Window Well Flooding - French Drain help! (how much, roof, foundation)
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The window well in the picture is flooding on me. Part of the reason is the gutter above it is getting overwhelmed/clogged and the water cascades off the gutter to the ground. The water is not coming into the window well from above. It is seeping into it.
I have installed a gutter guard with hopes that will stop this. But with large trees around the roof area I can't stop it I know. So, I need to do something with drainage.
I was thinking of installing a french drain. I understand I need to slope it so it flows away from the home at some point.
I was looking at using a perforated pipe, a filter sock on it, landscaping cloth, then washed gravel.
My biggest question is at the end of the drain. What do I do with the water? Do I just terminate the drain in a large field of gravel to let it percolate into the ground away from the house?
There is poor slope also against the foundation wall. Maybe it would be easier to truck in dirt and correct the grading issue and see if that works before I dig?
Do you have a garden in front of those window wells or does your grass come right up to your foundation?
I can quickly think of a couple of remedies:
Gutter itself: is it, first of all, properly pitched towards the down spout? Is it perhaps too small and could be replaced with a wider one? Is that one gutter taking all the rain from the entire roof or is there a gutter on the jutting-out section of your house that your drew?
French drain: if the water isn't flowing from the top of the ground into the window well and is, instead, seeping in from underneath, I don't know how well a French drain would work unless it was almost as deep as the window well itself. How deep is the window well and is it created by a corrugated metal half-circle wall? What I wonder about is that fact that the ground already slopes away from that flooding window well which tells me something else is going on besides an overflowing gutter. During a dry spell I'd almost be inclined to dig down in front of that window well and see if you hit water (very high water table perhaps?)
Garden: depending on what you have in front of the window well and how much light you need to come through those basement windows, you could plant a garden with some bushes which would help draw and disperse the excess water.
1) Your question on where to terminate the french drain: If your city/neighborhood allows, you should be able to go under the sidewalk and pierce the curb and drain to the street gutter. The last several(most) feet of this line as it heads through your yard toward the street doesn't need to be perf pipe, just sch40 PVC, likely 3 inch depending on curb height.
2) Once you address your gutter clogging problems, tie your downspout into the drain line to the street you'll be using for your french drain in #1 above. This will carry the water from your gutters well away from the house, which is generally a good idea anyway.
First things first:
1- Correct the grading, clean the gutters, extend the downspouts, keep plants that need constant watering away from foundation.
2- After the main sources of moisture are eliminated and the terrain around the basement is no longer saturate with water, if the only leakage remains being the window well, consider replacing it. There is a window well called SunHouse, that has a clear cover to keep it from getting water and debris. It also helps brighten the basement as it reflects sunlight directly into the basement.
I think I am going to correct the grading first. There is a ton of free dirt on Craigslist. So, I figure that might be the easiest thing to start with.
I put some gutter guards on the gutters near the overhanging tree. And I hope that does it. I would guess that if the gutter didn't clog I would be ok. The downspout is 10' long. I will add a second downspout.
I am also going to clean out all of the wells and dig them a little deeper.
I will see what that does!
I don't think much water comes from the the top of the well. It seems to seep into it.
Thankfully, other than water coming in through the window...there are no other basement leaks!
we have a french drain system with no leaks or anything. 2 yrs ago when we bought our house the inspector said to put in window wells, so my husband put in a window well and it rained the well filled with standing water. I'm wondering if we even need window wells with a french drain system?
The window well in the picture is flooding on me. Part of the reason is the gutter above it is getting overwhelmed/clogged and the water cascades off the gutter to the ground. The water is not coming into the window well from above. It is seeping into it.
I have installed a gutter guard with hopes that will stop this. But with large trees around the roof area I can't stop it I know. So, I need to do something with drainage.
I was thinking of installing a french drain. I understand I need to slope it so it flows away from the home at some point.
I was looking at using a perforated pipe, a filter sock on it, landscaping cloth, then washed gravel.
My biggest question is at the end of the drain. What do I do with the water? Do I just terminate the drain in a large field of gravel to let it percolate into the ground away from the house?
There is poor slope also against the foundation wall. Maybe it would be easier to truck in dirt and correct the grading issue and see if that works before I dig?
I had a similar issue with an older home I recently purchased. Initially, the gutters were worthless and downspouts were undersized...water was coming in through the basement windows and the ground water was seeping through the foundation. My first fix was to get new gutters with guards, larger downspouts and new glass block windows. This made a tremendous difference, however I didn't know at the time that my sump pump was burnt out. A plumber happened to be over for a completely separate issue and saw the sump pump, and how wet the basement felt. He recommended two new sump pumps and french drains around the perimeter of the basement, and to drylok the entire basement. At first I thought he was just trying to sell me the work, but after this winter I am so glad I went with this setup. I had two sump pumps basically pumping water non-stop for the last two months and a completely dry basement. During the thaw, I had a small issue with the groundwater from the sump pumps discharging so much water so close to the house, so my next project is to do a dry creek bed from the discharge location down to an area of dense trees. This can be done with the downspouts also.
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