rain drains

[Kathy]

I am an inexperienced lady trying to put the rain drain system in myself. We are having a log home built. It is on a slope in the northwest so we get plenty of rain. There is a daylight basement and the builder did put in a french drain all the way around the house and then he back filled. I dug down to the footings on the daylight side of the house but as the gound sloped up I was about 18" deep on the filled side. My question: is that deep enough to put my 3" drain pipe down? Do I connect it to the french drain? Any other advice? Kathy

Kathy the digger

[Pat]

If you connect your gutter drains to your french drains you may filling the foundation area with roof water. You need to be sure the roof water is directed away from the house. Any depth is okay.

[Goedjn]

Depending on what you mean by "northwest" What's the frost depth at your altitute/lattitude?

[mike]

Your downspouts generate thousands of gallons of water. Don't dump this into the drainage system for your foundation. It's asking for problems now or down the road.

Instead, have your downspouts drain into underground drain pipe that leads to a safe area far away from the foundation of your house. The best system is to have the drain pipe go to daylight if you have a sufficient grade drop. If not, you can use a pop-up emitters with a seepage system (hole in bottom of pipe, pipe surrounded by gravel and geotextile fabric). That way, left over water eventually drains and prevents your drain pipes from breaking during a hard freeze.

[<aemeijers]

I&#39;ll second that. Previous owner here did that, and seemed clueless why the basement was wet. Sawing those off and adding elbows and extensions and splash blocks was the first thing I did, even before I moved in. Made a big difference. I almost never get any seepage now.

For OP, if this is a cabin in the woods, I&#39;d try Real Hard to do without gutters at all, due to the leaf/pine needle loading problem. Big overhangs, and careful yard grading to get drainage, with a gravel planting bed or pavers or something at the drip lines.

aem sends...

aem sends...

[Kathy]

Thanks for the input. I&#39;ll put my rain drain pipe on top of the fench drain and run that to daylight. It&#39;s a daylight bacement so there is plenty of grade. Our log home is in NW Oregon and it is 3500sq. ft. Watching this project take shape has been exciting and at times a real nail bitter! Our ridge pole is over 3600lbs. and is 40ft long. I counted over 80 growth rings. We just got the roof on in time the weather has changed to rain. They are working on the framing now. It is a challenge for them because they have never worked with logs before. They did not understand about the log shrinkage issue and nailed the bucks to the logs and not the channel guide, which is suppose to move as the logs shrink. They all have to be taken apart and done over. We are living in a 24ft travel trailer and hope to be in by the end of the year. At any rate the house is a beauty with a view of the valley looking toward the Columbia River and the Washington State mountains. Blessed We Are! Kathy the digger

Kathy the digger