1) My original plan was to put the drain pipe in front of the footer however the footing is 7 inches below the slab and 131/2 inches wide. To me this is extraordinarily large and much bigger then what i expected. This will require a large amount of gravel. My question is can i put the pipe on top of the footing? This would leave me with 1 inch below to put gravel 1 inch on top then a thin 1 inch skim of concrete. Is this considered at all acceptable practice?
2) I cant find the dimpled plastic drain board to put up the wall and meet with the drain anywhere. Do any of you have a source on the web?
Thanks
Mark
Replies
When it comes to retrofitting basement drain tile, "acceptable practice" is often whatever works.
What kind of water problems do you have?
Were you planning to put the drain board inside??
I think i may be using the wrong term for what i am looking for. I am looking for a ruber / plastic sheet that i can bend into an L to go up the wall a bit then under the new slab because ithink it makes for a cleaner instal then to leave a crack around the wall.
I have seepage from the joint where the slab meets the wall and random placed on the wall itself.
Interior Drain Tile
I don't think it's a good idea to put drain tile on the top of the footing with 1in. of concrete covering, concrete that thin will be prone to crack and your water won't be draining until it's near the bottom of the slab.
I think you would be better off to bite the bullet and dig down to the base of the footer and use a reasonal abount of stone and cover with filter cloth.
I did leave you a link that sells dimple board to the diyer, luck.
http://www.dry-up-basement.com/basement-waterproofing-kit.html
I decided to bit the bullit and will dig down and put it front of the footing. Thanks for the link I will call them this afternoon.
Note that if you're getting water through the sidewalls you'd be better off doing the work from the outside, as odious as that may be.
(Or you can go to the other extreme and do what I've seen done a few times: Make a ditch around the perimeter of the basement floor and just drain that into a sump.)
This alll sounds backwards.Is this new onstruction or a retrofit?
There are very few areas in this country where an interior perimeter drain is more functional than an exterior one.
But regardless of that, you neeed to place it down under the slab, not in the slab