My circa 71 house has an old ABS footing drain. It is the solid pipe type with holes spaced along its length. It appears that when we took a tree down the roots had been in the pipe and yanked out a section(broken out). I am not convinced that these old drains do that much, but as I am in Seattle, and water is a problem here, what do you all think? Worth fixing? We are on old code and our gutters go to the storm drain, so that does not stay on the property. Not good for the sewerage but keeps us dry.
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Ether,
Footing drains (I assume you mean perimeter footing drains) are meant to carry water away from the area under the house and prevent crawl space flooding or standing water.
Whether you actually need one depends on your local water table when the ground is saturated. In some areas of my town ground water table is so high all winter that sump pumps are needed, in other areas it is no problem not to have the drains.
"Poor is not the person who has too little, but the person who craves more."...Seneca
Well it is rather high. Our city map notes "Licton Springs". Ha! Our daylight basement slab is dry, and we have a person 8 feet up on our high side, and a person lower than us. The next two down have sumps. Now that dirt has fallen in, I would need to dig the length of this up and splice.http://www.etherhuffer.typepad.com
Your attachment would be more useful if it pertained to the prob. and not to a trip you were on, getting real, the foudation drain was there for a reason, I would guess that it wasn't installed correctly, but I would say repair it. Footing or foundation drains are for keeping the underground water away from the structure, unless the gutters are tied into the same system, A has nothing to do with B. Your call, Lots of luck.
?????? A? B? The footing drain is seperate from the gutter/sewerage. We have a lot of ground water in the area and springs underground. The hydrostatic pressure in the winter can at times make out outdoor patio and drive wet. But the property slopes, with one end wet and high, the other lower end has been dry. The area of the broken drain has been dry too. I simply question how well a perfed pipe really works.http://www.etherhuffer.typepad.com
ether,
In answer to how well a perf pipe really works: Very well if installed correctly and with anadequate "daylight " drainpath . This is the wrong time of year to be looking at whether it is working, but it is the right time of year to fix it. Wait until the wet season hits to see if it is needed and you will be having a heck of time digging it up and replacing it."Poor is not the person who has too little, but the person who craves more."...Seneca
I used perf pipe on my FFILs place with a 1" gravel drain plane from footing to surface 1' thick wrapped in geofilter fabric. Not a burrito, an actual 1' thick layer of gravel from top to bottom. This place flooded every time it rained. Not a drop since. But I doubt the perf pipe ever comes into use. I also fixed the walls, waterproofed them, landscaped, and put downspout drains to open air in.The basement is much, much dryer now.In the 25 years the old drain set there, it completely filled up with silt/clay.SamT
If you have springs or underground water, that indicates the original reason it was installed. Perforated pipe is the only thing that will drain underground water that I know of, [a slope will not help if the water is below grade]. Since you don't have any idea what the broken line connects to MHO is to repair now or later, your call. Luck.
> Perforated pipe is the only thing that will drain underground water that I know ofActually, basements do a pretty good job too.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
Joke?
Not too funny usually.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
Edited 9/3/2007 1:02 pm by DanH
Yeah, its hard to describe my property. The alley side, back of house, is one story higher than the front. The slope is of course from back to front. The springs are on the other side of the alley. On very rainy days, water will run from ground to alley.
From side to side, I have a high side neighbor, 4' higher in the rear, 8' in the front. He also has a sump(which died during last winter's big storm/power outage). My house was built long after my neighbors, and so I think they worked the drainage better.
My question on perf pipe is exactly the burrito question. I drained my driveway with perf/fabric/gravel and it works like a charm. The old perf with dirt on top just slowly fills in. The put down a lot of sand in there it looks like too. Sand/water/springs/and the previous owners love of untreated wood on the ground is why we had termites too!http://www.etherhuffer.typepad.com
Not clear. Do you have a basement, or is this just a drain around a crawlspace footing? If you have a basement then yeah the drain needs to be fixed up. Unless you want to turn the basement into a swimming pool.