Window Well Woes

[Aquaman]

We live at he bottom of a hill in a development. We had a concrete patio installed that backs up to the rear of our home. Whenever we get a heavy rain (say, 1 inch in an hour), water comes down the hill, runs through the 4 inches of crushed stone under the patio, and the window well fills up from the bottom, like a sump hole. I’ve resorted to placing a sump pump that checks for water every 30 seconds to resolve the problem, but if we lose power I’m sunk.
Any suggestions for how to fix this problem would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Bruno1949]

it gets to your patio. Is there any chance of putting up a low stone or brick wall above the patio level and diverting the water downhill and away from the house? That would require that there are areas lower than your patio within 50 feet or so. The other option is to dig a long trench along the side of the hill, put in gravel, filter cloth, and perforated drainage pipe heading to some lower spot in the area. When you cover the pipe leave the downhill side higher than the uphill side.

Of course you can’t just dump the run-off into the neighbor’s yard or the street. If you are the lowest house in the area then plan on buying a sump pump that has a back up battery because you are going to need it!

[johnpaint]

Maybe install a ridge around the window well and also a maybe a small roofover the well keep rain out.

Click here to go to John.

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