When my house was built 60 years ago, the original builder had the foresight to see that there would probably be a drainage problem in the front yard. The house sits slightly (2 to 3 feet) below street level. The front yard is not sloped. There’s the 2 to 3 foot hill down from the road then the yard is level until you get to the front of the house. Two drains were laid in the front yard to catch the overflow of rain (they consist of the red cement/terra cotta pipe used in those days) and heavy stainless steel grating was used to make the covers. The ends of the gutters (the part that would normally be the downspout that removes rain away from the house, also feed into underground pipes.
Back to the house. The house was built into a hill in order to have a full basement/garage. The front 24' of the basement is underground. For a better idea, there’s a 24’ x 24’ storage room built under the side porch on the house that is completely underground. Once you exit the underground or in-ground room, the house is no longer completely underground and there are several windows in the basement from this point on. In the basement are three shower-like drains. There are also two drains holes in the driveway at the back of the house. So a run down of the drains:
2 hole type drains in the front yard.
4 gutter downspouts that feed into pipes
3 shower-like drains built into the basement floor
2 hole type drains in the driveway.
Note: When heavy rains come NONE of these drains “back up” indicating the drain may be stopped up.
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plumbing hampton hill|central heating kingston
Wed Oct 19, 2011 4:30 am