Should You Install A French Drain?

So you're looking at that puddle in your basement- the one that comes back every single year- shop-vac in hand, and thinking to yourself: "I really need to do something about this once and for all..." You call up the local companies that pop up on your Google search, and most of them tell you the same thing: you need a french drain.

It may seem like the most logical solution at first. A pipe that goes underneath your footing and takes all of the water away from your foundation makes sense after all. But is this really the only way... and is it even the best?

The problem with the basement waterproofing industry is that it really hasn't evolved much over the years. We keep using the same methods over and over again- even if those methods don't work. And when they DO work, they are far from permanent solutions. Take the french drain for instance- every waterproofer will try to sell you one.

The pro of the french drain is that it can indeed take water away from your home, but consider the cons. Installing that underneath your footer can leave you with an unstable foundation (leading to foundation problems which tend to be more expensive than waterproofing), and what they don't tell you is that because french drains sit in the mud, they tend to become clogged over time and stop working completely. How do you clean out the french drain when this happens?

You can't.

In response to this issue, we always recommend our patented WaterGuard perimeter system. Not only does it NOT ruin your foundation, but it sits flush with your basement floor and has inspection ports so that if it ever does get clogged (which is unlikely since it doesn't sit inside the mud), you can easily figure out where the problem is and unblock it. It also works in perfect harmony with our sump pumps and vapor barriers for complete protection.

As part of the Basement Systems Dealer Network, we have access to WaterGuard unlike other contractors who only have french drains. And if a WaterGuard is not what you need, we can show you any of our many other patented solutions instead. We are much more versatile than the average Pete in the Pick-up.

On our projects we often encounter french drains that we need to remove and replace with WaterGuard.