Dual Purpose Drain Tile

By
©1993-2012 Tim Carter

        
Summary: Drain tile systems serve two purposes. Water removal away from the house and water injection into the soil foundation during drought. Drought conditions can cause the soil of your foundation to shrink, causing foundation and footer to fall. Installing drainage systems to prevent two problems is discussed in this column.

Related Articles: downspout drain lines, storm water drainage, foundation drainage

I often think about how blessed I am to have worked on older homes long before I started building new homes. Frequently I would have to excavate next to an old home if I were building a room addition or fixing its old foundation.

Often I would uncover the original draintile that rested against the footer just below the foundation wall. The pipe was very unique as it was 12 inch long four inch diameter orange vitrified clay pipe. The individual pieces were just butted up against one another and a piece of thick roofing felt paper was placed over the top of each of the joints.

Rest assured your builder is not going to install your drain tile in this fashion. Newer products and installation methods are available that allow builders to install foundation drainage systems that will work perfectly for many years while providing you will tremendous peace of mind.

But many builders fail to realize that draintile systems can serve two purposes. First and foremost they are supposed to collect water and pipe it to another location where it can be transported away from the foundation. But some new homes have shallow foundations that are just four or five feet below the surface. These can often be found in houses with a walkout basement, those that have a crawlspace and under most attached garages.

Draintiles installed next to the footers in these shallow foundations can be used as water injection systems in times of drought. In fact, it is not a bad idea to use draintiles systems in deeper foundations in houses with full basements for the same thing.

The heavy clay soils found under many homes in the Midwest can shrink and swell depending upon how much water they contain. In times of extended drought some clay soils can shrink to such a degree that the foundation and footer can fall. If the movement is uniform under all of the footers at the same time, then a foundation may not sustain any damage. But this is highly unlikely.

Imagine if your builder were to extend several vertical pipes up from the drain tile system to the grade level around your home. These pipes would connect to the draintile piping with standard tee fittings. Placing a garden hose into the vertical pipe would allow you to add water to the clay soil right where it is most needed.

To maximize the benefits of this water injection system the draintile system needs to be installed with care. If at all possible, try to make sure the piping rests against the footer as opposed to resting on top of the footer. I prefer to have one or two inches of coarse 1 inch or greater diameter washed rounded gravel placed between the soil and the bottom of the drain pipe. If your builder uses plastic draintile that has holes punched in it, these holes should point down not up. If placed up, smaller pieces of gravel can clog the holes. What's more, if the holes are up, it is very hard for the water to get into and out of the pipe.

The draintile piping should be installed fairly level. It will still drain water just fine if level as it is simply acting as a conduit for water movement. Since water seeks its own level, the water trying to get away from the foundation will flow out of the pipe or towards a basement sump pit with little effort.

Installing the draintile nearly level is the best way when the piping will function as a water injection system. As the water flows into the level piping it travels rapidly to all parts of the system. This ensures that the clay soils are wetted at or about the same time.

In times of drought you are simply trying to trick the soil around your footers and foundation. Since the soil can't see the sky, it doesn't know if it is raining or not. This soil simply wants to maintain a fairly constant moisture content so that it doesn't move up or down. Your builder can give you this ability with just a little bit of extra effort and material.



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Welcome! I, Tim Carter, don't answer questions here. If you post a question here in the Comments Area, perhaps another visitor will help you. You need to go to the Ask Tim page if you want a question answered. Once there, look closely at how many weeks behind we are. Please be patient as you use this free service. If you have an emergency and need to talk to me, there is an option there for you.
Stacey Parrish
13 Dec 2007, 15:19
I recently had flooding in our basement, I believe, it was caused by a clay drain pipe that had broken. I had found pieces of it when I was digging to look at the foundation. I diverted the run off into the driveway. It seemed to help and now there is little to no water coming in. I was told I need a sump pump, but, should I get the pipe under ground fixed first. I think I need to cut off any flow to thru the broken pipe. What should I do?
AsktheBuilder
15 Dec 2007, 10:51
Stacey,
You should take some time and read ALL of the columns in my Drainage category. You will discover what I would do if I were the owner of that house.
Chuck
13 Feb 2009, 18:07
I have a problem with water setteling at the back of my house and my yard is small so I have nowhere I can put it and have been getting water in the basement. The house is 1955.
Can I attach drainage lines to include the downspouts to the drain tiles to get rid of the standing water issue?
rmartinczak
02 Apr 2009, 09:08
this is all new to me--we never had a drop of water in our basement for 10 yrs(new home that we had built in 1997)--last feb. water began flowing into the corner sump pump and flowed in till about june--it is again flowing in since this feb(2009)with some water at times from cracks in the basement floor--my question is--why do the drainage tiles drain the water into the basement where it then has to be pumped out?? i was told that our county was in a drought for 10 yrs--we are in constant fear that the sump will fail and we will have a lake in our basement--the area surrounding our home is always dry but we do have a couple wet land areas on our property but not near the house--i'm just trying to get a picture in my mind on how this drainage system works--i know nothing about this--thanks
Mike
06 Apr 2009, 20:55
Hi Tim,

I've read and read and read. All very interesting material. My question is this, I have one tiny little leak coming in where the basement conrete floot meets up with the foundation wall. I can see white wated stains on the foundation wall where the pattern starts low, peaks about 3 feet from the floor, then back down. The peak of the stain is in the corner where the foundation walls meet. I've been told by 3 foundation contractors that it is my drain tile. It may be clogged, broken, or disconnected making the water pool at that spot outside of my house. My drain tile runs into a sump pit and I see water running into it and draining out the city line. My question is this. My leak is small and only occurs in this one spot. Do I fix that spot only, or should I really have the entire drain tile replaced? One of the contractors thought that my drain tile was likely clay pipes, but the drain into the pit is black PVC type tubing about 4inches in diameter. I'm just not sure what my next steps should be. I'm not going to do it myself, but I don't want to have more work done than I need to.
Krista Smith
14 May 2009, 10:28
I have a house in the midwest where there is a high water level. I have one original sump pump that was put in the middle of the basement when it was built. When I bought the house, they found in the finished basement a small portion of water which was coming up through the carpeting. They told me it was a broken tile. They put an additional sump pump in so they didn't have to do any digging in order to remedy the broken tile. however in times of heavy rain I am still getting water coming in and it is near the area where the new sump pump was put in. When I first had this problem the original company that installed the second sump pump came in and said that it didn't drain far enough from the house, so we dug up the backyard. And that didn't help at all. The second sump pump is pumping and it pumps alot of water out but near the sump pump the carpeting continues to be wet during those heavy rain periods. I've had so many people out to my house to look at this, I don't know what to do and I am concerned that I will invest in yet another solution that doesn't work. Can you make any recommendations on what to do or what type of person to call to fix this?
Margaret Ford
21 Aug 2009, 08:41
My husband & I bought a home about a year ago. The drain tile going into the sump pump hole is constantly flowing and it is a lot of water. When we moved in it did not do this it has only been the past 8 mo. or so. Our basement flooded twice so we went out and bought a better sump pump and also a battery back up one. Our sump pump comes on every minute or two, and we've had some rain but not enough for it to be running this much! I have asked neighbors if theirs runs constantly and they said no. So I just don't understand what the problem is, my husband isn't real handy about this kind of stuff!! Any suggestions as to what it could be. We were thinking maybe a pipe from the well busted so we're going to shut the well off for a couple hours and see if we can find some solution. Please help. Thank You.
Bill Wilson
22 Apr 2011, 15:36
Verify that your check valve is working on your sump pump. a failed check valve will allow portion of the water being pumped out of your sump pit to wash back down the ejection pipe and thus cause the pump to kick on again. Also make sure that the water being ejected from your house is at least 10 feet away. If it is being ejected really close to your exterior wall, it could just be running back down the wall to your foundation and back into your sump pit. Either case will cause a never ending cycle of water coming in and being pumped out of your pit.


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