Linear French Drain Systems Ask the Builder. Ask the Builder See Authors Notes at Bottom of Column Basement Water Seepage Exterior Drainage. Gravity is a powerful force. It holds us against the surface of the earth so that we dont go flying off into outer space. Gravity is constantly pulling things down hill or closer to the center of the earth. There are many of these things. Some which immediately come to mind are boulders, balls and water. Yes, water Plumbers and people who build large dams have made lots of money knowing that water flows downhill. In fact, it water has the ability to do lots of work create electricity, grind flour by turning a millstone, etc. The point is, water responds very positively to the force of gravity quite unlike helium and we can use this fact to our advantage. Crash Course on Soils. OK, admit it, you dont know very much about the dirt you walk on each day in your yard. The only reason I know anything about it is because Dr. Lawrence Lattman, my geomorphology professor, hammered soil facts into my head three days a week in my junior year of college. You see, I thought that majoring in Geology would be neat. It turned out that it was. Anyway, soil is pretty interesting stuff just ask anyone who gardens. The only thing you need to know in my crash course is this Most soils are made up of the following ingredients small solid particles of rock, organic matter, weathered pieces of rock clays, void spaces that hold air, and sometimes water. Those void spaces are the thing that should be of great interest to you. Surely you have dumped a bucket of water or sprayed hose water onto your somewhat dry lawn. Depending upon your soil type, the water may disappear in seconds or minutes. Where did it go Into the void spaces Underground Rivers. Now for the fun part. We now know that water goes into soil. We can thank the void spaces and gravity for this. Now where does it go If just a little bit of water enters the soil, it just kind of hangs around that area. Foundation Drain Tile Installation TIPS. Use 4inch white perforated pipe Cover with 2 feet of large, washed gravel Protect gravel with straw or tar paper. Plan Ahead. How to Install a sump pump in the crawl space. Step by step instructions. Easy Do It Yourself Project. Plus How to Core the Fopundation wall. TC Hafford Basement Systems repairs wet basements with their patented French drain system, provided with a warranted installation in the ME and NH and Caribou area. DoItYourself Basement Waterproofing. Basement Waterproofing Systems Easy Installation No Digging, Jackhammers or Buckets of Mud Our systems have 47 years of. A French drain or weeping tile also trench drain, filter drain, blind drain, rubble drain, rock drain, drain tile, perimeter drain, land drain, French ditch, sub. The vegetation or small organisms use it. Your trees and grass may be very thirsty. However, things change dramatically after four days of rain, or when two feet of snow melts rapidly. Things get pretty dynamic at this point. The soil in your yard begins to act like an underground river. As the rain falls, it saturates the soil. Sump%20detail%202.jpg' alt='Drain Tile And Pump Installation' title='Drain Tile And Pump Installation' />Supplier of a curated selection of natural stone, porcelain tile, and engineered stone for architects, designers, developers, contractors homeowners. A sump pump is a pump used to remove water that has accumulated in a watercollecting sump basin, commonly found in the basements of homes. The water may enter via. The additional rainfall continues to add weight to the soil and pushes gravity the water in the soil down deeper AND sideways. The water in the soil is in motion. It, just like anything that is moving, takes the path of least resistance. In many instances, this path of least resistance is sideways. The reason for this is simple. The deeper you go into most soils one of two things happens you either hit solid rock a barrier to the moving water or the soil simply gets denser and has fewer void spaces to accept the water. In fact, many of us know that so much water can enter soil that it does become completely saturated. This is why water wells work. Have you ever thought about how a well is built You dig a hole, line the sides of the hole with rocks, and wait for the water to come in. Hmm, this isnt too much different from the way we build basements The point Im trying to make is that if you have a crack in your basement ANY crack, such as in the wall, floor or where the walls meet the floor, this is a path of least resistance. Think of it. A bunch of water droplets are in the soil and they are trying to push their way against other droplets, and one says, Hey, look over there I see a crack and some light Lets take a shortcut and get down a few feet closer to the center of the earth I believe I saw this once in a Woody Allen movie. This is what really happens. Water is constantly looking for a way to get to the center of the earth just as fast as it possibly can. Lets use this fact to our advantage. Gravity and Gravel. OK, we know about gravity and void spaces. Lets put this knowledge to work. Nokia Mobile Software Update Provider Information. Since we know that water likes void spaces AND that it likes the path of least resistance, what can we use to maximize the quantity of water movement and the speed at which it moves Of course, I knew you would know the answer. Large rounded washed gravel Yes, stones that range in size from one inch or so to about one and a quarter inch in diameterThink of it, if we make a simulated soil of our own of this gravel, the water will go right for it. I can hear the water droplets yelling at each other nowHey guys gals, youre not gonna believe what I just found Huge voids we can pass through. Hurry up, get over here as fast as you can Replacement Soil. Replacement soil is easy. Nothing to it. Now, lets say you have one or more of the following problems wet basement, soggy plant beds, soggy soil, wet spots in your yard, etc. Lets also say that your yard has some slope to it. Furthermore, lets say that your yard is at the bottom of a very long slope. Think of how much water is in the soil UP SLOPE from your house That water is moving and it is headed right for your basement, plant bed, whatever. It kind of reminds me of a medieval battle where an army is about to attack a castle. EUREKA, thats it What we need is a moat Lets surround whatever we want to keep dry with a moat filled with replacement soil and a drainage pipe. Lets call this moat a linear French drain. Those old water droplets are going to come charging through the soil right towards whatever and fall through the gravel gravity to the bottom of the moat drainage pipe and be carried off run downhillgravity away from whatever. Now that doesnt sound so hard, does itTraditional French Drains. Building sites that are relatively flat can still employ linear French drains. However, instead of the ends of the drainage pipe daylighting, they instead discharge into a traditional French drain. This structure is simply a large hole, excavated to as deep as you wish to dig, filled with a porous material such as the one inch washed rounded gravel. This structure is simply a large underground bucket which accepts water. It works fine in most instances, unless the local water table is high, or if the water table has risen because of seasonal periods of high rain or snowfall. If you decide to dig one of these holes, be sure you shore up the hole if you dig below five feet. Trench or sidewall collapse is a real hazard and you could be crushed by hundreds of pounds of falling dirt. BE CAREFUL Authors Notes You may wonder if my advice is worth anything. Well, read what Jim Sanders wrote to me when he was at the end of his rope Hi, I just wanted to write to give you the results of my Trench Drain. I have had a wet crawlspace for 1. Water would fill the crawlspace at times, so we actually had to drill weepholes at the base so that it would enter the basement and eventually, the sump pump. I have tried everything. Several contractors said that the only thing we could do was to bring the water into the house via drainage tile and let it enter the sump pump. That would work, but because I live on a 6 elevation, there is no reason that I should have water problems. It became like clockwork. We even had our alarm company put a sump alarm on our system, so they could notify us if we had a power failure. Battery backup was not an option, because sometimes we loose power for days and during any rain, our sump would run every 7 minutes.