Plugged draintile

[Daniel G.]

I have no doubt that my 50 year old house has plugged drain tile. I do get water in my concrete block basement through one wall. I have had some waterproofers come out and give me a estimate, but everyone wants to break up the basement floor, install a interior drain tile, and a sump pump. The grading around the house does need some work, and the gutters are old, and not that great. I was wondering if I regraded, and made sure the ground sloped well away from the foundation, covered the ground around the foundation with plastic, and then with rock, if that could possilbly eliminate the need for me to spend $3000 to get a interior drain tile.

[Dave]

Chances are you don’t need interior drain tile. That’s just managing the water that shouldn’t be getting into your basement.

Grading and possibly exterior drain tile is the way to go.

The plastic and the rock may not do anything extra. (depends.) The water may be coming toward the house 5 feet below the surface, not necessarily at the surface. What does the water do after it is directed away from the house? It seeps into the soil and back towards the house (*sometimes*.) The water has to get far away from the house before it’s allowed to puddle.

Also, make sure the downspouts are either draining into clear drain tile or drain above ground away from the house.

[melatkin@nbnet.nb.ca]

We bought this 20-yr-old house three years ago and installed a drain in the back yard to allow the ground directly in back of the house to dry out and take moisture away from the house. Water sits in puddles above the drain tile and nothing comes out of the exposed end of the tile. What did we do wrong? We used the black (plastic) tile along with the fabric that goes over the top. We don’t see how it could be plugged, but. . . Help! We are now looking into have more drain tile put in further away from the house but want to make sure we correct this problem and do the rest right before hiring anyone with an excavator. Your comments would certainly be appreciated!

Sincerely,

Melanie

[ROY DAVIS]

Could you please send me the proper procedure for installing drain tile around the exterior of a house.

Do the tile holes face up or down? Please send me the total procedure, i.e. stone placement, covering etc.

Thanks…..Roy L. Davis

[bruce knowlton]

i plan to have a driveway installed. The contractor said that I had to unplug the drain pipe at the corner of the garage. I have dug down

and exposed the drain tile ( clay tiles ). They

broke apart in three sections about a foot long.

That seems to be about as far as they go. They

don’t seem to hook into anything. By the way,

our house was built in the mid 50’s. I had been planning on installing new PVC weeping tiles.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Author]

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