# Basement drainage system install



## Cuda (Mar 16, 2009)

This is a neat little basement drainage system we are putting in. The house is at the bottom of a huge hill with a lake down the street and is a natural water stream, the streets even bleed water 24/7 even during the summer! So I knew I could not beat the water and I am only trying to manage it. I used test holes outside to establish the true water table level and found it was just below the cement basement floor at all times and in heavy rains it would put a foot of water in the basement. Using almost every seesnake they make from 1" on up we had a good idea of the inside plumbing (3 floor drains, stair drain, and 100 year old footing drains) We already installed a new 4" HPDE sewer outside a few months back so I knew I could connect to it as a exit point for the water (it's a combined sewer so this is legal with the correct traps and catch basins) Here are some pics of the trenches but also using a pipe burster to break up a clay 3" pipe that is only 4" below the concrete surface the width of the house. The ground being wet allowed us to not even use a pipe bursting head but just the shackle of the pipe bursting cable to break up the old clay pipe. But this worked great because a real burst head would have broken the concrete floor or even to have got stuck. This saved us from being forced to using a pump to get the water from the east side of the home to the west. I always prefer gravity to pumps because when the bad rains come so do the winds and power can go out then there's no pump. Thanks to the cameras and GPR we made no extra unneeded cuts in the concrete.


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## Cuda (Mar 16, 2009)

*A few more pics to complete*

Here are the remaining pics, it shows the burster machine outside the foundation pulling the new pipe in under the width of the house. It takes a lot of old soil removal and replacement of lots of rock to pull this off right, cleanouts are added etc. The one pic shows a stair drain with a square in front of it and that is because the drain went no place just dumped the water under the floor and we are giving it a real line.


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## fixitright (Jan 5, 2012)

Wild, Do you advertize like this?

Crazy-unique-messed-up-ridiculous-headscratching-fixes-in-plumbing.com ?


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## Cuda (Mar 16, 2009)

That s funny most of the funky stuff is not plumbing but the original contractor placing clay pipe under the slab wherever he felt like it.


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## Plumber (Jan 18, 2009)

Nice job.


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## Cuda (Mar 16, 2009)

*couple more pics on grading.*

The french drains had to go in at the perfect grade to do the job right but the downstream pipes where the ones in charge not me and they where a bit shallow. So I set the laser to 1% grade and was able to pick up other lines plus my new ones and connect to the bursted in new pipe. Cool thing on this laser is you can put it on top of an old pipe and a sensor down the line and it will find the grade and tell you before you even start.


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## moonapprentice (Aug 23, 2012)

Sweet gig


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## KoleckeINC (Oct 22, 2011)

Looks like my house-except I used Miradrain around all the corners and put a 12mil vapor barrier up for any future unforeseen foundation cracks. Complete overhead sewer I hope. And with an area drain to outside I would want a good battery backup of course.


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## canuck92 (Apr 1, 2016)

Water powerd backup pump, never got to worry if the power goes out.


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## plumberkc (Jun 23, 2011)

canuck92 said:


> Water powerd backup pump, never got to worry if the power goes out.



Pumping 2 gallons of fresh water outside just to remove 1 gallon of storm water doesn't always work well. There must be plenty of slope for the water to get away from the house. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## kwikplumbing (May 31, 2016)

Well done !!


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

Do you own the transit or did you rent it? Nice work. Gravel bedding is a nice touch.


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## Plumbus (Aug 4, 2008)

It's a pity they didn't do it right in the first place.


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## Cuda (Mar 16, 2009)

Tommy plumber said:


> Do you own the transit or did you rent it? Nice work. Gravel bedding is a nice touch.


We own the laser and use it a lot, we used to use a water level but the laser has been great on long runs to check if it was even possible to pipe to where we wanted the water to go, it also can find current grade of existing pipes and hills prior to even starting. It has an attachment that goes on our excavator or trencher so that we do not over dig the trench and keep the correct grade.


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## chonkie (Jul 31, 2014)

Wayne Nesbeth said:


> You need to consult with professional drainage service company


Can I get some of what you're smoking? Must be pretty damn good for you to post that response.


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