I get seepage in my basement with every rain of 1 inch or more. Twice, since moving in I have stayed up all night, with a shop-vac in hand, trying to keep water from working its way to the finished side of my basement. Any forecast of rain causes great anxiety. My research shows I could use a French drain. What do the French have to do with drains? Nothing! French drains were named after the inventor of the concept, Henry Flagg French 1813-1889. Convinced his wife died of “vapors” due to their flooding basement, Henry traveled Europe looking for solutions. He came back to New England with a fully formed concept of how to avoid getting water in areas you don’t want water in. He was way off base about the “vapors” but did find a solution to wet basements. The basic concept it to dig a trench in the area where seepage is coming in and lead it away. The trench is sloped to a catchment location away from the foundation. It’s a simple solution, just not easy. So, what is the reason for my basement seepage? Our soil is anaerobic, meaning it is waterlogged with no oxygen reaching below 12 inches. As a result, water has trouble penetrating the soil, and finds a path of least resistance by going into my basement. There are 4 downspouts on the back of my house that dump rainwater between 2 to 6 feet from my foundation. My goal is to move the water at least 25 feet from the foundation. I do this using a combination of solid PVC pipe and perforated PVC pipe. The solid pipe directs all water to the perforated pipe buried at least 8 feet away from the foundation. The perforated pipe is sloped and runs another 16 feet to a catchment location. As water runs through the perforated pipe is begins seeping into the soil, all additional water fills into the catchment area. The catchment area was dug 4 feet in diameter to a depth of 3 feet. The interior of the hole is then covered in a silt liner and the bottom of the hole filled with 6 inches of gravel. I purchased an NDS Drywell. This plastic container is 24 inches in circumference has a lid on top but no bottom allowing for water from the drywell to seep through the gravel. The sides of the drywell are perforated allowing water to empty through the sides as well. Then gravel was added around the drywell up to and over the top of the Drywell. Silt fabric was laid over the top and soil covers the catchment area. I dug 60 feet of trenching then installed 40 feet of solid PVC pipe which leads to 16 feet of perforated PVC pipe. I dry fit everything to ensure it was correct then broke it apart to add one feature needed here in the upper Midwest. What would happen if we had a late fall or early spring rainfall while the ground and drainpipes are holding frozen water? Bad, it would be bad. I called manufactures of roof heat cables and found a product designed for this; self-regulating heat cables rated for underground. I ran this cable through all the piping into the catchment area making sure making sure each piece of pipe was protected by the heat cable. Finally; I fit all piping together and filled the trenching. The plan was to trench, dig, pipe, run heat cable, and get this done in 2 days, it took 4 days. There have been a couple of small rains since with no water seepage in my basement. I am HOPING the issue is resolved. If so, I might be able to go on vacation without worrying about my basement. Of course, is could be worse, we could have the “vapors”. Please stay well! Related Articles:
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