Construction on my house will soon start and I have a question. There is a slope in my lot from right to left allowing my basement to have a walkout on the left side of the house (facing it) therefore the footings step down to get bellow frost level at the walkout area. At the walkout the land levels out so draining the drain tile to daylight is not an option so it will be going to a sump. Obviously the walkout area doesn’t need drain tile but the front back and right side of the house will. My question is how do you handle the stepped footings? If you step the tile down along side the footings the sump would have to be very deep, or do you back fill the stepped area to the level of the rest of the house and then install your drain tile (since there will be equal fill on the interior of the basement to get to slab level). Any comments on this would be greatly appreciated.
PS Before anyone says it I know draining to daylight is the best way any I am trying my darndest to do so and I miss spelled stepped footings on the topic line(ack)
Edited 8/13/2004 3:01 pm ET by Jack -O-Trades
Replies
Jack,
Are you saying that you do not have a full basement?
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If you only have stepdowns at "A", and for the sake of argument, your FrostLine(FL) is 15". Then, 15" before the tile on front and back reaches "A" it will step down itself to the FL at "A". . . . . FL before "A" step down to FL at "A"
If you have step downs at "B", can you reach Open Air from that upper level? If so, do not connect the uper tile to the lower, run them to openair drains. Start the lower tile at the top of the stepdown at "B" and run them to the "A"s. If you can't find Open Air from "B" step the tile down to the lower level. Great place for a cleanout.
From the "A"s, run to your sump/s.
Be sure and install cleanouts every 180* of bends, or 90', whichever is shorter.
SamT
You don't need the drains to be any lower then the basmement floor level.
So there is no need to step the drains to follow the footings that are lower than the floor level.
Now Sam's idea is good IF the house is multi-level. But you should still have a continous drain at the lowes floor level. You can still have springs that would come in below the upper level.
simply drain it to "daylight", either by gravity or via pump power. Hube
OK, I think I have it figured out now thanks guys. Now the questions is holes up or holes down in the pvc drain pipe?
Down.
But if you've only got one?!? row of holes, about 4 or 8 o'clock.
SamT