Rain Gutters or French Drains?

 
CapeCoaler
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Post by CapeCoaler » Sun. Feb. 15, 2015 7:49 pm

Yes if you drain to daylight you can see the water flow out also...
Sand in the pipe will flow clear...
just make sure it drains down hill from your house...
and has a large someplace to go...
we have a somewhat large space but sometimes it is not enough...
at almost 800 gpm with a 5 foot head that 4" pipe can move lots of water...
Quickly...
A 12 hr hurricane fill our area quickly...
and I had 200 gpm being pumped out to another location!
I also have 80 additional feet of dedicated French drain for a sump to maintain level...
three feet wide 2 feet deep of 3/4" gravel pipe on top...
Wrapped in filter fabric and still good after 15 years...
That takes 40 gpm with no issue...
it does not flow to daylight but can easily be dug up and replaced when it fails...

 
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Post by snuffy » Sun. Feb. 15, 2015 11:06 pm

If you're going with French drains keep it away from the house. My parent's home use to get water backed up inside the basement to the front side. We always thought that was where water was gaining access. I finally discovered that a French drain (which was sloped away and seemed a natural drainage path) my dad installed when he built the house had finally filled up with gutter drain crud. The water had gained access at the footer sill and seeped through the concrete foundation wall. Once I bypassed the French drain we never had the problem again. Just a FYI!

 
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Post by waldo lemieux » Mon. Feb. 16, 2015 1:59 am

If your water problem is coming from your roof, use gutters. If your problem from surface water and slope runoff use a French drain :D

 
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Post by CapeCoaler » Mon. Feb. 16, 2015 11:22 am

So my system is a modified French drain...
Filter fabric keeps the crud out...
perforated 4" pipe at the bottom carries the water away...
3/4" stone lets the water in...
just 3" of stone on top to keep it pretty...
A quick run with the fire stick and any organics get burned off...
Key is the pond liner...
forces the water away from foundation...
pond liner is robust and will last a long time if not exposed to sunlight...
It is not connected to the footer drain system...


 
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Post by rberq » Mon. Feb. 16, 2015 2:57 pm

CapeCoaler wrote:just make sure it drains down hill from your house...
and has a large someplace to go...
Right down to the wetland, more "habitat" for the beavers and wild geese and ducks and frogs and turtles and water snakes and herons. :)
Actually they are getting too MUCH habitat now and the high water is killing off the pines around the perimeter -- have to try and get the wildlife people back to refurbish their pipes through the beaver dam. The dam is on the neighbor's land and by law I'm not supposed to touch it even on my own land, but the neighbors have never objected in the past as long as I pay for it. :roll: A guy I worked with offered to come and dynamite it. That would go over big in my neighborhood. Maybe do it on July 4th at night and people would think it was just another f'ing big fire cracker. :lol:

 
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Post by SWPaDon » Wed. Feb. 18, 2015 8:06 am

rberq wrote: Maybe do it on July 4th at night and people would think it was just another f'ing big fire cracker. :lol:
Video please. We wanna see it. :blowup: :blowup: :blowup:

 
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Post by Lu47Dan » Wed. Feb. 18, 2015 9:53 am

rberq wrote:
Lu47Dan wrote:rberq, two questions.
1.) Do you have enough fall to properly pitch your drain tile to daylight?
2.) are your cellar walls cut stone, stacked field stone or rubble type construction.
Yes, plenty of fall to work with, but I didn't realize the proper slope was quite so critical. That's good to know.
Cellar walls are stacked field stone. That's a clever idea about using the tiller to loosen the soil. It might be the best way for the back side of my house where the ground slopes away pretty steeply in a some places. But wouldn't it be best to have the sides of the trench pretty well compacted?
rberq, okay you have enough fall to drain the water away effectively, if you have large deviations in the slopes (in short distances) than a Riser can be used to transition between them. In a storm water drain system you can have slightly more pitch than a sanitary drain system but not much. The water still has to carry any solids away with it or the system can and will build up sludge in it. Than the domino effect kicks in, the sludge slows the water and more materials drop out hastening the clog. Anywhere there is a change of direction of more than 45° you should install a clean out fitting and cap. The clean out fitting can be install below grade and than dug up if you have a clog to allow access to the system. This does not apply to footer drains as they should not have gross (large) material being introduced to them. I have two clean outs on my storm water drains. I installed them for access in the future as the storm water drain runs under my sidewalk for a ways. I have never had to use them as of yet but it is good to know that I have access to snake the drain If I get a clog in it. Most clogs can in a storm water drain system can reached from the downspout connection.
Eventually I will have four downspouts on my house connected to the storm water drain with larger sized than normal residential gutters.
The tiller with the outer tines turned in will leave a ditch about 18" wide, work up layers and than shovel out the spoil until you are down to the depth you wish, The tiller set up this way will leave the walls undisturbed.
If you wanted to you could install an area drain tile in the ditch also, the two ( storm and area) drains should not be connected together as if the drain should clog up you would be loading the area drain field up with water every time it rains.
The stacked field stone walls are easier to work around without fear of the wall collapsing, "rubble" walls are more unstable than a stacked wall is.
Right now on my property I have over 400' of tile installed to drain the storm water away and drain the water away from the driveway to prevent it from heaving the frost in the spring, it has worked very well over the years. Money well spent.
Since you have a place to send the storm water than avoid the seepage pit as they will plug up over time.
One other thing, a storm drain tile can be installed steeper than the above if you install a catch box, the box is installed inline and allows leaves and sludge to separate in it allowing the water to drain away, since the water is not carrying solids it can flow faster down a steeper soil without problems.
I built a 3' X 4' X 5'D. catch box at a friends house, to separate the leaves from his drains. The leaves would clog the pipe and back up his system. The water flows into the box and drops down, than the water flows over one baffle and under the next, than exits the box. Saves him cleaning his gutter every two weeks during the spring summer and fall. He now cleans them one or twice a year and the catch box once in the summer to remove the leaves and sediment from the box.
Dan.

 
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Post by Cosann » Wed. Nov. 10, 2021 5:25 pm

Yes, I agree that if you install an excellent downspout, there will not be a problem cleaning it out. And it's best to do it now while the leaves are falling. Because I'm sure, you already have to clean the gutter every time because it's clogged.


 
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Post by rberq » Wed. Nov. 10, 2021 6:17 pm

Hmmmm. Old thread comes alive. Forgot I even started it.

Here's what I wound up doing. Underground roof. In three trouble spots, I dug down two inches right at the foundation. Continued digging outward from the house about six feet, going deeper all the time, so at the six foot distance I was down 8 to 12 inches. Laid down sheets of 60 mil EPDM roofing, running it up just above the original dirt level at the house. Put the dirt back. Added grass seed. Problem solved. No gutters. No trenches. Cellar dry. The water still winds up in the soil, but far enough from the foundation so it doesn't find its way back into the cellar. Wife pissed, can't plant pretty stuff up close to the foundation, but she never did before, so.....?

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Post by freetown fred » Wed. Nov. 10, 2021 6:41 pm

It's just a woman thing R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

 
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Post by tsb » Wed. Nov. 10, 2021 7:34 pm

Good solution

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