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Home Repair - - If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Otherwise look here.
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Posted by Postal68 on April 16, 2007, 3:45 pm
I have a French drain with a sump pump in my basement.
For 11 years I NEVER got any water down in my basement, the drain took care
of business.
Now suddenly in the past 2 years I have had 3 major floods (including this
morning) where the water has soaked /ruined my carpets in the basement.
Any ideas why the French drain would suddenly stop working. The Sump Pump is
working fine. It is turning on and off and ejecting the gathered water from
the sump well.
Would blockages/debris that fell into the drain area around the perimeter of
my basement wall be the culprit?
Or could it be a case of the ground outside being so saturated the water has
nowhere else to go but in my walls/French drain and the French drain can not
handle the capacity of water coming in.
Option 3:
I had home construction done (new siding, windows, doors, deck) about 2
years ago. Could they have damaged something? I have looked all around the
areas that they added new doors, windows, deck, ect.. and I can not find any
water seeping in.
By the way, I am in NJ where we were hit with 7-10 inches of rain in the
last 15-20 hours and a state of emergency was declared.
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Posted by Jack on April 16, 2007, 3:47 pm
Is the outlet of the french drain going to daylight? If not, your french
drain might no longer be able to handle the output due to a failure.
show/hide quoted text
>I have a French drain with a sump pump in my basement.
> For 11 years I NEVER got any water down in my basement, the drain took
> care of business.
> Now suddenly in the past 2 years I have had 3 major floods (including this
> morning) where the water has soaked /ruined my carpets in the basement.
> Any ideas why the French drain would suddenly stop working. The Sump Pump
> is working fine. It is turning on and off and ejecting the gathered water
> from the sump well.
> Would blockages/debris that fell into the drain area around the perimeter
> of my basement wall be the culprit?
> Or could it be a case of the ground outside being so saturated the water
> has nowhere else to go but in my walls/French drain and the French drain
> can not handle the capacity of water coming in.
> Option 3:
> I had home construction done (new siding, windows, doors, deck) about 2
> years ago. Could they have damaged something? I have looked all around the
> areas that they added new doors, windows, deck, ect.. and I can not find
> any water seeping in.
> By the way, I am in NJ where we were hit with 7-10 inches of rain in the
> last 15-20 hours and a state of emergency was declared.
>
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Posted by EXT on April 16, 2007, 4:53 pm
Is this "french drain" installed inside the foundation under the concrete
floor? Or is it a perimeter drain around outside the foundation wall? If it
is the first, your water may be coming in through the wall or wall/floor
seam. If it is the latter, it may be water table coming up through the
ground under the floor.
If you have both systems, you should have no problems.
show/hide quoted text
>I have a French drain with a sump pump in my basement.
> For 11 years I NEVER got any water down in my basement, the drain took
> care of business.
> Now suddenly in the past 2 years I have had 3 major floods (including this
> morning) where the water has soaked /ruined my carpets in the basement.
> Any ideas why the French drain would suddenly stop working. The Sump Pump
> is working fine. It is turning on and off and ejecting the gathered water
> from the sump well.
> Would blockages/debris that fell into the drain area around the perimeter
> of my basement wall be the culprit?
> Or could it be a case of the ground outside being so saturated the water
> has nowhere else to go but in my walls/French drain and the French drain
> can not handle the capacity of water coming in.
> Option 3:
> I had home construction done (new siding, windows, doors, deck) about 2
> years ago. Could they have damaged something? I have looked all around the
> areas that they added new doors, windows, deck, ect.. and I can not find
> any water seeping in.
> By the way, I am in NJ where we were hit with 7-10 inches of rain in the
> last 15-20 hours and a state of emergency was declared.
>
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Posted by Postal68 on April 16, 2007, 5:17 pm
I don't know if it is an actual "French Drain"
It is on the INSIDE perimeter of the basement and has a concrete "channel "
that is about 1+ 1/2 inches high that collects the water and routes it
around the basement perimeter to the sump well.
The house is about 60 + years old.
Also, I cannot find any sign of wetness on my walls, this is very strange.
Currently I am trying to get behind my walls and trying to brush/vacuum out
any debris in the channel.
show/hide quoted text
> Is this "french drain" installed inside the foundation under the concrete
> floor? Or is it a perimeter drain around outside the foundation wall? If
> it is the first, your water may be coming in through the wall or
> wall/floor seam. If it is the latter, it may be water table coming up
> through the ground under the floor.
> If you have both systems, you should have no problems.
>>I have a French drain with a sump pump in my basement.
>> For 11 years I NEVER got any water down in my basement, the drain took
>> care of business.
>> Now suddenly in the past 2 years I have had 3 major floods (including
>> this morning) where the water has soaked /ruined my carpets in the
>> basement.
>> Any ideas why the French drain would suddenly stop working. The Sump Pump
>> is working fine. It is turning on and off and ejecting the gathered water
>> from the sump well.
>> Would blockages/debris that fell into the drain area around the perimeter
>> of my basement wall be the culprit?
>> Or could it be a case of the ground outside being so saturated the water
>> has nowhere else to go but in my walls/French drain and the French drain
>> can not handle the capacity of water coming in.
>> Option 3:
>> I had home construction done (new siding, windows, doors, deck) about 2
>> years ago. Could they have damaged something? I have looked all around
>> the areas that they added new doors, windows, deck, ect.. and I can not
>> find any water seeping in.
>> By the way, I am in NJ where we were hit with 7-10 inches of rain in the
>> last 15-20 hours and a state of emergency was declared.
>
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Posted by Cue Miller on April 16, 2007, 8:17 pm
>I have a French drain with a sump pump in my basement.
> For 11 years I NEVER got any water down in my basement, the drain took
> care of business.
> Now suddenly in the past 2 years I have had 3 major floods (including this
> morning) where the water has soaked /ruined my carpets in the basement.
> Any ideas why the French drain would suddenly stop working. The Sump Pump
> is working fine. It is turning on and off and ejecting the gathered water
> from the sump well.
> Would blockages/debris that fell into the drain area around the perimeter
> of my basement wall be the culprit?
> Or could it be a case of the ground outside being so saturated the water
> has nowhere else to go but in my walls/French drain and the French drain
> can not handle the capacity of water coming in.
> Option 3:
> I had home construction done (new siding, windows, doors, deck) about 2
> years ago. Could they have damaged something? I have looked all around the
> areas that they added new doors, windows, deck, ect.. and I can not find
> any water seeping in.
> By the way, I am in NJ where we were hit with 7-10 inches of rain in the
> last 15-20 hours and a state of emergency was declared.
I live in northern NJ, too, and have an outside French drain that normally
carries away water that runs down the back yard towards the house (the yard
was mis-graded sometime in the early 1920s, no way to regrade it now). The
drain forms a "U" around the whole back and sides of the house and empties
down the driveway where the water flows into the street.
This neat little drain system works great in normal rainstorms, but
yesterday sure wasn't normal. We got 7.06 inches of rain in less than 18
hours and it was still raining this morning at 11:30.
Here's what happens to my drain: the gravel-filled trench the perfed pipe is
buried in fills up because the pipe cannot take all the water away fast
enough, even though it's a 6-inch pipe. When this happens, water flows over
the top of the trench and soaks the narrow strip of ground behind the trench
and eventually seeps into the basement.
Yesterday, it got so deep in one spot, an inside corner next to a door, that
the water started flowing under the threshold of the door and pouring into
the basement. Fortunately, it's a short trip to the basement drain, which
was able to handle the flow easily, so not much got damaged. The only other
time that happened was in 1999 during Hurricane Floyd.
So my guess is that yesterday your system could not handle all the water and
overflowed.
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> For 11 years I NEVER got any water down in my basement, the drain took
> care of business.
> Now suddenly in the past 2 years I have had 3 major floods (including this
> morning) where the water has soaked /ruined my carpets in the basement.
> Any ideas why the French drain would suddenly stop working. The Sump Pump
> is working fine. It is turning on and off and ejecting the gathered water
> from the sump well.
> Would blockages/debris that fell into the drain area around the perimeter
> of my basement wall be the culprit?
> Or could it be a case of the ground outside being so saturated the water
> has nowhere else to go but in my walls/French drain and the French drain
> can not handle the capacity of water coming in.
> Option 3:
> I had home construction done (new siding, windows, doors, deck) about 2
> years ago. Could they have damaged something? I have looked all around the
> areas that they added new doors, windows, deck, ect.. and I can not find
> any water seeping in.
> By the way, I am in NJ where we were hit with 7-10 inches of rain in the
> last 15-20 hours and a state of emergency was declared.
>