Spring Series: Keeping your basement dry part two
Part Two: Maintaining
Welcome to Part Two of our 2019 Spring Series! If you have a leaky basement, this is the blog for you! If you haven’t read Part One yet, we recommend going back and reading that post first. Part One covers preventative measures that can be taken to avoid a flooded basement. Even a perfect system needs to be maintained, and that’s the topic of Part Two! Read on to find out how you can maintain your water management system to keep it working flawlessly!
Frozen Drains
Water management systems work by collecting the water that would otherwise find its way into your basement, and piping it to a low-lying area away from your home (click here to read more about water management systems). But what happens if those pipes freeze? The drains are made of a corrugated high-density polyethylene tubing and in most cases they’re not insulated. In the winter (especially years in which we have repetitive freezing and thawing), the small amounts of sitting water in the tube will freeze and build up until the tube becomes plugged.
In ideal situations, the tube is buried below the frost line which prevents freezing. Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible. In Ontario, the frost line is roughly four feet underground; if you live in a very rocky area (Washago for instance), you may have less than four feet of dirt before you hit rock. At our house, we have about 24” of dirt before we hit Canadian Shield, so our discharge tube is well above the frost line and at risk of freezing every year.
Frozen lines cause big problems in the springtime. Just because the weather has turned doesn’t mean that the ground has thawed, and if your eves and weepers are draining into a frozen pipe, it won’t take long for the water to back up. Backed up water will either overflow and pool against your foundation or, worse, it’ll fill your sump pit and flood your basement.
Luckily, this is a fairly simple problem to solve. If you have a discharge tube that is vulnerable to freezing you can run a heat cable through it. Heat cables plug into an exterior outlet and remain at a steady +5° C, which is warm enough to melt the ice in the pipe and keep the water flowing in the right direction. If your pipe is already frozen you can flush it with hot water from an indoor tap (as long as it’s flowing steadily enough that the water doesn’t have time to sit and freeze).
Weepers
Your weepers can become clogged, just like your drain tube. Unfortunately, this is a more serious problem and usually requires hiring someone to come in and flush the system. In most cases, flushing the system will clear it of any sediment and your weepers will be as good as new. Sometimes the blockage is a result of tree roots piercing the tube, in which case the length of tube would need to be replaced. This is a more involved job as it requires excavating the tube (and can only be done after the earth has thawed).
Snow Removal
This is all about minimizing the ground water next to your foundation. If you have large amounts of snow piled against your home, you’re going to have large amounts of water saturating the ground when spring comes. Removing that snow will save gallons of water from entering your water management system (just think about the 8” of snow on the roof in the example in Part One)
Eves
Much like your drain pipe and weepers, maintaining your eves is a matter of keeping the pipes and troughs clear of blockages. This is relatively easy to do yourself, depending of course on your comfort level with heights! Your eves collect leaves and other droppings from trees hanging over your roof as well as small pebbles from your asphalt shingles (finding lots of granules in your eves troughs? Click here to find out why it’s happening and how the solution can save you money!). These build up over time and create blockages that keep your eves troughs from working properly. Clearing out your own eves troughs is NOT recommended if you are uncomfortable working at heights! If you choose to do them yourself make sure you take all necessary safety precautions. An alternative to climbing up and cleaning your eves is to install eves protectors. These are fitted, perforated covers that stop leaves and other particles from landing in your eves.
Grading
Proper grading can go a long way towards keeping water away from your home. The first step when building a house is digging out the foundation. Later, the space around the foundation will need to be backfilled. According to the Building Code the backfill needs to be sand from another site. Using coarse sand ensures that the ground is solid and allows water to drain away instead of being held near the house.
Often, in an attempt to save time and money, builders will backfill using the earth that was excavated in the first place. The problem with this is that it’s often rich soil that’s removed instead of coarse sand. Instead of draining, soil will become saturated and hold ground water.
With proper water management systems in place this water will be carried away from the home through the weepers. However, if your weeper system is clogged or damaged in any way, proper grading can make a substantial difference in the amount of water entering your basement.
What to take away…
Finding a grand solution to your water problems can be exhausting and expensive. The best way to avoid unnecessary expenses is by properly maintaining your existing systems and managing environmental factors. Thanks for reading Part Two of our spring series on keeping your basement dry! So far we’ve covered preventative measures and maintenance tips. The third and final segment will cover sump pumps: your last line of defence against unwanted water in your home!