Technical Papers

Basement Waterproofing - Checking our Work As we go

Thursday, September 17th, 2015 by Jessica Dingle

CHECKING OUR WORK

ENSURING YOUR HOME IS PROTECTED

Blocked perforated pipe

Towards the end of the day one of our experienced foreman, with over 15 years of waterproofing under his belt, was nearly finished with a job. As a part of our crews checklist, they need to make sure each piece of a job is in working order before we pack up. One important piece of our waterproofing systems is the discharge lines. this is the line that we install that will safely move the water out of a basement or crawlspace out and away from the homes foundation. To check this piece, the crew places a hose into our pipe line and ensures that the water coming in travels through our system and out through the discharge pipe we installed. On this particular job, as soon as the hose began pumping the water in, it began flowing back up and out of the pipe into the crawlspace, not where we want the water to flow. 

To determine where the issue was, our foreman then followed the pipe line looking for the cause. Having been through the situation several times before, he disconnected the pipes where our line connected to the existing downspout line.  If a downspout already has an underground drainage system that puts water a safe distance away from the home than we will connect into this. By using an already established discharge line than our crew doesn't need to dig down a new pipe and the homeowner can save money while still getting the solution needed. When he disconnected this he was able to pull a large handful of pine needles and assorted rubbish out of the downspout perforated pipe. Often a perforated pipe is used for downspouts since it can than collect water near the homes foundation and have it flow away from the home. However, this pipe had collected years of sediment to the point that very little water could travel through it, hence the issue we experienced. In order to ensure these systems worked together, and that the drainage pipe could do its job, the crew had to pull the existing and clogged downspout line and replaced it with non-perforated pipe. With the waterproofing system we installed, water could flow to the newly installed sump pump and get pushed through the pipes. Once complete, water flowed freely through the system and away from the house. 

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OregonWashington Our Locations:

John's Waterproofing
219 Airport Road
Silverton, OR 97381
1-503-419-0404
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