Downspouts on house are backing up, what do I need to do? o? (Plum: new house)

[Retiredcoach]

With the heavy rains today in McCandless, my downspouts were gushing water at the base of the drain pipe going underground. This caused a flood condition into my basement. We have water everywhere!! I'm not sure who I would need to call, a plumber?, excavator?, landscape professional? I don't think that someone with an electric eel is enough; I believe that the underground drain may need to be replaced and/or re-routed, and there will be some digging that will need to be done. Any suggestions and personal recommendations of local companies that do this work reasonably and professionally, would be most appreciated. Thank you!

[WhoIsStanwix?]

I don't have any great recommendations, but I do know there are a few things you probably want to look at. First and foremost is where is the water coming in? Is it coming through your drains in the basement, i.e. coming up through the floor, is it pouring in through the wall, or is it a basement window that is leaking? Is this the first time this has happened? How long have you lived in your home?

Assuming the water is coming in through your wall, the cheap remediation is to try and seal the leak, but that really just covers up the bigger issue of water diversion. You may need to get French drains installed outside of your house along one wall. You may just need to check to make sure your gutters aren't plugged.

I'll leave it to others in the Great White North to recommend contractors to help you out. You're likely to end up with some combination of general contractor and/or plumber depending on your exact issue.

[stburr91]

Originally Posted by Retiredcoach

With the heavy rains today in McCandless, my downspouts were gushing water at the base of the drain pipe going underground. This caused a flood condition into my basement. We have water everywhere!! I'm not sure who I would need to call, a plumber?, excavator?, landscape professional? I don't think that someone with an electric eel is enough; I believe that the underground drain may need to be replaced and/or re-routed, and there will be some digging that will need to be done. Any suggestions and personal recommendations of local companies that do this work reasonably and professionally, would be most appreciated. Thank you!

Plumbers handle this kind of stuff. I don'n't know anyone that I can recommend, but it shouldn't be hard to find a reputable plumber that can handle your situation.

They'll run an electric snake first, that may be all you need.

Do you know if the pipe running underground is clay, or pvc?

[gg]

Plumbers are the people you need to call. They can run a camera down there to have a look and see what is going on. If you are lucky they can just snake it out for you for pretty cheap. Well cheap for a plumber anyway. You could call a local supply house like Nicklas Plumbing Supply and ask for a recommendation. Get it taken care of because that kind of thing can lead to real issues later.

[robrobrob]

I would start with a plumber. As gg said, have them send a camera down and try to snake it. If that doesn't work may want to start getting estimates from plumbers and landscapers. We have this issue and our quote, if you can call it that, was 6000. Basically, they now need a big pit of gravel in your back yard to trap the water. It is all based on the size of your roof. We disconnected our gutters and ran them above ground. This provided some relief. Not a perfect solution but our situation is much better.

Not sure of when a pit is required? I have heard that it is the new "law".

[Retiredcoach]

Thank you for all of your suggestions and tips as to how I could possibly resolve this problem. I did speak to a local old-time plumber, who has done work for us before, and his answer was a simple one. On a home over 50 years old, where the downspouts drain into a dry well (gravel pit), I can either have another dry well re-dug (actually 3 of them), or I will need to better divert the water farther away from the foundation. I opted for the latter. I went to Lowes and purchased drainage pipe that is flat and can be covered with either mulch, or stone, to hide it. Going to see how this works for us for a while, hoping that my yard does not become forever sopping wet.

[villageidiot1]

Originally Posted by Retiredcoach

Thank you for all of your suggestions and tips as to how I could possibly resolve this problem. I did speak to a local old-time plumber, who has done work for us before, and his answer was a simple one. On a home over 50 years old, where the downspouts drain into a dry well (gravel pit), I can either have another dry well re-dug (actually 3 of them), or I will need to better divert the water farther away from the foundation. I opted for the latter. I went to Lowes and purchased drainage pipe that is flat and can be covered with either mulch, or stone, to hide it. Going to see how this works for us for a while, hoping that my yard does not become forever sopping wet.

Interesting. I had a similar situation with a new house. We started getting water in the basement soon after we moved in. I argued with the developer/builder about where the downspouts were draining and whether French drains were installed. It was an impasse since he insisted French drains were installed and the downspouts were connected to the storm sewer. I finally decided to run a deep ditch across the back of the yard where the water was coming in the basement. The builder brought in a backhoe to dig the ditch and and I had a load of gravel delivered. I laid in drainage pipe in the bottom of the ditch and extended the ditch about 50 feet into the woods on my property. I filled the ditch with the gravel, laid landscaping material over top of the gravel, covered with topsoil, and planted grass. I did this 20 years ago and have not had water in my basement since.

[robrobrob]

Originally Posted by Retiredcoach

Thank you for all of your suggestions and tips as to how I could possibly resolve this problem. I did speak to a local old-time plumber, who has done work for us before, and his answer was a simple one. On a home over 50 years old, where the downspouts drain into a dry well (gravel pit), I can either have another dry well re-dug (actually 3 of them), or I will need to better divert the water farther away from the foundation. I opted for the latter. I went to Lowes and purchased drainage pipe that is flat and can be covered with either mulch, or stone, to hide it. Going to see how this works for us for a while, hoping that my yard does not become forever sopping wet.

That is good to know that there is flat pipe. We just bought some of the black flexible circular stuff. Our yard was wet before and now is really wet after a hard rain. We even had the pipes spill into our yard above our french drain but the water doesn't penetrate the ground fast enough so it puddles. One of our issues is that we have the front and back of the roof all empty into the back yard in roughly the same spot. I would try to to avoid this. Guessing that if you would require 3 pits then your water will be spread out a little better than mine. Our yard is sort of flat so that doesn't really help us either.

Our house was built in 1960 and when we had the dye test done ten years ago the plumber we hired couldn't figure out where the water was going in the front so he connected the front half and the back half together. The plumber we hired to snake the downspouts couldn't find our dry well nor could he tell if we even had one. So, we have no idea where downspouts take the water. We also found out our plumber was cheap and buried the flexible stuff instead of the hard white plastic (PVC?) pipes.