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Foundation Drainage - Who Designs it?

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ME27272727

Mechanical
May 15, 2014
88
Whose scope does foundation drainage design typically fall under? Plumbing, Civil, or Geotech?
 
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I don't care if the foundation gets wet, so it ain't me!

f-d

ípapß gordo ainÆt no madre flaca!
 
I would say Architect.

Although, I worked as a structural consultant for one architect who insisted drain tile be shown on the structural foundation plans. He said this can get missed if not shown there.

DaveAtkins
 
Since your question uses the word "design", my answer wold be "no one". Typically a code is followed. Perimeter drains go in whether you are near a swamp of on top of a hill. In Wisconsin a group of plumbers are asked once in a while to help on writing code. I'm not looking at codes any more, but for a long time I had no luck trying to get the code changed to require a filtering system for the backfill, such as concrete sand instead of open graded gravel. A sock on the pipe is not adequate. Result, many a system plugs up, sometimes the first year.
 
well, plumbers and MEP usually dont go outside
geotechs dont really design anything
and the architect only wants it to look good
structural doesnt do water
civil is left to handle it and everything else
 
The hyrdraulics or plumbing engineer does the drainage design where I am. The general contractor decides who installs it.
 
Structural still shows the drain lines in section, but Civil who designs the srormwater / sewer system shows the lines in plan.

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)


 
I've only had to do foundation drains on one project, an elementary school with shallow seasonal groundwater. We had the Geotech recommend the interceptor trench section (since they better understand the permeability of the soil and groundwater movement) and then we showed the plan & profiles on the site Civil plans, to drain the interceptors into the storm drain system for disposal.

#
 
In my experience it was usually the structural engineer, but as the geotech, I provided him plenty of advice regarding elevation, slope, perforation size, and backfill. If substantial flow was expected, I might recommend the pipe size.

I once looked at a building where the basement perimeter drain was located halfway up the basement walls. The top half of the basement didn't leak at all!
 
The drainage system is not supposed to make the basement watertight. The waterproofing does that.
 
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