Crawl-space dilemma: Do you pump or pour?

Q: We bought a newly constructed home with a wet crawl space. After having two separate drainage consultants out to the house, both diagnosed the problem as a groundwater/water-table issue, and both suggested installing an interior drainage system connected to a sump pump.

Our builder, who is still within his one-year warranty, is pushing us to put concrete slurry into the crawl space with a vapor barrier underneath. Have you ever encountered concrete as a solution for a wet crawl space? Nobody I spoke with had heard of that. I want to ensure that whatever is done is the proper solution.

: Concrete pumped into a crawl space might work, but then again, it probably won't. Problem is, concrete actually could make the problem worse, and at the same time make it more work to fix afterward. What you will do is create a basement where a crawl space once was, yet you know in advance it leaks and, given that knowledge, have done nothing to relieve the hydrostatic pressure.

Since you know it is a water-table issue, you can bet that the perimeter and seams in the newly laid concrete will leak. The one good thing about the builder's proposal (if it actually worked) is that you would have a maintenance-free solution — no pump to replace. If there is any way to drain the crawl space via a gravity drainage system, then by all means do that. Pumps need cleaning, maintenance and replacement, and don't work very well when the power is out.

And now for this week's toilet item

As the joke goes, plumbers charge more per hour than brain surgeons. So a fast plumber is a good thing. But how fast is fast? A contest to find "Seattle's Fastest Plumber" was held last Sunday at Qwest Field before the Seahawks game, as part of Kohler's "Bring It On" toilet-installation challenge.

Mike Bostwick, of Puyallup, who works for Dillon Mechanical, won the competition, receiving a check for $1,000 and the title. Bostwick had to slide a gasket on the bottom of a tank, bolt the tank onto the bowl with a nut-driver and slap the lid on, during, well, I guess you could call it "head-to-head" competition onstage.

Normally, this would be a three-minute operation, threading the bolt and your arms around the flush mechanism, while simultaneously holding the top and bottom of the bolt with screwdriver and wrench. Bostwick got it done in 28.4 seconds to take the crown.

Garrett Williams, of J&E Plumbing, took second place and $500 with a very respectable 29.5 seconds. The real coup of the day, however, belongs to those savvy marketing people at Kohler — they handed out oversized Seahawks jerseys to all the plumbers. Why is that so great, you ask? Think about it: All those plumbers working on toilets, bent over, way over ...

Dump-truck follow-up

A reader writes: "As the retired president/CEO of a heavy-equipment manufacturer, I wanted to respond to your recent comments about dump-truck trailers (Home/Real Estate, Sept. 26).

"In addition to the things you mentioned (conveyance and maneuverability), trailers' tongue length is determined by very complex Washington state laws. Commonly known as 'bridge laws,' they dictate exactly how much weight can be carried on each square foot of tire that comes in contact with the road surface.

"The laws also decree at what interval that can happen, so that sets axle spacing and limits weight per axle. As a general rule (but not always true), length means more legal weight capacity. The tongue or drawbar is the method to get a greater spread between the two or three major weight groups traveling down the road in combination. Many of these drawbars are designed to 'telescope' so they can shorten the combination when the units are empty.

"There are many variables within the bridge laws. We manufacturers struggle to keep up with laws that are so complicated, but they do have people in every district who are specially trained to enforce them."

Darrell Hay answers readers' questions. Call 206-464-8514 to record your question,