Crack repair with or without french drain repair

[trainguy]

Hi all.

After being involved in many foundation design projects in a former life, and recently scrutinizing many potential home foundations, it has been brought to my attention that my parents' home (where I grew up)has vertical cracks at the basement foundation wall, at several of the window corners. I suspect these basement walls were unreinforced at these (and probably all other) locations.

The home has a main floor and a basement, with the basement walls made of cast in place concrete, circa 1960. There has been no cracking of the masonry anywhere, but some water infiltration has been observed at the basement after heavy rains, in the past year or 2.

A foundation repair contractor has been called in, and at first they produced a quote to perform injection type repairs for the cracks. (approx $2 000 CAD)

When they showed up to begin work, they informed my mom, after some excavating, that her French drain was damaged, is not to current code, and should be replaced, and this should increase the bill by around $6 000.

I understand the function of a French drain, but do they ever need repair? Any thoughts from the experts?

tg

 

[Ron]

tg...yes, french drains will eventually get clogged with fines, roots, etc. and can stop functioning. It sounds like the one in place worked well for a long time, but if you're just now getting water intrusion that didn't occur before, it's certainly a place to look.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

While I agree - get a SECOND opinion. These guys want $6000 extra - sounds like a possible scam here. And drains can be cleaned - think Roto-rooter

 

[cvg]

why were they "excavating" when they were hired to fill cracks? By the way, which code covers french drains?

 

[Ron]

Mike...I agree that the cost sounds a bit high, but consider that excavation to 4 to 8 feet or more is likely, as well as installing and connecting new pipe and setting a drainage bed.

As for Roto-Rooter...that works well with solid pipes, but not so well with perforated pipe or drain tiles, as might have been used in an older french drain system.

 

[Ron]

tg...also, if they excavate for new french drain, it would be a good time to expose the basement walls and re-do the waterproofing. Use a coal tar or asphaltic based waterproofing system...those last a long time. I would not use a "peel and stick" system of any sort on a rework.