Re: Basement "Seepage" Solution

In article <1149602465.479566.44710@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, shinypenny
says...


Banty wrote:
Sure, a perimeter and/or footer drain system. What I'm curious about my house
though, is how the water my interior drain system picks up decreased in volume
after I put some drainage by the *downhill* side of my house.

I suspect because it changes the course not just on the downhill, but
on everything uphill from it too. There's no water backing up on the
downhill, so maybe it flows faster and more efficiently uphill as well,
instead of backing up early on in the process?

If my recollection is right, the article talked about how in spring the
ground deep down is still frozen. Get a major rainstorm before it
thaws, and the water goes on top of the frozen part, which is higher,
artificially raising the water table. Drainage on the downhill side
would keep this water flowing instead of rising into your basement.

Wow - water not backing up anymore...

It'd have to be underground movement of water; believe me I've done the walk
around my house during heavy rain many times.




In two years (possibly next year), I'll be getting drainage/further regrading
done in the uphill side of my house (y'know, what should have been done before
the downhill side of the house, if it weren't for other work going on there :)
in order to do some hardscaping and a walkway. By then, after 14 years I expect
I will have addressed all these drainage problems best as I can. Ever year,
some one of my neighbors are putting in more drainage somewhere. If our
neighborhood had a neighborhood banner, it would have a backhoe and a pile of
gravel on it I swear...

I really wish that our uphill neighbors would be required to put in a
100-year storm drain or two or three, or that the city would put a few
in. I know when we looked into building a driveway on the side of our
house, we were told that we'd have to put in a 100-year storm drain
because that's now the law here anytime you pave part of your lawn.
*Very* expensive!!!

You might have recourse. Firstly, the town highway department is supposed to be
providing drainage for town streets. Are you on a town street? If not pursue
it with whatever other munincipality it belongs to. I had the storm drain on
the uphill property line failing when I moved in. I pursued that with the town,
and the highway department came in and replaced it. Big job, ripped up all the
hedging along that property line (but, hey, there was an easement and I knew
about it), and some problems subsided.

Also, there may be laws concerning uphill neighbors' responsibilities not to
direct drainage toward others' properties. Worth looking into.


But uphill, we have many neighbors who didn't go through legal channels
to get permits before putting in driveways and paving over swaths of
their property to make room for extra cars (our area was built in
horse-and-buggy time, so the houses never meant to have places for two
cars). So no drains, and lots of pavement which makes the water flow
more easily downhill.

Walk around our neighborhood during a major rainstorm or snow melt, and
you see water coming down driveways and walkways like a friggin' river,
then pouring out across the street, then into the lawn across the
street. It's a real nuisance in winter time too. We have one neighbor
that always has a giant sheet of ice in front of their house when the
snow melts and then refreezes in the street. Several car accidents
there. One of these days, someone will get killed, then maybe the city
will install a drain.

It's a "good" thing only in that the water is going somewhere, and that releives
the hydrostatic pressure. But it's better that the water has somewher to go
that's not going through your foundation.

Yep!

DH and I talked about this last night, while enjoying our deck. We are
thinking that the ultimate solution might be to build out the retaining
wall so that it goes farther across our side lawn - across the part
where water currently streams downhill with nothing to stop it, and
then collects under the deck.


I'd consult with an engineer on that.

Banty


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