Hi,

We live in a home with a walkout basement that was build in 86. Last November, we had a period of extremely heavy rain and I noticed that an area next to my exterior wall on the back (walkout) end sagged a little in a straight line. I dug out a plastic black pipe - not surrounded by any gravel - just a couple inches from the surface. The holes on top of the pipe were seeping water, and I think the soil around the pipe got waterlogged and washed away somewhat. It was too late to do anything as it was starting to freeze, so I left it over the winter.

I have been reading about french drains (if that's the right term) and it seems this pipe was not installed properly - as I said it just runs around the perimeter of the wall with no gravel around or under it and it has small holes facing up instead of down. It has either clogged, or was simply unable to handle the very heavy rain we had that day.

The pipe runs under a shed and under a deck that is inches above the ground. So replacing it would be a nightmare. I could probably try to clear it out with a water jet.

However a friend of mine who thinks he knows construction looked at this and asked if we ever had a flood or water seepage in the basement. We have a sump pump that only runs when it rains, and the basement is dry. So he suggested just basically burying it with soil and raising grade by a couple of inches to make sure it flows away from the walls, saying this pipe likely didn't do much anyway.

What would you suggest ? I don't know much about building drains, this is our first home.

 

The water in the pipe needs a place to go. Make sure there is piping to carry the water away from the house.

 

Where does that pipe terminate?

 

Somewhere under the lawn.

 

Plastic drain pipes oriented with the holes facing up will not effectively move much water, even if they are generously pitched to an outfall location. The holes need to be at 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock, where they will collect and re-route the water being collected in the voids between the washed rock particles (that needs to be installed, surrounding the pipe, full-length). A fabric "sock" around the rock will minimize the chance of soil particles plugging up the pipe.

 

Thanks. So does it have to run around entire perimeter of the house ?

 

Only those areas where water infiltration can be expected. For most properties, that means the entire perimeter.