Hey there. Just wondering if I need to fool with putting in a drain at the base of my footing along the front side of my house. I WAS having some puddling issues on the front of the house which was causing water to seep through my cinderblock foundation and into my crawl space (which I had a sump pump installed into last year). However, the majority of the water was due to the downspount emptying out right in front of the house and the ground sloping TOWARDS the house and pooling right at the foundation wall. Last week I installed a pipe and pop up to carry the roof water out into the yard and away from the house. I have also dug up my footings and put 3 coats of a liquid rubber foundation sealant on the cinderblock foundation. These two things along with planning to make sure i have the proper grade when I backfill the trenceh I dug has me wondering if I even need to bother with a footing drain. Any advice is appreciated.
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The one constant is that things always change. Your coating job may have left some voids that will still leak, the water may find a new path to your basement, the gutter can overflow, et., etc. As long as you have it open why not add that extra layer of insurance and install a drain at the footer? You'll sleep better.
You are absolutely right! I was thinking the same thing, i'm just so confused on the best way to go about it. I'm very much on a budget so I've been trying to find the best, yet cost effective ways to go about it. I'm also usually short on time due to working full time and having other stuff to take care of on the weekends (here lately it's unfortunatly been too many funeral services for friends and family).
I've seen the stuff from Lowe's that's the corrigated pipeing covered with the fake gravel stuff inside a sock (I attached a photo) and wondered if that was any good. I've looked online and found mixed reviews. I'm also confused on how to drain it out to daylight with way the yard slopes and how deep my trench is (dug to the bottom of the footing). If I bought that stuff from Lowes, should I put some dirt back into the trench first to ensure a good enough slope towards the side yard? Is that stuff any good to use to begin with or should I get the bagged gravel and corrugated piping?