drainage question

So that the water spills out onto the ground away from whatever it is you are trying to drain.

Reply to
Bob Morrison
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right you wouldn't want it to slope towards the house or the barn

Reply to
longshot

some books I have read say slope the drain toward daylight. what is the purpose of 'toward daylight' ? Thanks, Paul

Reply to
PaulS

The very best solution to all drainage issues is move the water away on the surface with enough slope to move and keep it away from your "stuff".

In an ideal piped system you would always like to drain runoff water to daylight. This is often difficult or impossible due to the geography of your property, there may simply be nowhere to allow gravity to take the water and discharge it above ground or the distance to do so is prohibitive. The next best solution would to send runoff to a major storm system. Another alternative would be to take it to a good functioning drywell. The worst scenario might take water to a mechanical lift or sump of some type.

When a properly sized pipe ends in daylight, the only thing that can go wrong is having the daylight end under flood waters or a blockage caused by pipe failure or critters. The city storm can be overpowered, drywells can become saturated or overpowered, and mechanical lifts fail when needed most (one of Murphy's laws) either due to power failure. equipment failure, or inadequate sizing.. ___________________________ Keep the whole world singing. . . . DanG

Reply to
DanG

That's 'second-worst.'

The worst scenario was the lake in my basement every winter before I dug a catchbasin and installed a sump pump. Now my basement has been completely dry for three winters, including our recent visit from the "pineapple express."

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-Mark

Reply to
Mark

No daylight in a french drain...

The same and other position is to put the source that is to be drained uphill if the property is on an incline. Just plain common sense.

Reply to
Jonny

Sounds like a sump pump will be required. Many jurisdictions will let you place the discharge pipe under the sidewalk and through the curb. I refer to these as "tire washers" or "rat showers".

Reply to
Bob Morrison

Reply to
PaulS

Yes, it requires quite a change in grade as in hillside or built along the river, or many feet above the street. Enough that a pipe that is lower than your basement can be sloped down hill and still spill out somewhere, as in the street.

It looks like that is your

Perimeter drain (*French drain". area drain, trench drain, kinda all the same thing) that is lower than your basement floor needs to be able to shed water somewhere. If you can't make grade with the pipe to street, storm, gully, river bank, or fantastic drywell then your next choice would be a mechanical sump. Most municipalities will not knowingly allow you to pipe storm water into a sanitary sewer system, so now you need to pump the water somewhere. All the choices are still the same, you just have the water flowing in a pipe at quite a bit higher elevation at the high end.

Any

Many times there is no need for subsurface drainage. Make sure gutters and downspouts get water 10 feet away from the building. Get rid of shrubs and plants along the house and strongly consider a sidewalk along the house all the way around. Make sure that surface water moves away from the house and cannot pond at the house. Make sure the water has somewhere to go. Code requires 6" of fall in the first 10 feet away from the house, though it often does not happen. The dranage work should all be accomplished and tested before spending any extra money on sumps, pumps, and piping.

Let me know if more info is necessary.

Reply to
DanG

Here in Seattle we have a combined sewer system. Naturally it is now far too expensive for the city to retrofit storm sewers, so the situation persists. My house is old enough that the downspouts were connected to the combined sewer, but this is prohibited for new construction.

Reply to
Mark

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