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The next house will have waterPROOFED poured walls and is set in sandy soil. It is on a perfectly flat lot. If I can’t run footing drains to daylight and they’re not required by code(in this case)am I wasting my time and money if I put them in?
I’ve heard of some guys not putting in exterior drains if they can’t run to daylight because they don’t want to unnecessarily invite water into the basement. Instead they waterproof the walls and allow good underslab drainage(washed gravel, vapor barrior and a perforated sump basin and/or some kind of floor edging)to deal with any water that DOES manage to get in. Is’nt that alternative allowing backfill saturation to just sit against the footing/wall joint, eventually wearing down the waterproofing agent?
I usually run the footing drain into the basement(one spot) to the sump but always wonder which is the lesser of two evils.
Wondering which you guys prefer and why.
Thanks for any input,
Jeff Tripper
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Use the drains and the sump.
I'm right; anyone who disagrees is wrong!
*If you don't send the water somewhere, you'll get hydrostatic pressure when the ground water level is above the bottom of the basement slab. Unless your waterproofing is perfect, you'll end up with water in there one way or the other. Some don't want to bring water into a sump pit in the basement, some suggest a drywell outside. Check out the following thread for a discussion on foundations and waterproofing: Boss Hog "Foundation Drainage" 1/3/02 7:56amThere are links to more threads in message 4. that oughta keep you busy for a while.
*Been there & done that as an occupant in both situations. Put in the internal sump and route the water to it. That's one heck (OK Andy?) of a lot better than water oozing through walls at the weakest point. At least YOU control where the water comes into the basement. My teenage son & I found out how much water gets into the area near a footing one night during an Iowa frogthrottler thunderstorm. A downspout lost its splash block and the water dumped onto the ground adjacent to the house. We had no sump pump and spent over 4 hours bailing the sump into a sanitary drain to keep the basement from flooding. Probably bailed 300 gallons of water. Next day we bought the sump pump. The only guaranty the contractor would give us on the basement walls was that they would crack somewhere. If we hadn't had that sump, thet water would have found those cracks, no matter how hairline.Don
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The next house will have waterPROOFED poured walls and is set in sandy soil. It is on a perfectly flat lot. If I can't run footing drains to daylight and they're not required by code(in this case)am I wasting my time and money if I put them in?
I've heard of some guys not putting in exterior drains if they can't run to daylight because they don't want to unnecessarily invite water into the basement. Instead they waterproof the walls and allow good underslab drainage(washed gravel, vapor barrior and a perforated sump basin and/or some kind of floor edging)to deal with any water that DOES manage to get in. Is'nt that alternative allowing backfill saturation to just sit against the footing/wall joint, eventually wearing down the waterproofing agent?
I usually run the footing drain into the basement(one spot) to the sump but always wonder which is the lesser of two evils.
Wondering which you guys prefer and why.
Thanks for any input,
Jeff Tripper