Questions tagged [drainage]
Use this tag when the topic is about controlling water runoff, particularly near structures but also in yards or elsewhere.
629
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Is it a problem that my bathtub drains directly into the wall?
Here is what I see inside the hole
My landlord said is ok. But I think water going directly to wall can't be a good idea.
My question is how bad is it? Needs fixing right away?
If needs fixing, how ...
24
votes
6
answers
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How do I stop the dripping noise from my gutters?
It has just recently started raining where I live, and I am new to this house. When the rain ceases and the water is dripping from the gutters through the drain, I can hear the dripping from inside ...
21
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7
answers
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How can I remove a dead animal stuck inside an underground stormwater drain pipe?
An animal, probably a fat rat, has got stuck in an underground 100mm (4 inch) stormwater drain pipe and blocked it somewhere in our front yard, possibly under the driveway. The drain has started to ...
19
votes
6
answers
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Wind from kitchen sink drainage pipe
We live on a windy coast of North Sea. High wind is a norm here. One of the problems I face with the wind: it comes out from kitchen sink drainage pipe. If it is blowy outside, you can feel a draft ...
19
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9
answers
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What can I do about my drains constantly getting blocked?
The one thing I have tried to do about this is use those foaming and non-foaming drain unblockers regularly. That has just been money down the drain, pardon the pun.
I suspect that unblockers only ...
17
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6
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Is it safe for plumbing to use rainwater to flush toilets?
A couple of articles encourage the use of rainwater to flush toilets. (article 1, article 2)
However, would it be safe to do so if the rainwater in your particular area has a pH that is considered as ...
16
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4
answers
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How do I build a French drain?
There's a shed near the side of the house with a roof that's pitched to shoot water at the house's foundation. That side of the house also has no gutters. There's a very slight grade to send water ...
15
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5
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Does a drainage pipe need to be continuously sloped?
I need to move water from the back yard to the front yard, to combat the monsoon season, in which a 50 gallon container in the backyard can fill up in 1-2 minutes. I bought some 4" piping, and ...
15
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4
answers
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French Drain: Why do I need 3" of rock bedding beneath the pipe?
I'm having issues with a leaky basement in the Portland area. There's dirt, mud, and vegetation outside of my foundation wall, and it's absorbing lots of rainwater. 4 feet of it is inside my property ...
14
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10
answers
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How do I limit the water flowing through my neighbor's fence into my yard?
Our neighbors yard is elevated and they water their yard a lot. The water flows over into our vegetable garden and floods it. I would like to add a barrier. Some ideas have been slim pavers with a ...
14
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6
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How can I quiet a noisy downspout? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How do I stop the dripping noise from my gutters?
I have metal downspouts that come down from by gutters. One of them happens to be right by my bedroom window. When the rain ...
14
votes
4
answers
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Strange suction in toilet and sink, like a vacuum in the sewer pulling the water out
This is hard to explain.. But I was sitting in my bedroom when all of a sudden my toilet started draining, then the sinks in the bathroom started pulling air in, then when the water from the toilet ...
14
votes
5
answers
148k
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Who is the right professional to call for drainage issues?
I've got some concerns about the drainage on our property and want to consult with a professional about. The problems, I'm not sure what kind of professional to call.
To provide some context, here'...
13
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3
answers
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Crack across front of garage floor
I have a crack across the entire front of my garage floor. I believe that the crack was caused by a poor drainage issue that has been corrected. The drainage issue also caused the pavers in front of ...
12
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2
answers
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How should this underground down-spout-in-yard-drain be appropriately installed?
I noticed a few weeks ago during the rainy season that underground drainage from my downspout was flooded and not draining right. I purchased a pressure washer attachment that promised to unclog ...
12
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6
answers
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What are my gutter guard options?
As I mentioned in a prior post, I'm planning to add some gutters to my house. I see that there's wide variety of gutter guards available and was curious which ones are better?
As far as I can tell,...
9
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9
answers
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How do I prevent water from collecting against side of house?
Our house has a concrete patio (I'd say about 12' x 10') in the back that is very slightly angled in so that rainfall can cause water to collect where the patio meets the back wall of the house. What ...
9
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5
answers
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What's the best strategy to reduce moisture in this garage?
First of all, I know this garage will never be dry. It's a standalone, one car garage built into the side of the hill that my house sits on. It abuts the neighbor's yard, and they have landscaping and ...
8
votes
6
answers
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Can vermin come in through your toilet or shower drain and, if so, what can you do about it?
First, I'm not sure that this is what's happening but I suspect this is the problem. On occasion my wife and I find cockroaches in our house. This isn't very frequent (I'll find one once every few ...
8
votes
4
answers
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Can I use a PVC cleanout plug in a Cast Iron Cleanout?
There's a cleanout plug on this pipe that I simply can't get loose. I've tried liquid wrench, PB blaster, heating up the area with a torch, everything I can think of. All that's really left is to go ...
8
votes
1
answer
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Why is there a 1/2-inch hole drilled in my heater exhaust?
I have a Carrier high efficiency furnace which uses 2-inch PVC pipes to pull in combustion air from outside and exhaust the combustion gasses back outside (through a concentric vent, but that's not ...
8
votes
1
answer
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What drainage should I install under concrete slab in garage?
I have a concrete garage which is halfway inside the hill. Essentially the surface behind the garage is at garage's roof level. Garage's floor is concrete slab 3"-4" thick (at least it's best I could ...
7
votes
3
answers
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Elevating portable air conditioner's condensate drain
I'm familiar with window and split air conditioners but new to portable ones.
My portable AC has an upper and a lower plugs that can be used to drain the condensation water. Both are two low for ...
7
votes
1
answer
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How to protect Building foundation from Dry wells
We have installed 6 dry wells around the building as there was no empty space for drainage water.
We did this as per the engineer's advice.
Sand texture:
It's clay
Water table 2 ( During rainy season ...
7
votes
5
answers
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What can I do about a window well that is filling up with water from below the surface?
I have 2 covered basement window wells on the side of my house. When it rains heavily, they fill up with water from beneath the surface.
There are 4 downspouts from the gutters on our roof. They run ...
7
votes
3
answers
5k
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How do I keep heavy rain from draining into my house?
The west side of our house is 2 stories high. We have 3 window wells on that side of the house. When we get heavy rains from the west blowing against the house, lets say 3 inches in an hour. The ...
7
votes
2
answers
2k
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How to deal with inadequate drainage of my walk-up basement?
(Please correct me if any of my terminology is inaccurate!)
I have a "den" which is a finished walk-up basement (half-above ground, half below ground). The den floor has vents, and when I look under ...
7
votes
2
answers
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What is the best way to seal a French drain board due to high levels of radon?
The Radon level in my crawl space is above the threshold (~5.5) and the level in my basement is around 4. I'd like to install a radon mitigation fan that sucks air from the sump pump of a French ...
7
votes
2
answers
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How can I prevent water from being fed to my foundation through the gas-line ditch?
I recently had a gas line installed, and now there is water leaking into my basement about six feet below grade. It is not surprising that the 130-year-old fieldstone foundation is porous, but until ...
6
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5
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Wood fence posts in clay
I'm installing a wooden fence around my back yard using prebuilt cedar panels and 10 ft (3+ m) 4x4 pressure treated posts buried 3 1/2 to 4ft (1+ m) deep. The posts are packed in with pea gravel to ...
6
votes
2
answers
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Can I run this sump drain underground?
I am wondering if I can extend this sump drain (about 4 foot long and ends 8-10 inches over the ground) through an underground PVC run about 30 feet (about a 4 foot drop from house to valley) to exit ...
6
votes
3
answers
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Why does my toilet keeps blocking and then spill out of the drain outside?
Recently out toilet has started to repeatedly block. First thing we tried was the warm water method, which worked at first.
When that stopped working, and problem came back, we used caustic soda. ...
6
votes
1
answer
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What steps should I take after kitty litter has been washed down the drain?
A relative tried to do me a "favor" and clean out the bathtub where a kitty box had been temporarily stored. I guess 2-3 pounds of clumping litter were washed down the drain. It doesn't appear to be ...
6
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2
answers
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What is the minimum roof slope to accommodate rainwater drainage?
I have a patio with a 13ft(4m) by 26ft (8m) Roof, the slope runs vertically down the short (13ft) side.. and the height difference from the high point to the low point is only about 10in (25cm).
...
6
votes
2
answers
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How can I correct the slope of a marble shower sill?
Our master shower is tiled in marble; it's almost perfect except... the sill has a slight slope running out of the shower instead of into it. As a result, every time we take a shower, a small amount ...
6
votes
2
answers
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Maximum run on drain?
I'm planning a reconfiguration of my basement and want to move both the powder room and w/d to new locations.
The powder room would be close enough to the stack not to worry me, but I'm looking at ...
6
votes
2
answers
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Driveway Gutter / Rain Guide?
Our house was built a little over 20 years ago. The person who paved the asphalt driveway didn't grade it right, so in addition to the slight downward slope towards the road, it has alternating ...
6
votes
2
answers
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What should I keep in mind when altering the drainage around my basement?
My back yard has some wet spots near the corner of my house. Because of property lines, fences, and window wells for my basement, it's hard to dramatically change the surface drainage of the area. I'm ...
6
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2
answers
1k
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How can I waterproof a hole in my vinyl deck to fit a downspout?
I am wondering if anyone might have some suggestions on solving this drainage issue with our vinyl deck.
We used to have 2 separate decks but upon rebuild we have them joined with a narrow walkway. ...
6
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2
answers
5k
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Does landscape fabric (filter fabric) get clogged? If not, why not?
I have a drainage problem to solve and I'm considering a French drain. I have read in dozens of places that various drainage systems (including French drains) are usually lined or wrapped in a ...
6
votes
1
answer
8k
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Why is my bath tub plug hole bubbling?
Recently (in the last few days) the drain of my bath has started to 'bubble' occasionally. This mainly seems to happen at night when we are in bed and no one or nothing is moving in the house. The ...
6
votes
1
answer
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What type of fill to use to raise grade in back yard
There is a small section of my back yard that is adjacent to my house and slopes towards it. The yard itself is predominately graded away from the house, so I just need to raise the grade in this ...
6
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2
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How to pour a concrete walkway directly up to a T style foundation
This is a side cutaway drawing of an existing 1930's stucco wall, showing the stucco in red and the original foundation. There is no weep screed, and originally the stucco was troweled right up to ...
6
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2
answers
1k
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Can I regrade this gravel section of yard myself?
My home is at lower elevation from the street. Water runs down the asphalt driveway and there is a french drain in front of the garage. On one side of the driveway there is a gravel patch that is not ...
6
votes
1
answer
570
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Plumbing toilet fill tube runs into copper pipe picture attached
Any idea about whats going on here with the copper pipe?
6
votes
1
answer
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Connect 110mm pvc to clay oblique junction
I want to install a toilet and replace the existing 60mm cast iron pipe with 110mm pvc
It looks as if the cast iron has been cemented into the clay pipe junction
I’m trying to avoid replacing the ...
5
votes
6
answers
3k
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How to terminate a soil drain pipe into the earth and avoid blockages
Is this advised? How would I set up the end of my drain pipe so as not to get a backflow of dirt and have the pipe get clogged. I'm thinking rock, then black cover, then more rock, then dirt, with the ...
5
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3
answers
2k
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Can this water damage be explained by lack of gutters and grading issues?
We are currently midway through a major renovation to an old house. Part of the renovation was digging out a new basement and adding a new foundation around it. The basement has a ceiling height of ...
5
votes
12
answers
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What could cause my washing machine to stop before the rinse cycle?
My washing machine will get stuck right before the rinse cycle. The washing machine will be full of water. The way to "fix it" is to twist the knob right after the "rinse" line, find the sweet spot, ...
5
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2
answers
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Do I need water traps on my sinks with dry-well greywater collection?
My house has been fitted with water traps in toilet and bathrooms drains which is quite good, but I can see that my kitchen sink, washing machine outlet pipe and regular wash basin don't have water ...