Installing hand excavated french drain groundwater removal systems has the effect of drying the soil around your foundation walls.
If french drain groundwater removal systems lack professional vision and design engineering, and are just sloppy ditch witch dug trenches dug by gardeners, landscapers, or home builders with machines, in most cases I have ever seen, a homeowners groundwater removal success becomes little to none. Basically money burnt up and thrown away.
Stopping the additional groundwater from literally weighing in against your foundation walls is the answer to solving your groundwater problem most often, not making sure you have electricity to pump groundwater from your basement or crawl space, after it has already damaged your environment and the structural integrity of your home.
The objective with the installation of french drains is to achieve a faster and more precise groundwater flow from the groundwater removal system than could have been previously expected from a sloppy ditch full of sand or gravel. Go figure, right?
Which is pretty easy to do, as a ditch full of crushed rock, weed fabric, and/or sand will certainly fail to remove any groundwater of significant amounts. These suggestions are failures from my experience watching them shoved on my market.
Pretty easy to understand once you know what the other contractors are doing to create failure, actually.
A homeowners home drainage objective is to dry out the foundation area first, all the way down to the foundation footing, and keep it that way.
The degree of wetness that is present when the hand excavated french drains are installed determines the time required for drying out the foundation wall all the way to the foundation footing.
It takes even longer for the actual crawl space dirt or basement floor to dry out most times.
Fans, in conjunction with opened foundation vents will most often do the job during the summer months, to dry out below grade crawl space areas.
Pull the 6 mil. black plastic moisture barrier until the crawl space is dry. Replace the moisture barrier with new 6 mil black plastic when everything is dried out.
Cut off the groundwater on the surface around your foundation during hard rains to prevent the groundwater saturation and hydrostatic pressure that causes leaking into crawl spaces and basements.
A compacted soil grade splash block, installed next to the foundation wall, where your hand excavated french drain will be installed, that slopes away from the foundation wall, is also a necessity.
Wetness and mold in your basement or crawl space will create a favorable environment for pests like sow bugs, spiders, termites, and carpenter ants, in northern climates, as well as a home for other vermin and fur bearing creatures that love a cool spot to hang out and have baby pests in.
Dry rot occurs on the post and beam structure holding up the home. Concrete spot footings start to sink. Floors can warp. Windows can jam. Doors can jam. Just to name a few common manifestations of home drainage problems, if they are not corrected in a timely manner.
Foundation vents need inspection for security reasons as well. Inspect foundation vents to keep pests out of the crawl space.
Watch out for open foundation vents, or holes in the foundation walls opening to crawl spaces, especially in southern climates. This can provide easy access for dangerous snakes and other nasty little creatures with stingers and fangs to enter.
I suggest hiring a professional to do your home inspection, especially in southern climates around the world, for various reasons, not the least of which is your safety. This is true in southern climates more so, but northern climates can have creature problems too.
Rattle snakes in the desert southwest are at the top of my list to watch out for.
It takes time for the dirt splash block border, located between the inside of your hand excavated french drain and the foundation wall, to dry out all the way down to the footing, but it will happen, if your system is designed well and installed professionally.
See other articles on placing membranes or plastic coverings on the exterior foundation walls or on the splash blocks around the foundation walls. I do not recommend either.
Let your foundation walls breathe. The splash block area, probably covered with a thin layer of river rock, to prevent erosion, will soak up a few inches of groundwater and evaporate it back into the air, while flowing away lots of groundwater.
The plastic covered splash block, or just the plastic covered ground around a foundation, will trap wetness under it and always be damp or wet.
This is especially true if the homes irrigation system is located along that part of the foundation wall as well.
These areas can cause problems, whether the sprinkler heads are directional or not. They bleed out on the foundation after the system shuts off, creating groundwater problems in the early fall and winter, when the first rains come, and right on through the winter, without professional correction of the problem.
