 |
Messages and Online Forum Q&A
| If you find the answer to this question useful, kindly CLICK
TO PAY here. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
French Drain linked to storm drain causes flooding?From: aressler@microoutsource.com
Category: Drainage/Waterproofing
Remote Name: 68.166.208.98
Date: 02 Apr 2004
Time: 11:46 AM
CommentsWe have an 11 year old house that was built with a french drain. We get significant basement flooding if a rain storm lasts more than 36 hours. Our house sits on a lot that generally has a slight grade and then past our house it slopes off more dramatically eventually to a storm water rentention pond. There is a storm drain on the street that flows through a pipe, past our house and down to the pond. About 40 feet before the pond this pipe ends and the water spills out onto rocks and then goes over ground the rest of the way to the pond. Our french drain from the basement foundation empties into this storm drain pipe about 60 feet before that pipe ends.
When our basement was flooding last night, the volume of water flowing out of the storm drain pipe was tremendous. I believe the real cause of our flooding is that water from the street is overwhelming the storm drain pipe and as it flows down, when it hits the juncture with our french drain it is actually flowing up the french drain and eventually causing our basement to leak.
This happens about every two years. I've done many other things to the house to try to stop the problem. I've installed gutters. I've regraded the back of the house so that there is no standing water near the house.
Does this sound right to you? Is this a fundamental flaw in the design by the builder? It seems kind of nutty to me that our french drain should connect to a street storm drain pipe. Do I have the right at this point to make the builder alter the french drain to not use the storm drain?
I'm not even sure I need a french drain anymore. I'm thinking of just blocking the pipe before it connects to the storm drain pipe. Is that reasonable?
Thanks,
Andrew
|
|
