AAA Home Drainage

The money spent on the installation of hand excavated french drains is without a doubt the best money you can spend on your home to protect the homes value and create a healthy living environment for your family. Hand excavated french drains are largely ignored as a critical step to health with respect to your homes environment and land stability. (more…)

Home groundwater removal systems are as important as the roof over your head. When you build a home, the big push is always on to get the structure dried in, as they say, by getting the roof on and sealed as well as the windows and doors. This is the priority to keep the rain out and the home dry. Equally as important is to install hand excavated french drains after the final soil grade against the home is accomplished.

Leave enough height on the foundation wall below the foundation vents, if you have a crawlspace, to raise the grade and create a splash block of dirt and clay that can run the groundwater to the inside of your french drain.

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Home groundwater drainage problems are some of the most destructive processes that degrade your homes living health and value. Hand excavated french drains, old and little understood science that is largely ignored, if known at all, by city and county jurisdictions, home builders and homeowners alike. Why are there so many problems with home drainage and groundwater? Let’s look at a some of the major reasons. (more…)

When you design your home and determine that a drainage professional is a value added necessity to the health of your home, also discuss your plans with your family, friends and business associates.

Most general contractors do not approach the drainage business with enough experience. Most contend that is the way everyone does it.

These people can help you to understand their experiences with drainage professionals, or with other contractors who said they were drainage professionals, and did not perform up to their expectations.
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Why should you concern yourself with groundwater that enters your crawl space or basement? Good question, and one that I am asked often. The answer bears repeating again. French drains, specifically hand excavated french drains, prevent groundwater from entering your basement or crawl space. Look for their installation in all homes that you intend to purchase. (more…)

“Home groundwater drainage” and “hand excavated french drains” go hand in hand. It came to my attention today, with respect to AAA Home Drainage and my page ranking with google, that I have the #1 page ranking on the internet and the world when someone searches for information on these two concepts through google. (more…)

It is a great idea to make a habit of assessing the groundwater drainage health of your home at least every 6 months. Time passes quickly, and problems not discovered become greater groundwater drainage problems if unnoticed for a long time. Make a point to do a check list of due diligence with respect to your homes drainage systems. You can save yourself much money by doing this. A little bit of time inspecting with eyes that are trained to see problems may prevent future groundwater drainage problems. (more…)

Home drainage is impacted by ingress-egress window wells. Many times throughout the year I am asked to comment or give opinion on a homeowners desire to create an access (ingress) and exit (egress) window area to qualify their basement square footage as living space. This sounds like a seductive proposition from a monetary position when someone tells the homeowner that the value of their home will go up such and such amount based on the increase in the value per square foot of the basement as finished living area instead of basement. It does not come without its’ downside however. (more…)

Many people around the world go to this blog website on hand excavated french drains and groundwater drainage problems every day. Friends log in from all over the world seeking methods to prevent groundwater entry into their homes. French drains have been with us for thousands of years. Hand excavated french drains were the first type of drainage system used, and have always been the most popular type of french drains. Civilizations have used them for thousands of years literally, and people around the world continue to seek knowledge about french drains to keep them safe and dry in the face of mother natures raging rains. Old science taught to new people. (more…)

The past summer I had the pleasure of hand excavating french drains for the Columbia County Fairgrounds in St. Helens, Oregon. The fair grounds had extensive downspout and groundwater runoff that caused a bad erosion problem because no french drains were installed previously along their major ingress-egress street and in front of the large access doors on three of the largest exposition barns. After the completion of the french drains, and many oversized hand excavated drywells, the fairgrounds management was extremely happy. No more sloppy areas in front of the barn doors and along the roads.

French drains can be used in agricultural and farm settings as well, as in this example, to create dry and safe areas for the containment of livestock and exposition areas as well as around farm houses and storage areas.

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