Foundation Pipes

September 16

With a wood basement, the permit people clearly state "no weeping tile". So instead, I am going with this system. I did'nt need the pipes connected on the inside. I could have just left them to drain on the ground inside the footings in a bed of clean gravel, under the floor. I don't want any moisture under there if I can help it though. If I could have gone with normal weeping tile, the whole job would have been alot quicker. There would have been no cutting 2 inch pipe, no drilling 2 1/2 inch holes in the footing forms, no connecting all these pipes together. This does take alot more time, but that is the price to pay when one is frugal. (All this pipe was'nt exactly cheap either). lol. I'm estimating about $250 CAD for all the pipe and fittings for the foundation drainage. But once it is done, it is done. I am hoping that this whole system is just a backup and will never actually see water.

September 17

I got all the pipes around the inside perimeter attached. I just need to attach the four sides to the sump pit. Today was'nt real productive, not in the building department anyway. I had a bunch of other things that needed done first. My eye glasses needed repair, my washing machine blew up on me. (I had to replace a couple of belts, nothing too serious). A bunch more running around town for supplies and idea's.

I am getting pretty close to deciding on the water storage device that I will go with. I'm pretty sure it will be an 8 foot diameter corragated culvert type cistern. It will be a little more work to install, but it is less money for more gallons. I can also haul and handle it myself. I'm pretty sure my 410 backhoe would have a little trouble throwing a 1500 gallon concrete cistern into the ground. But this baby I think I can move somehow. They tell me that 1 meter of this pipe will hold about 1000 gallons of water. It costs about $475/meter. I'm thinking about getting 3 or 3.5 meters(about 11.5 feet) which would be roughly $1662.00. But I will have to spend a little more on some concrete for the botton of the cistern also. A 1500 gallon concrete cistern would be about $3600.00. Plus I would need the manhole extensions for extra money, and they would have to deliver and put it in the ground for me for even more extra money. I also looked into fiberglass and plastic ones. They are pricey also and kinda touchy installing it sounds like.
My sewage septic tank is probably going to be a concrete 750 gallon unit. About $1750.00 plus manhole extensions, pump, delivery and whatever else.

Anyway, for now, I am still working on my sump pit. I would like to get my cistern in soon, so that I can backfill the trench and get on with other things. I don't want to sound real picky here, but I am planning on doing a little bit of cementing along the outside of my footings, to get a bit of a slope away from the footings and also to fill in the low spots right along the footings, where water would love to accumulate. I honestly don't think many other builders would worry about something like this, maybe they would, I don't know, but I am going to experiment with it. It really should'nt take too much time (lol), but it will make me feel alot better about the whole foundation situation. Then it should be onto some wood going down.