A friend of mine recommended this company, who put a drain in his basement back in the 1990's. He had no water infiltration since then, until the latest nor'easter, when a little bit of water returned. This company came back after all these years and addressed the problem.
Does anybody have any comments on their proposed system? It runs in the neighborhood of $6K.
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Note, I have no affiliation whatsoever with this company nor do I endorse their work. I'm just looking for a solution myself...
this is a pretty standard waterproofing solution. i have a similar system in my basement which was installed in the 50's. the problem w/ these kinds of companies is that they want to sell you this solution, rather than sell you a waterproofing system tailored to your house. i had a similar company try and sell me an 8k solution, even tho i already had a drainage system and sump pump installed.
if you're having basement moisture problems, the first step is to look at gutters and landscaping, which is a cheap fix. an alternative is installing a french drain around the perimeter of your foundation, which is also expensive. instead of installing an entire perimeter drain, you may just be able to dig a pit and installa sump pump to lower the water table.
I definitely plan to address some issues outside, such as grading and running the downspouts underground to the storm drain. However, others on my block seem to have water issues despite doing this.
I do have a sump pump, but I believe the former owner just dug a pit and stuck a pump in it without any solution to bring water from other parts of the basement into the pit. So I get water coming up through the floor in other areas.
I definitely don't want to overkill it, but I'm tired of getting water after every heavy rain despite the sump pump...
The sump pump should be in the lowest spot of the basement. If it's not, it needs to be moved. If it is and there is another valley somewhere, you may consider renting a jackhammer (short $ =BD day rental @ Home Depot, get earplugs while you're there) and putting in a channel to the sump pump.
Grading issues & proper downspout routing from gutters is key. I wouldn't consider spending $ on any multi-thousand dollar solution until all grading is handled.
We recently purchased an old house, and the neighbors mentioned it had always had a wet basement regardless of attempts to rectify it. I don't know what the attempts were, but they were wrong. I regarded the yard quite a bit (a few truckloads of dirt as opposed to the few wheelbarrow loads the previous owner brought in) where water was clearly coming in and 90% of my water issues were gone. Toss a sump pump and some gutters into my situation and my "always very wet" basement is dry.
I agree its pretty standard. The knock against this system as shown on the website is the drains are within the perimeter of the house. Which means water has to flow under the foundation to get to the pipes. Not the best answer, but it works I hear.
Also I too had someone try to sell me a drainage system like this while I have a sump system installed too. Plus my drains are exterior, and I also have several cleanouts in the basement floor giving access to them. I had to get them all cleaned and snaked and some lowerd and regraded, and the water in the popes dropped a few inches...
I think the previous owner of his house did that. its a rather weak solution. Sump is not all that good without tiles to feed it. If the sump is any good without tiles, then there is some serious water pressure under that house.
The system they are proposing is very std and straightforward. It should have been put in during construction when it was cheap and easy.
Along with what has been suggested about fixing outside grading and downspout issues, you need to also go outside during a heavy rain and actually see what's going on. What you think is happening and what really goes on can be very different. I was having a problem where water came in one basement area during heavy rain. When I finally went outside to check, I saw that during a heavy rain, water was pouring out from the top of one of the 4" flex pipes that I was using to carry the water away. So, instead of flowing into the pipe, a lot of it was pouring out right against the foundation. I just had to secure the pipe higher up on the downspout to solve the problem.
I do realize the importance of this. I once got water in a part of the basement that had never gotten water before. I went outside to find one of the downspouts disconnected. So I do realize that what is going on outside is crucial.
I have an old, rotting cement walkway about 3 feet from my house. The downspouts empty onto it. I tried extending my downspouts beyond that walkway, to deposit water approximately 6 feet away from the house. I had more water in my basement. So it seems the cement walkway is actually preventing water from seeping into the ground.
It makes me wonder what the best option is for landscaping around the house. The situation is such that I cannot really achieve a good grade more than 3-4 feet beyond the perimiter. Am I best off putting as much soil as possible and planting grass and/or bushes? Or maybe putting down some heavy plastic with gravel on top of it?
I also was planning to run the downspouts into the ground and run 4" PVC pipe out to the street. There is a storm drain right in front of my house, though I am not sure the city would be happy if I run directly into it...
Thats the rule appearantly. 6' away is where the water should go.
I believe another rule is not to have anything within 1' of your house. But most people have bushes and grass right up to the edge. Then complain about black ants and stuff...
If the city has seperate storm sewer from sanitary sewer, then they will likely not care if you run rain water into the storm sewer. Otherwise they may not like it.
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