I have a house with a field stone foundation its city located . Whenever it rains I get water comming in the cellar also in the winter when the ground is frozen and it rains the same happens . The previous owners spread shale on top of the old grass to make parking area the grade does run towards the house . Its old . no drain tile . The house has a flat roof with roof drain into the sewer . The house trap is inside a pit about 12 ” below the cellar floor . When it floods I am able to open the trap and drain the water out . I have been told that the area is shale and that ground water runs between the layers . I suspect that the most of the water is surface runoff . The cellar only gets wet when there is heavy rain so never a water table issue . If we re grade there still isnt a decent area to drain to . I am thinkig of adding a french drain around the house and run it thru the cellar wall into the sewer line like the roof drain does . I fi go 2 ft down fill the trench with stone and filter paper w/ drain pipe will this drain the water into the french drain and stop it from comming into the cellar ?
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Replies
First thing to do is to regrade so that the ground slopes away from the house to a distance of 20 feet or so. There should be no visible "ponding" within that distance.
No - don't bring more water into the celar. Dig the drainage to daylight outside!
Best Solution to Leaking Foundation
Royalt, when you say sewer do you mean storm sewer? If it's the sanitary, you shouldn't connect rainwater to it....it's typically against code as your local municipaliy will be treating a whole lot of water that doesn't need to be treated.
I've been building homes for sixteen years and have dealt with this problem many times before. The best thing to do in your situation is...
*regrade the first ten feet at the home...make sure the grade drops a minimum of 6" in that distance. If you need to raise the grade at the house, make sure you waterproof the foundation where you intend to raise the grade. Be sure to keep a separation between the framing and the grade.
*Add a french drain at the base of the 10' regraded area. Make sure you run the drain out as close to the street as possible. If you have enough drop in grade, just put a cap on the end of the drain where the water discharges. If your yard is too flat to do this, place a popup drain at the end...you can get these at most home improvement stores. Ideally, you would run the pipe all the way to the street backside of the curb at the street and cut a small opening in the curb to allow the water to get through. If you have an open ditch in front of the home...even better, run your french drain out to it and place a grate over the end to keep animals out.
*Watch your gutters during the next rain event...make sure they are working properly and if you have downspouts that discharge next to the home, I would burry these as far away from the home as possible.
Let me know how it goes...armchairbuilder.com!
I agree ... don't overload the sanitary sewer ... figure out a way to drain away from the house.
Yeah, definitely don't put drain water in the sanitary. In many places it's illegal and in many others it will be soon. If you do it you may have to pay for an expensive redo sometime in the near future.