One of the best things that you can do to prevent the moisture that’s around the outside of your home from getting inside, where it can cause all sorts of problems, is to install a drain system around the perimeter of the foundation footing. It’s important for the conscientious homeowner to be proactive when it comes to water and even moisture, since it’s always much simpler and cost effective to take matters into you own hands before you’ve got a basement full of water.
A good drainage system that’s to be installed around the foundation of your home will have the elements that are generally designed to take the water and run off away from the foundation so it doesn’t sit up against the concrete and find it’s way into the home eventually. The first step is to establish what’s known as a positive drainage around the entire perimeter of the foundation with a slope that equals at least 5% and a layer of impervious soils in the top.
It’s also a good practice to damp-proof all the exterior walls that come into contact with the soil or are otherwise below grade. Remember that it’s considered important to backfill with crushed stone or gravel the excavation site for all below grade walls. This will allow for easy runoff for all the water that winds up seeping below the grade.
There are other techniques that work extremely well when you’re trying to manage the water around the foundation to your home and one of these is called the French drain. This type of drain is meant to service all the perforated pipes that are below the level of the bottom surface of the footing. In the best case scenario, these drains will be connected to daylight in the sense that at some point they will resurface to empty. However, if this cannot be accomplished, it’s best to have the drain collect in an underground collection pool, a sump pump, or a storm sewer system.
This is not the ideal situation however, since storm sewers can back up and sump pumps can fail. It’s always best where ever possible to allow the drain to empty back into daylight.
There are instances when water will move upwards through the soil due to capillary action. This type of unusual action can be checked by creating a capillary break which usually consists of a half inch of gravel placed under a slab. It’s always a good idea to place a membrane of some kind against the footing.
Managing water around the foundation is best preformed as a proactive solution and these were just a few of the ways you can prevent water and moisture from getting near your foundation before it becomes a problem.
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