Under-Deck Waterproofing in Hamilton, OH

A deck beside the outside cellar steps is a common arrangement at older Hamilton (ZIP 45011) houses. The first floor on these houses often stands four feet or more above the yard, so the deck is tall enough to keep things beneath. Drainage makes that space dry. It also gathers every drop that lands on the deck into one stream. On a house with a cellar stairwell, where that stream goes is the first thing we settle.

A cellar stairwell has one small drain at the bottom, sized for the rain that falls into the opening itself. It was never meant to take a whole deck of water. So the gutter goes on the edge of the deck farthest from the stair. The troughs under the boards fall in the same direction, and the downspout carries the water well out into the yard, clear of the stairwell and its walls. The cellar door stays as dry as it is today.

The stair keeps everything it has now. Its opening stays open to the sky, its rail stays in place and nothing we fit covers it. Along the edge beside the stair, the drainage gets a raised lip, so the troughs cannot spill toward it in a heavy storm. Where an old house downspout also empties near the stair, we can reroute it on the same visit. Both flows then go out to the same spot in the yard.

With the water handled, the dry space under the deck becomes useful. At around four feet high it holds the garden furniture over winter, the mower or a row of storage bins, all out of the rain. The cellar steps stay the dry back way into the basement. Each spring we pour a bucket of water into the troughs beside the stair and watch it run away from the opening. While we are there, we check that the stairwell drain is clear.