Anonymous wrote:OP interior drains are fine. Don’t listen to the people on this board who are obsessed with grading the yard. Fine, sure, but unlikely to solve your problem if you’re in an old house and the perimeter drains have failed. Idk why people accept that roofs and hvac need replacing but not drains.

Anonymous wrote:

the water is coming through the wall and from below the foundation. I've talked to three companies and they all agree with the problem. The differ on the solutions and the price.

Many of these water remediation companies are a racket.

For water coming through the wall, start simple. Make sure the ground is graded away from your house, and not directing surface water toward your foundation. Next, make sure your gutter downspouts are routing water away from your foundation.

If those simple things don't work, then it's often best to deal with the issue outside the house, not dig up your basement to add an interior drain. Usually this involves trenching down to the footers on the retaining wall sides, installing a drainage system (usually comprised of landscape fabric, washed stone, and 4" perforated PVC pipe that exits to daylight), applying a waterproof coating to the outside of the foundation wall, and backfilling with grade of course away from the house.

If there's STILL water coming up through the slab, then you could demo the basement slab, add a base of washed stone and sump pump which pumps to daylight, and repour a new slab on top. This is pretty extreme however. Good luck!

You're describing about $100,000 worth of work and no company who does that work will even offer a lifetime warranty.

Anonymous wrote:I'm looking drains buried inside the house.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

the water is coming through the wall and from below the foundation. I've talked to three companies and they all agree with the problem. The differ on the solutions and the price.

Many of these water remediation companies are a racket.

For water coming through the wall, start simple. Make sure the ground is graded away from your house, and not directing surface water toward your foundation. Next, make sure your gutter downspouts are routing water away from your foundation.

If those simple things don't work, then it's often best to deal with the issue outside the house, not dig up your basement to add an interior drain. Usually this involves trenching down to the footers on the retaining wall sides, installing a drainage system (usually comprised of landscape fabric, washed stone, and 4" perforated PVC pipe that exits to daylight), applying a waterproof coating to the outside of the foundation wall, and backfilling with grade of course away from the house.

If there's STILL water coming up through the slab, then you could demo the basement slab, add a base of washed stone and sump pump which pumps to daylight, and repour a new slab on top. This is pretty extreme however. Good luck!

You're describing about $100,000 worth of work and no company who does that work will even offer a lifetime warranty. Trenching down to the footers? That will involve the demo of anything within about ten feet out front he house including, concrete walkways, driveway, patios, removing any decks, sun porches, etc., removing the A/C unit outside and anything else that will be in the way of excavating all the way down and about ten feet out from the house foundations walls. Then that dirt will be piled about 15-25 feet out from the house before that work can begin. Seriously, are you high? Take a look at most any home in the demographic area of this forum and tell me how that is possible. And just for fun, tell me what you would charge if it were and what your warranty is for this work? Ill give you an example of a common brick home built int he 40s that measures 25 feet by 30 feet deep.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP interior drains are fine. Don’t listen to the people on this board who are obsessed with grading the yard. Fine, sure, but unlikely to solve your problem if you’re in an old house and the perimeter drains have failed. Idk why people accept that roofs and hvac need replacing but not drains.

It's just that one guy, spouting his BS every time the subject comes up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP interior drains are fine. Don’t listen to the people on this board who are obsessed with grading the yard. Fine, sure, but unlikely to solve your problem if you’re in an old house and the perimeter drains have failed. Idk why people accept that roofs and hvac need replacing but not drains.

Right, because why fix the problem for a few hundred dollars when you could spend tens of thousands and tear up the inside of your house and possibly make the problem worse?

Old houses don't have perimeter drains, they never had them. If your house was built before WWII, it never had perimeter drains. If your basement floor is lower than the lowest spot on your lot and you don't have a sump pump, you never had perimeter drains. If there is a lower spot and there isn't a drain pipe coming out at basement floor level or lower, you never had them.

The way people kept their basements dry before sump pumps was by keeping the water away from the basement. That meant catching the rain that falls on the roof and directing it far away, using gutters and downspouts, and making sure there isn't a path for water to run across the surface and into the basement. This won't work in every case, but it's simple stuff you want to try before writing the big checks.

You're insane and are spewing nothing but false information. Houses had exterior footing drains for over 100 years and they almost never included a sump pump which was not a common thing, or required until about the 90s. Most of those drains did not drain to daylight where the drain is visible. That said, most of those original drains are likely clogged, from the outside to where no water gets into them anymore. An interior drain system is the modern, least invasive and inexpensive way to manage water coming into a home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP interior drains are fine. Don’t listen to the people on this board who are obsessed with grading the yard. Fine, sure, but unlikely to solve your problem if you’re in an old house and the perimeter drains have failed. Idk why people accept that roofs and hvac need replacing but not drains.

It's just that one guy, spouting his BS every time the subject comes up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP interior drains are fine. Don’t listen to the people on this board who are obsessed with grading the yard. Fine, sure, but unlikely to solve your problem if you’re in an old house and the perimeter drains have failed. Idk why people accept that roofs and hvac need replacing but not drains.

Right, because why fix the problem for a few hundred dollars when you could spend tens of thousands and tear up the inside of your house and possibly make the problem worse?

Old houses don't have perimeter drains, they never had them. If your house was built before WWII, it never had perimeter drains. If your basement floor is lower than the lowest spot on your lot and you don't have a sump pump, you never had perimeter drains. If there is a lower spot and there isn't a drain pipe coming out at basement floor level or lower, you never had them.

The way people kept their basements dry before sump pumps was by keeping the water away from the basement. That meant catching the rain that falls on the roof and directing it far away, using gutters and downspouts, and making sure there isn't a path for water to run across the surface and into the basement. This won't work in every case, but it's simple stuff you want to try before writing the big checks.

You're insane and are spewing nothing but false information. Houses had exterior footing drains for over 100 years and they almost never included a sump pump which was not a common thing, or required until about the 90s. Most of those drains did not drain to daylight where the drain is visible. That said, most of those original drains are likely clogged, from the outside to where no water gets into them anymore. An interior drain system is the modern, least invasive and inexpensive way to manage water coming into a home.

Anonymous wrote:We have been told we need a french drain. I have talked to a couple of contractors who say we don't need a permit for the work. For those people with actual knowledge of DC regs; do we need a permit for a french drain?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

the water is coming through the wall and from below the foundation. I've talked to three companies and they all agree with the problem. The differ on the solutions and the price.

Many of these water remediation companies are a racket.

For water coming through the wall, start simple. Make sure the ground is graded away from your house, and not directing surface water toward your foundation. Next, make sure your gutter downspouts are routing water away from your foundation.

If those simple things don't work, then it's often best to deal with the issue outside the house, not dig up your basement to add an interior drain. Usually this involves trenching down to the footers on the retaining wall sides, installing a drainage system (usually comprised of landscape fabric, washed stone, and 4" perforated PVC pipe that exits to daylight), applying a waterproof coating to the outside of the foundation wall, and backfilling with grade of course away from the house.

If there's STILL water coming up through the slab, then you could demo the basement slab, add a base of washed stone and sump pump which pumps to daylight, and repour a new slab on top. This is pretty extreme however. Good luck!

You're describing about $100,000 worth of work and no company who does that work will even offer a lifetime warranty. Trenching down to the footers? That will involve the demo of anything within about ten feet out front he house including, concrete walkways, driveway, patios, removing any decks, sun porches, etc., removing the A/C unit outside and anything else that will be in the way of excavating all the way down and about ten feet out from the house foundations walls. Then that dirt will be piled about 15-25 feet out from the house before that work can begin. Seriously, are you high? Take a look at most any home in the demographic area of this forum and tell me how that is possible. And just for fun, tell me what you would charge if it were and what your warranty is for this work? Ill give you an example of a common brick home built int he 40s that measures 25 feet by 30 feet deep.

That’s not true at all. We did it in 3 days and we have lots of stonework

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP interior drains are fine. Don’t listen to the people on this board who are obsessed with grading the yard. Fine, sure, but unlikely to solve your problem if you’re in an old house and the perimeter drains have failed. Idk why people accept that roofs and hvac need replacing but not drains.

Right, because why fix the problem for a few hundred dollars when you could spend tens of thousands and tear up the inside of your house and possibly make the problem worse?

Old houses don't have perimeter drains, they never had them. If your house was built before WWII, it never had perimeter drains. If your basement floor is lower than the lowest spot on your lot and you don't have a sump pump, you never had perimeter drains. If there is a lower spot and there isn't a drain pipe coming out at basement floor level or lower, you never had them.

The way people kept their basements dry before sump pumps was by keeping the water away from the basement. That meant catching the rain that falls on the roof and directing it far away, using gutters and downspouts, and making sure there isn't a path for water to run across the surface and into the basement. This won't work in every case, but it's simple stuff you want to try before writing the big checks.

You're insane and are spewing nothing but false information. Houses had exterior footing drains for over 100 years and they almost never included a sump pump which was not a common thing, or required until about the 90s. Most of those drains did not drain to daylight where the drain is visible. That said, most of those original drains are likely clogged, from the outside to where no water gets into them anymore. An interior drain system is the modern, least invasive and inexpensive way to manage water coming into a home.

Wha? So where do the drains drain to if not to daylight and not to a sump pump? Because if they don't drain they're not drains, they're collectors.

You probably don't know this, but the primary purpose of perimeter drains isn't to keep the basement dry. It's to protect the footings, protecting the basement is a secondary benefit. If the soil beneath the footings gets saturated it can liquefy and lose strength, and the house sags in that spot. That is what perimeter drains are meant to protect against.

What you've described is not a drain but a distribution system, to make sure that the water does maximum damage to the foundation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP interior drains are fine. Don’t listen to the people on this board who are obsessed with grading the yard. Fine, sure, but unlikely to solve your problem if you’re in an old house and the perimeter drains have failed. Idk why people accept that roofs and hvac need replacing but not drains.

Right, because why fix the problem for a few hundred dollars when you could spend tens of thousands and tear up the inside of your house and possibly make the problem worse?

Old houses don't have perimeter drains, they never had them. If your house was built before WWII, it never had perimeter drains. If your basement floor is lower than the lowest spot on your lot and you don't have a sump pump, you never had perimeter drains. If there is a lower spot and there isn't a drain pipe coming out at basement floor level or lower, you never had them.

The way people kept their basements dry before sump pumps was by keeping the water away from the basement. That meant catching the rain that falls on the roof and directing it far away, using gutters and downspouts, and making sure there isn't a path for water to run across the surface and into the basement. This won't work in every case, but it's simple stuff you want to try before writing the big checks.

You're insane and are spewing nothing but false information. Houses had exterior footing drains for over 100 years and they almost never included a sump pump which was not a common thing, or required until about the 90s. Most of those drains did not drain to daylight where the drain is visible. That said, most of those original drains are likely clogged, from the outside to where no water gets into them anymore. An interior drain system is the modern, least invasive and inexpensive way to manage water coming into a home.

Wha? So where do the drains drain to if not to daylight and not to a sump pump? Because if they don't drain they're not drains, they're collectors.

You probably don't know this, but the primary purpose of perimeter drains isn't to keep the basement dry. It's to protect the footings, protecting the basement is a secondary benefit. If the soil beneath the footings gets saturated it can liquefy and lose strength, and the house sags in that spot. That is what perimeter drains are meant to protect against.

What you've described is not a drain but a distribution system, to make sure that the water does maximum damage to the foundation.

Yes, I am well aware. Most them them were routed a little deeper into the ground surrounded by more stone to make a drainage field.

Anonymous wrote:the water is coming through the wall and from below the foundation. I've talked to three companies and they all agree with the problem. The differ on the solutions and the price.