fine with the coring and then the final sample was being taken at 12 feet. As the drillers were pounding on the core sampler, it sounded like they were hitting bedrock. They pulled up the core and it was water!

Within minutes, the water was 8 feet below grade. Not good.

The driller packed up and we then moved to the front yard. There was water 15 feet down!

Oh no …