[Greenbuilding] crawlspace drains

[Reuben Deumling]

I was peeved when my building inspector insisted on such a drain, but the
house sits in a seasonal high water table area, and sure enough, the first
winter I had water in the crawlspace and was very happy for the drain. That
said, I would have preferred to have known about Mr. Lstiburek's objections
to connecting downspouts to perimeter drains (discussed here a few months
back) before installing the whole system. I think my connecting everything:
gutters, permieter drain and crawlspace drain, ended up exacerbating the
whole problem of moisture "down there."Though the crawlspace has a backflow
prevention flap, this being a low and flat area all that water concentrated
into one pipe had a hard time going anywhere after a downpour.

I'm not familiar with the types of plumbing leaks and prevention devices you
talk about.

On 3/22/07, Mark Marcoplos <marcoplos at bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
> Does anybody know of actual situations in which crawlspace drains have
> been needed? I personally have never heard of an actual instance in which
> they were needed. Are there any studies to show that installing them in all
> crawlspaces is actually worth the occasional mishap? Is this an example of
> the building code erring way,way,way on the side of caution without regard
> for cost effectiveness and resource use?
>
> Why not require triple-lined water pipes? Or giant metal pans under every
> floor system?
>
> On a serious note - what about requiring automatic shut-off units that are
> triggered by inordinate water flow that you can buy for when you are not
> home?
>
> Mark Marcoplos
> Marcoplos Construction
> 968-0056
> http://www.MarcoplosConstruction.com
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