Cost To Install Sump Pump And French Drain

What Is A French Drain

A French drain is a trench filled with pea gravel and a perforated pipe at its center that you typically install in the basement or yard. Its primary purpose is to divert standing or pooling water in areas where you have issues with flooding. The cost to remove standing water is $3,500 on average, but you can recoup your French drain installation cost with as little as two avoided water backups.

French drain is a generic term that can refer to a number of drainage solutions you might hear contractors use other terms like “weeping tile,””channel drain,” and “trench drain” when discussing your French drain installation. The variation in names often refers to how and where it’s installed. For example:

• Weeping tile drain, perimeter drain, footing drain, drain tile, deep French drain, and foundation drain: Laid at the foundation level around the exterior or interior

• Curtain drain: Laid at or near the soil surface around the home exterior to divert surface water rather than groundwater

• Trench drain, yard drain, or garden drain: Typically a surface-level style used in yards, driveways, and gardens

Can I Install French Drains Myself

Unless you have previous experience with irrigation we strongly recommend that you dont install a French drain yourself.

The labour is intensive and irrigation is vitally important to the health and longevity of your land or property. To ensure correct installation, use our free search tool to find local specialists in your area.

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Enhancements And Other Improvements To Consider

Other factors to consider when it comes to french drain costs include:

• Interior and exterior drains require a lot of digging that can leave holes and damaged landscaping behind. To fill in the holes or repair your landscaping after the installation costs about $45-$75 per hour if you choose to hire a landscaper.
• You may consider adding an irrigation ditch to give the water a place to give the water the French drain is redirecting a place to go rather than letting it get close to the house. A professional landscaper will charge roughly $.50 $1.00 per square foot for this service.
• If you have excessive surface water, you may consider using a retaining wall to prevent soil erosion. For a six-foot-tall, 50 feet long retaining wall you can expect to pay roughly $13,700 for installation.

Contact Pittsburgh Drain Guys today to learn more about our interior and exterior French drain installation services and how we can help you fix your water-logged yard or basement!

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Are There Any Other Ways To Collect Surface Water

You could consider soil aeration. This might be a solution if you have only just started to have a problem with water puddling. This could be caused by compacted soil.

When the soil is compacted, it cant drain through from the ground effectively.

The soil is aerated by using a roller that has many small spikes. They punch small holes into the soil and loosen it up again, so the rain flows back into the soil as it did previously.

You should also consider changing your soil. Clay soil has always been a problem on land that gets a lot of rain.

Clay sticks together and turns into a smooth muddy material that doesnt absorb water well. You can replace a layer of clay soil with loam or turfing soil which might improve the grounds permeability.

Drainage pumps are another option. Drainage pumps replace gravity so that the excess water is pumped from one place to another .

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Along A Retaining Wall

If you have a retaining wall, installing a French drain will help protect the walls integrity and make it last longer. If you dont have one, the water will flow downhill and build up behind the wall to apply unnecessary pressure. Youll typically add your French drain behind the first stones or blocks that go into the base. The pipe will get put into the same concrete or compacted gravel base that helps support your wall. The French drain cost for this location will vary depending on the landscaping you have around it and the wall material. However, budget between $25.00 and $50.00 a linear foot.

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Gutter & Downspout Drainage System Cost

An underground downspout drainage system costs $150 to $350 per downspout to install, which includes a catch basin, downspout extension, trenching, drain pipe, and bubbler system. Downspout extensions alone cost $5 to $25 each for gutter drainage, depending on the length.

A gutter drainage system ensures the downspouts are 10’+ away from the property to prevent damage. Water is either directed above ground through a downspout extension or by burying a downspout underground and connecting to drain piping that leads to a bubbler system or dry well.

• A bubbler system costs $30 to $85 to add, and it’s attached to shallow drain piping that’s connected to the gutter downspout. The water flows out through a bubbling pop-up vent away from the home.
• Using one or more connected rain barrels attached to gutter downspouts is an affordable drainage solution at $80 to $200 each.

French Drain Retaining Walls

If you have a lot of water in your yard, it can cause soil erosion. If this is the case, you may want to install a retaining wall to assist. Retaining walls can be constructed in several ways: interlocking concrete blocks to form a wall or pouring and stamping concrete. Dry stack retaining walls and poured concrete walls cost $20 to $25 per sq.ft.

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The Sump Pump Installation

Now that theres a designated space for the sump pump, its time to install it. It should be standing straight up. Check that the water wont be going anywhere near electric wires.

There are a couple of additional tools that are beneficial to have on your sump pump system. The first being is a float switch, which will alert the pump that there is water rising in the basin and activate it.

Secondly, it is helpful to have a check valve attached to the drainage pipe. Confirm that your check valve is working once everything is installed. This is a one-way road for water, ensuring that it doesnt make its way back into the pump.

The drainage pipe attached to the pump should go out to the houses exterior. The idea of the drainage discharge line is to get water as far away from your house as possible. The length of your drainage line will depend on how big your yard is and if it is sloped.

This is a good time to put down lining along your crawl space floor. If there are plumbing leaks, the water will flow from the lining to your sump pump. However, youll want to get your plumbing leaks fixed because the lining and the sump pump can only handle so much water.

Sump Pump Installation Cost Factors

A sump pump basically takes the water that flows into your sump basin and pumps it out and away from the house, but there is never a straightforward job and price for a sump pump installation. Too many factors change the cost, each depending on your specific set of circumstances. Here are some of the things that affect the cost of installing your sump pump.

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French Drain Cost Per Foot

The French drains cost per linear foot depends on whether the drain is installed in the interior of your home or the exterior. On average, for exterior installation, you can expect to pay anywhere between $10 and $100 with an average price of $25 per linear foot. A French drain for internal installation costs from $40 to $100 per linear foot or an average of $50 per foot. Below is a table showing the average cost of some of the most common sizes, including the cost of installation.

What Is A Sump Pump How Does A Sump Pump Work

A sump pump keeps your basement dry by pumping out any water that seeps insometimes through minute cracks in the concrete foundation, sometimes through bigger ones, causing inches of standing water in a basement. A sump pump basin is installed in the ground to collect this water, and the sump pump kicks into action once it reaches a certain level in the basin. It sends the water away from the house to a higher ground level or a municipal storm drain, thus avoiding humidity in the home and mold and mildew problems.

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Cost To Replace Your French Drain

Sooner or later, youll have to replace your French drain if its not working like it should. Even after you have someone look for potential clogs, replacement may be the best option if you see damage. If the pipes crack or break, debris and silt can make its way in, and this makes it more difficult for water to move through. Additionally, your drains depth might not be deep enough for the water table over time, and you may have to adjust it.

The French drain cost to replace it will vary, and it depends on what you have to do to it and the extent of the damage. If your contractor has to replace a damaged pipe, it can take up to six hours with a repair price tag of $1,000 to $2,500. If they find that they have to retrench the whole area and replace it, your French drain cost jumps to $2,000 to $8,000.

The Cleanup & Finishing Touches

Our sump pump installation crew takes extra care to leave your basement clean, neat, and clear of debris for you at the end of the installation.

Dust is cleaned from the basement floor and the discharge line outside is inspected to be sure that the water is being discharged to an appropriate location.

We remove all debris we create, and most times customers comment their basement is cleaner than before we started!

To allow for future testing or inspection, Woods Basement Systems, Inc. will install several “ports” in the perimeter drain, where a hose or dehumidifier drainage line can be inserted. During annual checkups and sump pump maintenance, this helps us with testing and inspection.

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Where To Install A French Drain

French drains can be installed inside or outside of the home, depending on where you have standing water and the severity of the issue. If you have an area in the basement that gets more water than the rest of the basement, you may want to consider installing one of these along one or two walls. If you find that you need drains along more than two walls to solve the problem, then it is advisable to have a perimeter French drain installed around the outside of your home.

Whether you install them inside or outside, the ideal slope is one inch for every eight feet. It should never have a slope that is less than 1%. A French drain with no slope will be ineffective at pulling water away from the home.

Crawl Space Encapsulation Cost

Encapsulation systems can be as simplistic as single-layer thin plastic coverings and as high-end as heavy liners with multi-layered vapor barriers. These more advanced systems would also include a dehumidifier, sump pump, and drainage trenches. Installing a crawl space encapsulation after installing a French drain can block out moisture and pests, maintaining the integrity of the space. The average cost to install a crawl space encapsulation is $5,500, including supplies and labor costs. On the low end, you can expect to pay $1,500, and the high range of costs goes as high as $15,000. The price varies based on the size and condition of the space, the contractors rates, and the materials used.

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How Location Impacts Your Price Points

You can install your French drain in several places around your home. However, theyre most effective when theyre the correct depth, in the appropriate location, and used correctly. When you have them outdoors, youll get the most out of your French drain cost by putting it in a downhill area or on a sloped area of your yard. If you want to keep water out of your basement, put them around the foundations perimeter. The average French drain cost hovers around $4,500, but the location and length can cause it to fluctuate.

Sump Pump Advantages Vs French Drains

Sump pumps offer a few key advantages over french drains. The biggest and most obvious advantage is the amount of water they can pump and drain.

Pumps like the Zoeller M53 Mighty Mate can drain up to 43 gallons of water per hour at a 5 head height something that french drains cant compete with! Read our full M53 review.

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French Drain Along Retaining Wall

You can expect to pay anywhere between $25 and $50. If you have built a retaining wall on your property, installing a French drain protects the integrity of the wall. Without one, water moves down the hill and builds up behind the wall, putting pressure on it. Typically, it will be added behind the first course of blocks or stones that back up the base. The pipe used will reside in the same compacted gravel or concrete base footing that supports the wall. The cost to install a French drain along a retaining wall varies depending on the wall materials and the landscape surrounding it.

Perimeter Of Your Foundation

As I mentioned above, many homeowners choose to install shallow French drains around the entire outside of their foundations.

This option offers the best protection from rainwater. Footing French drains are almost always installed around the whole perimeter of the home because groundwater is often level and will affect your entire foundation.

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Installation Costs For French Drain Systems

Youll typically install most French drains in the same way. The contractors will come in and dig a trench in the impacted area. The location will dictate the drains depth and width, as will how much water it needs to drain and the location.

Once they dig a trench, theyll line it with gravel at the bottom and then cover it with a fabric to prevent weeds. Then, theyll lay the perforated pipe into the trench and pour more gravel on. You can backfill soil on top. Per linear foot, your French drain cost ranges from $0.70 to $2.30 a linear foot. You use this same process for a basement install, but they use a thin layer of concrete to cover it.

Sometimes, connecting your French drain straight to your storm drain is the best choice since this will allow the water to drain into an appropriate location with other rainwater. If you have a storm basin either on or just beyond your property line, it can be inexpensive and easy to connect. This will increase your French drain costs by $100 to $200.

How Much Does It Cost To Install Drain Tile

A typical full-perimeter drain tile installation can run between $8,000 and $15,000, depending on the choice of sump pumps and other accessories or additions. A four-wall installation is not always necessary and the cost will be reduced proportionately for smaller jobs.

How deep should I bury drain tile?

The trench should be about 18 inches deep and 9 to 12 inches wide. French drains need to have a slope of at least 1 percent, so the force of gravity will work for you. This means that the drain should slope down a total of at least one inch for every 10 feet of pipe.

Drain tile installation costs $4,000 to $12,000 or $40 to $85 per linear foot, depending on the size of the basements perimeter and number of sump pumps. A full-perimeter drain tile system is not always necessary, and costs are reduced proportionately for smaller jobs.

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Cost To Install A French Drain In Yard

On average, the cost of French drain yard installs run between $20 and $30 per linear foot. When installing this system in the yard, the most common placement is around the perimeter of your home, though they can be placed in almost any area they are needed. If water in the front of the house is a problem, the drain will often be installed along the front of the foundation with a path that pulls the water around the house. They can also be used in other areas of the property where water buildup tends to be a concern. The cost to install a French drain in the backyard will not be costly as long as the yard is clear of any structural components or utility lines in the way of placement.

How Long Does It Take To Pay Back Tile Drainage

It is computed as the number of years required to repay the original investment in tile drainage. If the cost of installing tile drainage is $500 per acre and the expected annual net cash return in crop returns from tile drainage is $100 per acre, the payback period is 5 years .

What do you need to know about drain tile?

It is a trench that directs groundwater away from a specific area, such as a foundation or basement. A drain tile is usually installed underground and can be installed outdoors or indoors. The cost of a drain tile depends on different factors, including whether you install it yourself or hire a professional.

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