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hoping to get some opinions on this.

I recently dug up a wall of my house as I was having water problems. It's been now sealed, backfilled, and I'm debating how to refinish the top layer. It used to be a poured concrete sidewalk, that ranged from 4" to 9" in thickness (They never levelled before pouring). THis sunk and sent water directly into my foundation wall.

My plan is to just put paving stones right now, but I was thinking about the layers immediately under the stones. My plan is to use about 3" of Granular B Gravel, then paversu on top of it. I also have extra 1" XPS insulation from a basement project. Have you ever heard of laying these boards along the sidewalk, sloped so that any water that gets through the pavers and gravel, gets immediately diverted away from the house? The sidewalk will be approximately 3' wide, so if this idea works, it will send water 3' away from the house, keeping my basement even more dry during the spring thaw and during heavy rain.

I'm trying to think of any reason this would be a problem. Only thing I could think of is perhaps if it doesn't drain away fast enough this could lead to pooling water, but that's quite a bit of water to do that.

Thoughts? Warnings? THanks.

amace
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    If there's water near the foundation wall, the solution I'd recommend is a french drain. And under pavers, I'd want a layer of stone dust. Mix it with water and it will work into all the cracks under the pavers giving you a solid base so you don't have rocking. – BMitch Aug 05 '14 at 12:52
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    The only way to get rid of the water is some sort of drain system. A bed of gravel underneath the walk with perforated drain pipe works pretty well. Give it the proper gradient and you can move it further than three feet. – Fiasco Labs Aug 05 '14 at 14:35

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I wouldn't go forward with that plan.

Diverting the water three feet away from the foundation won't stop the water from getting to your foundation. You need to put a french drain in and ensure that there is an outlet for the water to go somewhere where it won't damange anything.

You can buy premade french drain material at your local home improvement store of you can building your own with gravel and perforated pipe. It's generally pretty cheap either way.

Also, ensure that you have proper slope for your french drain or you won't have flow like you need to ensure that the water gets moving.

pri0ritize
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Put 4" of ¾" gravel to the full width of the walkway and sloping away from the foundation (as you mentioned). Compact so that the gravel is even and lay the rigid styrofoam sheets on top, don't tape the joints. Then put a layer of geotextile or water permeable membrane on top of the styrofoam. Add a base of pea gravel or similar then the paving/patio stones. Provided the area beyond the 3' is free draining (e.g not clay) then snow melt and rain will be diverted away from the foundation wall and there will be no hydrostatic pressure during freeze/thaw cycles. Frost will travel at 45° from the edge of the styrofoam so you will be frost-free to a depth of 3' at the edge with the foundation.

Andrew
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