A perforated pipe can also be used as a drain tile when its placed near the base of the foundation of a home. Order by Phone & Online Order Inquiries: 1-877-445-3527. 4. Copyright 2022 Rooter Guard JLC Online: Best practices for professional builders and remodelers, Measurement innovations help contractors and customers, The Last Word (We Hope) on Vapor Barriers, A Builder's Guide to Breathable Indoor Air, Building a Deck With a Welded Steel Frame, Housing Market Slows as Fed Takes Aggressive Approach to Combat Inflation, When Hidden Defects Complicate a Simple Deck Replacement. A perforated drain pipe is an effective solution when it comes to issues such as standing water or excessive ground water near the foundation of a building. Use a garden rake to smooth it out. Make adjustments to maintain the correct distance. Contents of this site are Copyright 1998-2022 by Kent. With the perforations facing down, the primary function is collection and distribution. Should You Consider Switching to Cost-Plus Pricing? 6. This would seem to work best in a French drain system where excess water drains to a sump pit to be pumped out. That said, heres a list of things you will need: 1. Dig a trench that is about twice the width of the drainage pipe. 11. NOT ALL ITEMS ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE. Water draining from the walls or dripping from the eaves diffuses through the filter fabric and the crushed stone, with most of the liquid being distributed by the ground gutter. 13. PRICES ONLINE MAY NOT REFLECT THE PRICES IN LOCAL STORES. 2. Privacy Policy. 9. A: Steven Baczek, a residential architect from Reading, Mass., who specializes in designing durable, low-energy homes, responds: I hear arguments for both methods, but it really depends on how the pipe functions in your drainage system. JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. A Dozen Ways to Strengthen Your Remodeling Brand, The Empire Group Plans Large Build-to-Rent Community in North Phoenix, The Most Affordable Places to Retire in America in 2022, Yardi Matrix Reports Institutional Investment in Single-Family Rentals Is Rising, NAHB: Proposed Schumer-Manchin Legislation Could Affect Builders, New Conservation Community Lagoon Valley Materializes in the Bay Area, 7 Ways to Prepare Your Team to Sell in an Uncertain Market. Find the location where the water will enter the perforated drain pipe. Put the perforated pipe in the trench and make sure the holes are facing down. The usual function of drainage pipes is to ensure rainwater from gutters are kept as far away from a house or they can be used to drain wet areas from low spots in the yard. In the meantime, you may browse the digital edition. Follow him on Instagram @stevenbaczekarchitect, Technology to address safety, communications, and costs. Tie a string on the stake next to the stake where the water will enter. Copyright 2022 Zonda Media, a Delaware corporation. 7. If this is the case, then a sump pump is usually attached to the drainage pipe. Once you do, tie a string to the stake found at that location. Even when placed in a ground gutter as described above, the pipe fills with groundwater more quickly. When more water enters one area than another, it flows to another area of the pipe and drains away. 10. I dont recommend using corrugated flex-pipe in drainage systems. Create a minimum slope of 1/8 inch per foot of linear run by moving the string down the second stake around inch or more. Compact the soil between the stakes using a tamper. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. To help you out, this article will guide you on installing a perforated drain pipe. Having the holes facing up is just the most effective plan for the systems that Ive designed. I place the pipe with the perforations facing up and count on the streaming water from the downspouts to help keep silt and debris from accumulating in the pipe. Keep doing this for every stake in the trench. You will need all the right tools and equipment to perform this installation successfully. Q: When I use perforated pipe in a drainage system, should the holes go up or down? Here, the perforated pipe has two functions: collection and conveyance, with the latter being the primary function. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Take out all the string and remove the stakes. Add soil and sod to the top of the landscape fabric. Location services are disabled. Put landscaping fabric in the trench so that soil wont enter the gravel around the pipe. Articles will be published online soon. 3. In short, it needs to be installed correctly for it to work according to its design. Use a tape measure to find the distance from the string to the bottom of the trench. If you find any roots, cut them out so you can place the pipe in a straight manner, or if not, in an angle that is slightly curved. The store will not work correctly in the case when cookies are disabled. In the systems I install, its much more difficult for the debris to be washed away with the perforations facing down. Also, make sure to maintain the slope of the bottom of the trench. Add or remove soil as needed starting from the beginning of the trench so that a consistent distance is maintained. Install stakes every four feet along the trench youve dug using a small sledgehammer. 5. Add gravel to the trench to fill it up about four to six inches from the soil line. Level the string between the two stakes using a line level. Steve Baczek (stevenbaczekarchitect.com) of Reading, Mass., is an architect specializing in energy-efficient design and certified passive homes. Add two inches of gravel to the base of the trench. In this scenario, the pipe would have to be completely occluded with silt and mud to become ineffective. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. To ensure optimal drainage, a perforated drainage pipe needs to have a proper slope. So there are good arguments for both methods. All Rights Reserved. In this system, drainage pipe around the perimeter of the house links with the downspouts as well as with a perimeter drain inside the basement, all of which drain by gravity to a pipe that exits the ground at a safe distance from the building. 8. JLC subscribers have access to the July/August 2022 print edition at this time. 12. When designing a water-management regimen for a home, I try to drain to daylight (A Primer on Water Management, Jun/17). The ground gutter would need to saturate to the level of the perforations before any significant water would enter the pipe, and the likelihood of that happening is usually pretty slim. In addition, make sure that you dig at least two-feet deep. Regardless of your preference for perforation placement, I always recommend installing clean-outs in strategic locations for clearing the pipe should it become blocked or sluggish. Please enable them and try again. I also place the perimeter piping in what I call a ground gutter, a trench filled with crushed stone and wrapped on all sides with filter fabrica pipe within a pipe. Either way, though, when silt and debris fill the pipe to the level of the perforationsessentially half the diameter of the pipeit can no longer take on water and no longer is effective for drainage. Make sure you extend the fabric on both sides out onto the ground surface; the excess fabric will be used to cover the gravel infill of the trench. After replacing soil and compacting with the tamper, check the distance from the bottom of the trench to the string. Use the edges of the landscape fabric to cover the top of the gravel. Before going any further, the pipe we are discussing here is heavy-duty schedule-40 PVC pipe with either two or three courses of holes with the outer courses usually 120 to each other.