LESLIE: Ireda (sp) in Oregon with flooding in crawlspace, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
IREDA (sp): I have a house and it’s located on a slope, so my backyard’s actually sloping towards my dining room.
TOM: OK.
IREDA (sp): And recently, we had a big storm and I noticed that there is a couple of inches of standing water in the crawlspace.
TOM: Hmm.
IREDA (sp): So, I talked to a couple of people and then I did the research and they basically have two options. One suggestion is to do a French-pipe system outside of the house. Another thing is to have a French pipe inside of the house, in the crawlspace, with the pump and seal the whole crawlspace. And those two projects, they are in a different kind of budget price range. So I was wondering what you guys would recommend.
TOM: The flooding in crawlspace problem that you’re having is a drainage issue and you have to figure out a way of intercepting that runoff before it gets to your crawlspace. You definitely don’t want to put this system in your crawlspace. Those are very expensive systems and what happens is you’re still going to have a lot of water in and around that crawlspace, which can make the structure unstable.
So, what you want to do is to put in a French drain that intercepts that water as it comes down the lawn and then runs around your house. The good news is is that there’s a new product out right now that makes that easier than ever and it’s simply called an EZ-Drain. And basically, it’s a French drain that’s wrapped in an aggregate that’s made out of foam pellets and then covered with a filter cloth.
Before, you used to have to dig a hole, put in stone, put in a perforated pipe, put in more stone, put in more filter cloth and then put in dirt. A lot of work. Now you just basically dig the hole, throw the EZ-Drain pipe in it, cover it up with dirt and you’re good to go. So, it’s really cut the expense and the time it takes to get this fixed down to nothing.
So, I think you are going to put in – need to put in a French drain in the backyard and using the EZ-Drain approach is the best way to go.
IREDA (sp): Oh, thank you. Is it OK if I put the soil – the existing soil or do – I heard that I need to purchase another type of soil because it’s all clay and everything when we dig out.
TOM: If you do have clay, you may want to use a clean fill dirt around that pipe. That would be just a little more porous and help the water flow into it easier.
IREDA: OK.
TOM: Generally, I would say no, you know. If you have clay, you don’t want it to cake up. So I think that’s what you’re …
IREDA: OK. Thank you.
TOM: Yeah. The product is called EZ-Drain. It’s made by NDS and I think they sell it at The Home Depot. Just Google “EZ-Drain.” You should find it.
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