French drain
With the large amount of rain here recently we have discovered that our below grade basement has been taking on water from our side yard. The gutters take the water from the roof just fine but it is the ground water which seems to be causing the problem. As a result we would like to look at the possibility of installing a french drain on the side of the house where the water seems to coming from. Since this would be a new project experience for us we would be grateful for recommendations of companies which perform this type work in a reliable and high quality manner. Many thanks.
Dec 28, 2021
Parent Replies
We used Carty Construction and they did a great job! We have two sump pumps and the only slight hiccup was when the power went on the rainy day in October. It was out for a few hours and water started to pool at one particular corner of our house but everywhere else was good with the actual physical drain. It’s not cheap but neither is foundation work which poor drainage will inevitably lead to around your house
I highly recommend Bay Area Drainage: https://www.bayareadrainage.com
They redid the inadequate drainage work that general contractors installed at our house and at a family member’s. They are drainage experts and will come up with effective, common-sense solutions instead of just using conventional designs. Their crew is professional and efficient. Our crawl space has stayed dry through the wettest storms.
We had a terrible leak into our garage in 2017 and before. Basically it got flooded every time the hills around our house got saturated with rain. We interviewed a number of firms and decided to go with Carty Construction 510-528-1565. We are VERY happy we chose them. Their work was excellent, Paul worked well with my husband who had a bunch of ideas on how to do the work. Paul listened, discussed his shuggestions and incorporated some of his ideas. Paul and his workers are professional, responsible and care about doing a good job. I recommend giving him a call.
I highly recommend Bay Area Drainage. They did an excellent job installing a french drain in our home in the Berkeley hills. Previously garage got flooded after raining and it’s been bone dry after their work. This was over 5 years ago and still working great. Price came in midpoint among two other bids. We felt we got a bargain after seeing the amount of work they put in.
All Season Construction (foreman Jeremy Ke) put in a French drain for me in 2020. They were easy to communicate with, I thought they did good work, finished it neatly, and the drain has worked well since. Private message me if you want to see it (in central Piedmont).
All Season Construction
5277 College Ave, #10, Oakland
510 652 2221
We had a similar problem. We installed a french drain and a sump pump, and it is working just fine. If it's just an outside french drain, that's even simpler (but both are labor-intensive!)
Can I suggest you take a look at some YouTube videos to get a sense of what needs to be done? It's very labor-intensive (digging a trench, bringing in gravel, hauling out mud), but the parts and materials are quite inexpensive. A plumber or a drainage specialist should be able to do this for you. In our case, our handyman and his crew did it for us, and it has solved all our issues.
From our experience, we highly recommend that you avoid the Karl Kardel Company. Had to involve state regulatory officials to get the job done right, and they damaged interior property while doing a poor job.
For folks who did this work did you do the drain inside the crawl space or outside?