French Drain
A french drain comes in two varieties: interior and exterior. It is usually a 4-inch perforated pipe encased in gravel.
Exterior French Drain
On the exterior, the systems are too exposed to the elements; and although it's 8-feet down, these systems, over the years, tend to get saturated with dirt, even if a felt sock is put over the exterior french drain, the possibility of clogging is very real. On the exterior where the french drain drops its water off is a real issue as well. If the french drain is 8-feet deep, the runoff point needs to be very deep, either into a storm drain at 8 feet or greater, or into a well that would be very deep underneath the ground. Heavy excavation is necessary and these exterior french drains should be installed at times of new construction. Trying to put these drains in during post-construction settings is not usually realistic.
Interior French Drain
On the interior french drains, these drains are installed approximately 8-12 inches deep underneath the floor and usually go into a sump pump; and although these systems work well, the problem is that they tend to dredge dirt from underneath the footing and possibly cause the house to settle. The depth of the drain is counterproductive in that it dredges the water and does not only take the water threatening the floor, but all the water that's underneath the floor and makes your pump work more than is necessary. These systems also tend to clog due to the volume of water and dirt that are flowing through the piping stone and/or sock around the pipe. We have a unique system that only takes the water that is threatening under the basement floor.
There is an accepted reality that there will be water. It is not necessary to look for water deep below the floor – it is there! We want to get the water that is threatening right underneath the slab and to pump it out onto the lawn.
Let Us Install Your French Drain System!
Basement Technologies systems can be custom tailored to the different footing configurations. There are six footing configurations: typical, which is 3-4 inches of floor over the footing; less than 2-3/4 inches of floor over the footing; footing flush; no footing; exposed footing; and monolithic pour. Each system can be custom tailored by Basement Technologies with their specialty products. Whereas, the cookie-cutter french drain systems can only be installed one way and usually are not installed properly in specialty footing configurations creating more problems than before the system was installed.
today!