Non operational French drain

 I'm hoping to get some opions about a drainage problem.

We bought a 25 year old house last year in the Montreal region. The
previous owner fixed 2 basement wall cracks from the interior ~10
years ago. When the house was inspected, no sign of water was detected
in the basement. Late last fall, water came in the basement via one of
these cracks. We are talking about a small puddle of water at the base
of the crack. Looking from outside, we noticed that there was some
standing water in that vincinity and that the slope was towards the
house. We moved the exit of the gutter so that it would be further
from the house and decided that we should fixed the crack from the
outside. Since winter was almost there, we put off the work untill
this spring.

We contracted someone to fix both cracks since they were fairly close
to each other even if only one had been leaking. The contractor
suggested to do a camera test of the french drain to see if the
problem wasn't coming from there.
Our plan was to have the cracks fixed and then properly grade that
area so that all surface and roof water naturally flows away from the
house.

Well we got the results of the drain test. It's, according to report,
not functionnal. When the test was done, it had not rain in the last
10 days. About 50% of the drain was clear and the other half had
standing water in it filling between 50% and 100% of the drain pipe.
The drain isn't level at all and it was most likely not installed
properly to begin with. Solution: remove the drain and properly
install a new one.

I do not really have that kind of money laying around. I do not dout
what the expert told us, but I personnaly fail to see the urgency of
doing that kind of work since the situation as most likely been what
it is for the past 25 years and that the house is still standing. On
the other hand, I do not want to end up with serious problems down the
road.

Opinions?

Stefan Mazur

  says...

Certainly do the stuff to redirect the water away from your foundation, but
you'll likely also need to fix the drain.  Especially if your soil is clay.

Fixing cracks won't work agaisnt water in the end - water will find ways to seep
in if it's there.  The cracks are just the *easiest* way in for the water at
present.

Don't assume that the age of the house means no problem.  It's amazing what the
previous owners of my house simply lived with (occassional flooding), and in
some geographies you can sometimes have a water problem the house didn't have
before.

Is the drain there because of code, or was it added by a previous owner?  If it
was put in after the initial construction, then you know there was a problem
before, likely they tried the cheaper solutions, then had to put in the drain.
If so, you'll need to fix the drain.

Banty in upstate NY, did all the regrading and gutter extending, but finally put
in the drain at my house

 
Banty wrote:
Mazur

foundation, but

ways to seep

water at

Yes, soil is mostly clay. And I do not consider repairing a crack in
the fondation to be fixing the problem. I would loved to fixed the
drain ASAP, but this our first house, first mortage and this is a bit
of an expense on top of all of it. The cost of putting in a new drain +
redoing the landscape afterwards + fixing other things that will have
to be fixed after this kind of job is a bit out of my reach at the
present time.


owner?  If it

problem

the drain.

Drain is required by code. We are the first owner to open it up since
construction according to the neighbors.


finally put

Yes, we'll have to redo it eventually I guess. Our conditions are
probably fairly similar to upstate NY.

Thanks for the info,

Stefan Mazur

 smazur@ers.ca says...

Well, the drain is original - likey it's silted in or shifted, but you know it
wasn't put in to solve a problem necessarily.  (Doesn't mean it isn't sorely
needed - just that you dont' have the history that the house had to have that
fix put in for an existing significant problem.)

So do the regrading and gutter work, and possibly drainage work elsewhere that
may not be as disruptive.  At my house I also needed to pursue the matter of a
failing storm drain with the town.  Possibly addressing drainage around your
house is all that's needed.

Even if you need to do more, especially if your basement is unfinished, perhaps
with a little luck you can live with it for awhile (i.e no tropical storm
remnants decide to park over Eastern Canada for the next few years)..

You might also look into an inside drain - I had B-Dry put in their system at my
house- everything is now hunky-dory as long as I have power to the sump pump.
If you do install a sump eventually, do everything you can to have it drain out
by gravity.

Banty

 On 21 Apr 2005 06:10:26 -0700, someone wrote:


Try re-grading and extending  and/or relocating the gutter first.
MIGHT solve the problem at a very low DIY cost.

If that doesn't work, on to Phase 2.


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