kyle

[kylez]

I have an excavator that has put in a footing drain on the new construction of my home. When he was backfilling I showed up and saw that he had just laid the footing pipe (3inch that is wrapped in fabric) down and was back filling with the soil that he excavated. He did not use any gravel.
When I quized him on this he said that because the pipe was covered with the fabric that he didn't need to use gravel. I find that odd. I have talked to a number of other excavators and they said you still need to use gravel for the drain to work effectively. I am concerned that I may have a water problem down the road.

Kyle

[suemarkp]

It depends on your soil type. If its heavily sandy, then it may still work. If your soil is bentonite (or clay), the drain is probably useless. Backfilling with gravel that is in turn covered with fabric is a way to guarantee that things will drain.

[Wgoodrich]

If the gravel is properly installed as rip rap easy drain jagged rocks or stone with no fines then your gravel bed greatly increases the perk capacity to get rid of the subsurface water table.

Lets make the hose square for easy math. 4" hose would be 16 square inches in contact with the earth to allow the water to enter the hose from the earth. If we install the required 12"x12" stone bed we just increased that 16 square inches perking the water into the hose from earth to 144 square inches of contact with the earth to perk water into the hose. The hose has approximately 300 gallons per minute flow capacity. However the area in contact with the earth 16 square inches versus 144 square inches makes a difference of getting rid of the water before it attacks the basement or not.

405 of the International Residential code as minimum building standards requires the 12" x 12" stone bed and gives no credit for the filter clothe around the hose itself to lessen that stone bed requirment. I would ask the builder to provide the rule of law recognizing the hose cloth to forget the stone bed. When they can not produce that rule recognizing that clothe then require him or her to meet the minimum building standards per rules of law by digging it back up and installing the 12" x 12" stone bed of washed rock or crushed stone without fines in the stone bed with a filter clothe installed at 6" above the hose over the stone bed per 405 of the IRC. Check local ammendments that sometimes can surprise you with not so good local rules overrulling national standards.

Good Luck

Wg

[Under_Miner]

....If the gravel is properly installed as rip rap easy drain jagged rocks or stone with no fines then your gravel bed greatly increases the perk capacity to get rid of the subsurface water table.....

Did you major in lawyer/politician double talk in college?:confused: