I am about to lay drain pipe around the perimeter of my new basement footers. Locally, I am getting conflicting advise on two questions.
1. Do the drain pipe holes face up or down?
2. Is the pipe placed on top of the footer or at the midpoint of the footer height?
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Replies
Oldie,
Place the holes at 4 and 8 o'clock. Drain tile acts more like a tunnel for the water to run thru than a pipe.
Elevation. Ideally, the top of the tile should be level with or slightly below top of footer.
If you place the tile on the footer, you should set a taper, AKA wedge, AKA chamfer, of 'crete about 4 1/2" tall against the wall. Coat the wall, wedge, and footer with waterproofing before putting the Drain Plane on the wall and setting the drain tile.
SamT
Thanks Sam. Any recommendation on the brand of waterproofing material? Also, some people are putting a foam board over the waterproofing material. Is that necessary?
Oldie,
In new construction, my waterproofing system uses Xypex as a concrete coating. I then set a 1' thick layer of gravel from the footing to 1' below finished grade. Place a 4' wide layer of waterproof foam insulation, sloped 1"/1' away from the house, and top that with topsoil.
If it has been longer than a couple of weeks since the walls were poured, I would use DELTA¯-MS. then continue as with Xypex.
I prefer to use a vapor permeable system like Xypex, but I feel Xypex should be applied to fresh 'crete. Xypex manufacturer places no such restriction.
Some will say that a drain plane like Delta-MS doesn't need a gravel drain plain also, but it costs about $20K to excavate and re-waterproof a basement. How long do you want to wait before you have to spend that loot? There is the added benefit of the gravel acting more like an insulator than plain dirt backfill.
You also have to consider maintainance of the drainage tile. there is no sense in haveing a 50 year waterproof system if your water removal system must be dug out in 25 years. For this reason I use sched 35 PVC tile and lots of cleanouts. If I had to bury the tile more than 10 feet, I will use sched 40 PVC.
SamT
98% of waterproofing is in the drainplane, allowing water to easily flow down to the drainage tile system.
Don't forget stone and filter cloth. Ball park figure is the size of the drain tile on the top and bottom. This rule is not casted in stone. Luck.