Occasionally I get a trickle of water coming throught the foundation wall in my basement that runs over to the floor drain. Neighbors had the same problem and they had a contractor come out and dig out the wall on the side the water was coming in. They patched holes with mortar and painted the whole thing with some black foundation stuff. Looks like a DIY job if that’s all it takes. Should I give it a try? I’ve heard about french drains, but I don’t know how to install them or where they need to be run to. Thanks, I’m a clueless HO.
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Pretty much everyone here is going to tell you the first thing you need to do is get rainwater away from your foundation.
If you decide to dig it up, definitely run a footing drain. That keeps the water table down around the foundation.
Also - Instead of usingfoundation coating, I recommend this stuff:
http://www.deltams.com/
I used it once, and was really impressed with it. I think it's FAR better than the typical foundation coating.
The graveyards are full of indispensable men. [Charles de Gaulle]
Forgot to mention that, my roof has a deep overhang, gutters arre kept clean and work well and feed directly into undergrond storm drain. Also, I have a 2' wide concrete sidewalk next to the house that I had caulked when the house was tuckpointed. If I decide to do this, the sidewalk will obviously have to go. I'd like to put plantings there anyway, but I think the concrete might be helping to shed water away from the house.
My house is 70 years old, neighbors is 50, it was amazing the holes they found in the foundation. They could put a screwdriver almost all the way through the wall!
Also, when running a footing drain, do I have to run it a certain distance away from the house? It's flat as a pancake around here, I couldn't have it come out the side of a hill. Where does the footing drain terminate?
Thanks for your help.
Edited 6/1/2004 9:29 am ET by rich
If it's that flat, and you can't somehow tap into a storm sewer, the footing drain needs to be run to a sump pump.
But an amazing amount can be accomplished by simply grading the soil away from the house. For that sidewalk, get it mud jacked so that it slopes away from the house.
Your goal is no standing water within at least 10 feet of the house.
I do have a storm drain line right up against the house that the gutters feed into. So I should put a french drain pipe in next to the foundation and feed it to the storm drain?
Edited 6/1/2004 2:36 pm ET by rich
I'm not really sure what you are meaning when you say "storm drain" To me that would mean a city system that is part of the roadway.
normal draining means a perimeter drain at the footing level. It is a perforated pipe leading to...
With a 70 YO house, you could have clay tiles or an asphalt impregnated paper drain. The latter would have collapsed by now.
The gutters from the roof should never be led into this perimeter drain syustem. That only directs the roof water right to the foundation, where you don't want it, but a lot of people do it anyway.
The roof drains should have a separate drain line leading to...
The options for leading the lines and water are;
Daylight on a side hill which is out for you.
a sump pit where the water is pumped back to the surface or someplace else
A drywell - which is a big old hole in the ground. It gets filled with large stone so there is spaces between that the water can inhabit until it seeps into the sub-soil. It is built with fabric surronding so that fine soils do not eventually fill up the spaces.
A "French drain" is used when all other systems fail and the cost of total replacement is prohibitive.
simpl;y diggin the foundatiuon wall out and buttering it up with foundation coating of whatever kind will do you little good if you do not give the water a place to go. You could actually increase the leakage that way because you would be backfilling with the fluffed soil which would let more water soak in and down to the wall than in the current compacted state. Then you would plant where the sidewalk is and plants need water so you would be doing what? with the hose?
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Yes, it's a storm drain that leads out to the main storm drain in the street. I know from some excavation done last year when we had an addition put on that the outside drains and gutters around the house feed into those big old clay pipes and that leads out tothe street.
> I do have a storm drain line right up against the house that the
> gutters feed into. So I should put a french drain pipe in next to
> the foundation and feed it to the storm drain?
Only if the storm drain is low enough (and you trust it). The footing drain needs to be below the level of the basement floor to really do much good, so the storm drain must be lower than that. Plus, if you hook into the storm drain and it backs up, you'll end up with a basement full of water. (This happened across the street from me.)
Like I said, the first, most important thing to tend to is the slope of the ground near the house. Often that's all that's needed.
If your ground is flat you really only have a couple of choices.
If you have sandy ground, you may be able to run the footing drains to a dry well. I don't really know much about these. Never been around sandy ground.
If not, you pretty much have to use a sum pump pit to pump the water up and out to wherever you need it to go. Around here, the sump pump and pit is generally in the basement floor. A lot of the folks here say that's dumb, and you should never bring ground water inside the house. So take your pick.Why aren't there bullet-proof pants?
Concrete (or block) foundations are not really intended to stop water. The pressures at work are far too great. It's all about giving the water a path of lower resistance to some more preferable place.
To avoid tearing up your sidewalk, you can install drainage channels on the inside.
If the water is coming thru high on the wall ,then proper grading will help. If this is on just one wall and the digging is easy you could expose the wall and waterproof it. I would not bother trying to waterproof from the inside, rarely works. Luckily you have a floor drain, worse case is let it leak and channel it to the drain.If you decide to dig and waterproof, there are backer boards available that go on the wall after waterproofing, then backfill with stone or coarse sand. The backerboard prevents stone from nicking the waterproofing as it is being back filled.
mike
Mike, when you say to back fill with sand or gravel, does that mean I should get rid of the dirt and clay that's there and replace it with sand or gravel? Why, will this help with drainage?
Yes, the sand or gravel is porous and water sifts thru it. Clay soils hold water and so more prone to leak. You could put some topsoil on top if you wish to plant something.The idea is to get the rain water down past the wall to the bottom of the footing quicker. You may put drainage pipe around perimeter if you have a place to drain it. If all your getting is a trickle I wouldn't bother with elaborate drainage systems.
Another post mentioned a product he used that he said was better than foundation coating, it would pay to check this out.Do a google search and you may find a number of options.
mike
Rich,
Do you know what kind of soil you have? I get water in my basement all the time after a very heavy rain. And I live at the top of a hill! My soil is VERY porous, (sand, gravel and rocks) Remember, water flows horizontally once it's in the ground.
Jon
About 2 feet of topsoil and clay below that.