My house is an old stone house and I have a problem with dampness in the basement. The house sits on a slight incline and I get most of the water entering the basement from one corner on the higher side of the house. I had heard it said in the past that an old stone house like mine really needs something called a "French Drain" which, from what I understand is a buried perforated pipe layed in stone/gravel that surrounds the house. Apparetnly this set up will collect almost all surface water approaching the foundation, and drain it away to the exit point of the drain.
Is anyone familiar with this sort of drain? If so, is it what I need? Any links describing how to put in a French drain would be appreciated.
It will help , but that one corner could be cracked and mortar missing , it has to be fixed. If water is leaking in at the floor it will help most. Mortar must be fixed inside also.
French Drain will not help here for the french drain is to make the water go in the ground and not just drain it away. If you put a french drain it will make worst by having water in the basement. You need only a collection drain channel just before the side of the house and just make it drain to the left or right to the sides and then drain down the sides of the house. French drains are only for standing water and make it soak into the ground.
As I understand it, a "French drain" is a scheme in which waste water is channeled into an underground pit, full of gravel or rocks, where, you hope, it will eventually seep back into the earth. It's used instead of draining the water into a storm sewer or other real drain that will actually carry it away. In many cases they're used because localities don't permit groundwater to be drained into city sewers (because there is no separate storm sewer system, and the conmbined sewer system cannot handle the extra volume).
The system you describe of embedding perforated pipes (called , I presume for historical reasons, "weeping tiles") near your foundation does seem to be the preferred method of dealing with wet basements. It is very common to lead the pipes to a French drain, but they are not part of the French drain and, depending on your circumstances, they might be lead to a real drain such as a storm sewer, or to a sump which is pumped into a storm sewer.
Weeping tiles work best when the foundation is covered - on the
*outside* - with a waterproof membrane. All this is probably best done by a specialist contractor. Look in your Yellow Pages, there will be tons of ads for outfits that do this. The best will offer a guarantee (like, 20 years), will be trained by the manufacturer of the patent membrane, and will have references, etc. I don' t know if suitable materials are available to DIY'ers. Normally you'd do the full perimeter but if you're on the side of a hill, I dunno, maybe just doing one wall would help.
By most accounts, waterproofing systems installed on the *inside* of your basement walls are much less satisfactory.
I hope this helps. I am in the middle of a basement waterproofing job, which is suffering delays owing to a large tree too close to the house.
I have a house in Michigan near the water that had problems with standing water around the house usually in late winter/early spring (snow melting & heavy rain). It is next to Saginaw Bay/Lake Huron so that the water table can be high. I added a "french" drain system almost six years ago. It is made of black four inch perforated corrugated plastic pipe around three sides of the house. On one side there is a driveway covered with gravel and the pipe there is 4 inch sch. 40 PVC. All of the pipe is laid in a trench filled with pea gravel. All of the trench is lined with a porous plastic sheet and the perforated pipe is covered with a porous plastic "sock" that is supposed to allow water flow but stop tree roots. At the rear corners the perforated pipe connects with solid corrugated pipes which drain into the canal. The last five feed of the pipes going through the sea wall are also 4" PVC and have plastic floor drains with a stainless steel screen that keeps animals from living in the pipes. The "french" drain in the front yard and side yard is too close to the surface and dries out the soil above so that grass won't grow on a four inch wide strip without watering with a soaker hose. If I did it again I would have put the holes in the sea wall for the PVC floor drains lower, increase the depth in the front and side yards and slightly increase the slope for drainage. I also added sand and top soil around the house and gravel on the driveway making it easier for water to drain away from the house. I used to have a problem with at least 3/4 of the house surrounded by a water in late winter and early spring. When it is raining hard you can see water pouring out of the "french" drains into the canal. Putting in rain gutters and down spouts could be a future project with the water routed well away from the house, probably through the "french" drains. I posted this before about three years ago.
actually, the French never had anything to do with this design although alot of people call a "Trench Drain" a French drain because the sound is so similar. The reason it is called a Trench Drain is because you typically dig a trench and and pour a concrete drainage ditch that is basically U-Shaped and on top you lay a cast iron frame and grate for the water to drain through! This website shows a product you can buy at places like Home Depot or Lowes:
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I'm not trying to be a no it all but I am in the construction industry and have had to use these products before...and listen to my boss continue giving the French credit for the design of this very American drainage system!
T > > My house is an old stone house and I have a problem with dampness in the T > > basement. The house sits on a slight incline and I get most of the water T > > entering the basement from one corner on the higher side of the house. I T > > had heard it said in the past that an old stone house like mine really T > > needs something called a "French Drain" which, from what I understand is T > > a buried perforated pipe layed in stone/gravel that surrounds the house. T > > Apparetnly this set up will collect almost all surface water approaching T > > the foundation, and drain it away to the exit point of the drain. T > >
T > > Is anyone familiar with this sort of drain? If so, is it what I need? T > > Any links describing how to put in a French drain would be appreciated. T > >
T > This is Turtle. T > T > French Drain will not help here for the french drain is to make the water g in T > the ground and not just drain it away. If you put a french drain it will ma e T > worst by having water in the basement. You need only a collection drain cha nel T > just before the side of the house and just make it drain to the left or rig t t T > T > the sides and then drain down the sides of the house. French drains are onl fo T > standing water and make it soak into the ground.
Not to contradict Turtle but if the French Drain _exits_ somewhere then the water should flow away from your basement. If it was a rock- filled trench then yes, I would agree with Turtle, you would probably exacerbate the problem. However if the drain is several feet (4-6) away from the basement walls _and_ is constructed so it is easier for the water to flow through the drain and exit elsewhere than to drain into your basement then it will have the effect your wish.
Your link goes to a *trench drain*. That is not a *French Drain*. You are correct that it is an American invention, though. By Judge Henry French of Concord MA. [French, Henry F., "Farm Drainage". New York: A.O. Moore & Co. 1859.]
The original French trench was a trench filled with rock, covered with boughs, then the topsoil was replaced. It was a natural pipe of sorts meant to carry water away.
I had water problems here at the farm and solved it by putting a ditch about 50 feet uphill from the house. It lowered the water table in the vicinity and carries excess water away during spring runoff. I imagine you could use a French trench to do the same thing if there is no freezing. I saw a modern French trench constructed years ago. They used landscape fabric instead of boughs to cover the rock.
In fact, this may not be a matter of *crediting* the French, rightly or wrongly. There is a longstanding English habit of naming an invention after other nations or languages when it's seen as a half-measure, or perhaps even backwards, or just kind of odd, compared to the old way of doing things. In this case, a French drain, being a hole in the ground, is not really a drain at all; it's what you hope will work when you can't dig a "real" drain in the circumstances. A French balcony isn't a balcony, it's a railing in front of a window; Dutch Treat is no treat at all, since you have to pay your own way; Chinese yo-yos work upwards instead of down. And so on.
I guess the choice of the nation depends on who's getting on English nerves at the moment, which at one time or another has been pretty much everybody.
Eventually, I expect many of these terms will be recognized as derog and will be replaced. The real estate industry around here is already using "Juliet balcony"...can "freedom drain" be far behind?
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