Water is the common enemy of all constructions

Water is the common enemy of all constructions... 2009-04-25 22:58:39
by JY

well, besides the landlord business, I been a home builder over 10 years, also own an interest in a concrete/excavating business, so I know a few things about foundations.

usually before the house was build, there are footers, and along them footers, there are underslap drainage systems, which make up of perforated pipes or so call weeping tiles, these tiles are surround by stone or gravel and sand, not soil, they are interconnected, and paralleled run for load balance, just encase one of them is clogged, all the under water collected thru these tiles usually got a sump pump, and pump out to surface ground, but in your case, instead of a sump pump, they connected to the storm water line.

After the concrete walls are form, the outside perimeter tiles are then connected to underslap tiles, also important that the house should only back fill with gravel and sand, not dirt, some builders try to cut corner on that, which can cause flood later, this way there wouldn't be standing water surrounding the house.

now, there is not thing wrong with gravity feed system like you have, sewer lines are all done like that, but the problem is sewer lines are seal and tiles are not, over time, soil can get in the tile system and finally clog the line and eventually flood the basement.

now knowing this much, you now need to determent where is all these water coming out from, is it from where the wall joint the floor? or from concrete saw lines in the floor?

from the picture, these look like they are additional plumbing for future bathroom sewer, should have nothing todo with the tile system, the reason the water do down to it is because it is connect to the sewer system, which technically is illegal to drain surface water to sewer line.