We need weeping tile!!! Interior or exterior?
 

So my basement is wet. It's been determined that I need a new weeping tile system. Lets avoid the talk about it possibly being cracks or another problem etc.

Which is better? Pros and cons with interior weeping tile vs exterior weeping.

Thanks

I've never heard of interior weeping tile. If it where me I would excavate all around your house, clean the wall real good, install weeping tile, blue skin and protection, backfill with a good granular fill, and make sure the grading is well drained all around the house.

I would also hire a very good contractor to do the work. Check references and go look at some jobs they have done and talk to the owners. make sure they have insurance paid up, get a clearance letter from the insurance company and wcb.

How did you come to the conclusion you need weeping tile ?

Dog_River

Weeping Tile
 

Just finished doing my own place. If you decide to do exterior shoot me a PM. I may be able to help out but like Dog River mentioned, new tile, Blueskin and Super Seal dimpled membrane is what I did and very pleased with the outcome. Good Luck.

Did it in a large home of a guy I worked for one winter Was a bit of a job carrying all the mud up the stairs one 5 gallon pail at a time Replaced the mud with gravel and weeping tile It worked just fine

Sorry double post


Mack

Exterior is the best way why bring water into living side of foundation if you dont have to. Dig it up clean walls down install blue skin as advisor and install weeping tile with sock, delta 6000 wrap top off with drainage gravel and back fill.


Mack

Take it from me, if you can do exterior do it that way.

I did interior on my house as I poured concrete 3/4 of the way around my house for a patio and sidewalk and didn't want to bust up new concrete.
My basement needed to be gutted anyway so it made sense.
I did it all myself with the help of some friends with strong backs and it is the best thing I've done to the place. Never a drop on the floor anymore.

Outside is a much better way to go though as you can use machinery and keep the mess out of the house. Doing it on the Interior you may as well move the family out because of the dust involved. It's always better to stop water on the exterior if you can.

It is a very labour intensive project if it is interior (I've still got to deal with the hernia I got from that).

If for some reason you decide that interior is the better way to go for you let me know and I can send you some pictures of what I did with mine. It's too hard to explain with text how to do it the best way possible.

One other thing, if your home is older like mine you may want to have your sewer line checked. If it is that wonderful stuff 'no corrode', I would highly recommend changing out your line while you're making a mess anyway.

Exterior , while your at it you should redo the tar membrain on the concrete wall. Re-spray, this will be the added protection from any cracks in the concrete. Believe or not, water will soak through concrete even if there are no cracks.

Built hundreds if basements working residential when I was younger
Weeping tile around the outside of the footing , 6" of washed gravel on top and damp proofed walls.
Things may have changed since the '70's however!
Cat

Exterior and if it's possible, run a slight grade around your permiter so the weeeping tile runs down hill to a culvert sitting vertically. It allows the water a place to collect if your pump or natural drainage cannot keep up during a big rain or heavy snow melt. Works like a hot dang, particularily if your basement is older, or you live in a wetter area.
In the past, I never even went super close to the house basement, maybe 2 feet away in places and further around decks and patios, and put in weeping tile, crushed rock and a culvert. I'm no proffesional, but my basement never had water :)

When I worked in Calgary, weeping tile was kind of a selective thing, based on soil conditions. So, you might have it and your neighbor not, another way for builders to cut costs. Going through a wet cycle now, so things that previously were not a problem, are now major issues. No doubt, exterior is the way to go, but interior is sometimes the only option. Hopefully the basement is undeveloped, gotta cut the concrete out, install drain, washed rock and re concrete. Gonna be a major disruption in your life. :D

Grizz

It would depend on the bylaws of the area. AS already said it would be better outside in case the pump on the inside fails during a storm. But we just did one in Calgary where the building code had us bring the weeping tile from the outside of the house to the inside sump pump and then pump it back out. I see some contractors are now putting weeping tile through the footings so you can bring the weeping tile inside. That being said once we got our evestroughs and landscaping done the sump pumps now never come on. Just a good backup I guess.

Like everyone else said, exterior definetly the way to go if you can.

I will add another consideration however. When I lived in Calgary, weeping tile was not mandated by code. As luck would have it, our place had weeping tile but it was not drained into a culvert, storm sewer or some other form of natural sloping to get the water away from the house properly. this limited the amount of water it could handle and with Calgary being much wetter than it was 10 years ago, this could present a problem.

If you already have weeping tile you may be able to solve your problem like we did by installing a sump pit. Dig a sump pit at the low end of the basement, go under the exterior wall to tie into the existing weeping tile. Install the sump pump and an alarm and vent the sump outside and away from the house.

I was thinking about installing exterior weeping tile myself. Ive never done it before but I have a couple friends that have in commercial applications. I'm I've been in the trades for 10 years and have a handle on general construction.

How big of a project is it for a do it yourselfer to dig up and install exterior weeping tile? Is it doable?

I did it with zero real knowledge going in, and it worked out ok. I'm sure you can do it. Have any experiance with a back hoe or mini hoe? If you understand how to run one, youll be fine.

It depends why your basement is wet; there is MUCH misunderstanding as to what weeping tile is for, what is does, and why.

Is your basement wet from rainwater, or ground-table water? Does your home have a sump?

You really can't eliminate discussion about cracks in your foundation's water-proofing envelope if "wet basement" is the symptom...

Alright, well we have a high water table from what I'm told. One window well will not drain (it doesn't have a noticeable drain in it) Its been dry for a little while and water never comes in through the foundation when it rains. when we pulled up the floors the concrete was wet to the touch in random areas. Sometimes in the middle of the basement, mostly by the corners where the wall meets the floor. Now that its all gutted with a dehumidifier running 24/7 its not wet anymore. However you can see theres a different colour to the concrete where it is damp to the touch. Where the water has now dried there is a white, flakey residue that is much like powder thats left behind. We have two sump pumps. One large one with a deep sump pit. Another is nearby and smaller. The small one seems to connect to a handyman special interior weeping tile on one side of the house. That wall is the driest one down there. NO I DIDNT BUILD THIS GARBAGE! We moved into it and a lot of things were not disclosed to us. But thats another story.

I just did the interior one in my house this summer. We had to cut the floor to remove the no corrode pipe that were broken and full of roots to avoid the Twice a year backup. Since we were at it and we had some moisture issue in the basement we also cut the perimeter and installed weeping tile. What a mess and what a job. Must have hauled 2 ton of clay and concrete trough the basement window. I hope I never do this again. Next time I will sell the house. On a positive note, now my basement is nice and clean and no musty smell! I guess it was worth the effort.

While this is old, I will mention this for the next guy hunting for advice:

The following is worth a try, especially if this is an erratic problem.

* Remove all shrubs from the foundation area.
* If needed replace window well with deeper ones, or put in ones where the sill is close to the ground.

* Put in a wedge of clay a foot high and 8 feet wide against the foundation wall.

* Put down a layer of 15 mill plastic. Don't cheap out on this.

* Put down ornamental gravel.

This takes the water further from the house.


***

Where does water come off your roof? Can it get back to the foundation. A 50 foot coil of non-perf weeping tile fastened to a down spout will take water a long way from the house. Put it about 3 feet above the bottom of the down spount. You can bury the tail but leave the end open. Plant a water loving tree like a birch there.

Where I worked, it depended on the location and soil conditions, easy way for builders to save a few bucks.

Grizz

If you have real bad water problem, high water table may need both interior and exterior weeping tile and two sumps at each corner. Now have full proof system. Contractors in bad water areas should do this when building home. One extra roll of plastic weeping tile and couple yards of gravel would probably be a $500 bill when house being built. Later after fact cost is $20,000 bill and real mess.

This first. Did it on one side of my house 18 yrs ago & no water since. 1st rule of thumb. Good drainage & get those eavestroughs far from the house.

To OP. You state that you need a "new" weeping tile system.

From that I can infer you have an old system that has failed. What component of the system has failed?

What ever you do do not hire Lenbeth to come replace it.

I put a sump and pump in for a friend in sandstone, Calgary, last year. theoretically, he had weeping tile, but when I started digging, in the basement, I got water, under pressure, for most of a week. Gotta wonder if the water main there was leaking or there was an artesian spring?

Grizz

It's always better to keep the water from getting to the building to begin with, so exterior weeping tile is generally preferred for a home.

Well worth the money in damp areas. I went this route and it has worked well. My neighbours did not and have major regrets.

This is the way we did it one time always worked well

When we built our cottage, weeping tile was installed on the exterior as well as a grid of it under the complete area of the craw space. All tied into the sump pump. No problem with water in 20 years and it is located , beach front.

In the spring melt that pump runs every 30 minutes for a couple weeks. And yes, the building was set too low on the property for proper drainage. But no water inside at all.