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Email Us: office@kleinhomesolutions.com

Exterior Drain Tile Systems Serving Erie, Crawford, Chautauqua, Warren & Ashtabula Areas

Pros and Cons of Repairing your Wet Basement with an Exterior French Drain

exterior-french-drain

One way of basement waterproofing that many contractors will suggest for waterproofing a basement is to install a french drain system along the outside perimeter of your home.

To install an exterior French drain, the contractor will take the following steps:

  1. First, the entire perimeter of your home must be cleared. Gardens, steps, porches, etc., must be removed before the work can begin.
  2. Next, the contractor will dig out the perimeter of your home. Excavated dirt will be heaped around the house.
  3. The drain will be laid in a bed of stone along the bottom. The stone, and possibly a layer of filter fabric, are there to protect the drain from clogging.
  4. The excavated soil will be “backfilled” on top of the system. In a year, this soil will settle, and the contractor will need to return to fill in more soil.

At Klein Home Solutions, we do not recommend this type of drainage system installed in your home. Instead, we suggest installing an interior basement drain along the inside perimeter of your basement or crawl space. For a free waterproofing quote in the Pennsylvania and New York area, call or e-mail us today!

Failing French Drains in Pennsylvania and New York

French drain systems have been installed on the outside of homes since the 1920s, and if they were the best way to dry a basement, Klein Home Solutions would be installing them, too.

Unfortunately, placing a French drain or exterior footing drain along the outside is a recipe for failure. When you put a drainage system several feet under the earth, even in a bed of gravel, it will eventually clog with dirt, roots, and debris.

Sometimes, a contractor will try to stop this by laying down a layer of filter fabric around the drain. In this case, instead of the drain clogging, the filter fabric does and won’t let water into the pipe. Other problems such as freezing pipes and improperly sloped lines are also common. This type of exterior drainage commonly will not handle water that collects under your basement floor, in which case you’ll still need a sump pump inside your basement. Some contractors even connect the exterior drains to the sump pump inside. Now that’s sure to clog!

What happens when your drainage system clogs? It will need to be excavated and you’ll have to start over. Who wants to do that again?

For a FREE waterproofing quote, call or e-mail us today!

We service the Pennsylvania and New York area, including Union City, Girard, Cambridge Springs, Fairview, Cochranton, Conneaut Lake, Dunkirk and nearby.

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Our experience with Klien Home Solutions was wonderful! Brian explained how they would correct our water problem in o...
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they installed the sump pump in our basement years ago and it's been perfect. we have it checked yearly and have had ...
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Jim & Brad from Klein did excellent work replacing our shower pan with stone to match the existing tile work. The...
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Klein's recently completed work in my crawl space. I couldn't be more pleased with how professional and knowledgeable...
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Absolutely stellar work and customer service! Klein just finished my basement and the workers were meticulous! Carefu...
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Another outstanding job from Klein Home systems! My wife and i couldn't be more pleased. After installing our basemen...
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Another outstanding job from Klein Home systems! My wife and i couldn't be more pleased. After installing our base...
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Thank you for work we are extremely pleased with.
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Thank you for work we are extremely pleased with.
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Absolutely stellar work and customer service! Klein just finished my basement and the workers were meticulous! Carefu...
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Klein Home Solutions is the best option when it comes to basement waterproofing in Erie, PA. Their contractors are we...
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Totally pleased with Klein Solutions. From Brian the rep who made a house call to give us an estimate for a walk-in s...
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When you have water in your basement it's never a good thing, but from start to finish Klein's team was exceptional. ...
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Klein painted and remodeled my basement. What was an old, ugly outdated area is now a finished rec room and the unfi...
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Klein painted and remodeled my basement. What was an old, ugly outdated area is now a finished rec room and the unfin...
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My wife and I wanted to address an ongoing water situation in our basement. We normally get a few quotes before we co...
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Jim did an excellent job reglazing tub, putting up surround around the tub, window and heating vent. He was very prof...
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Jim did an excellent job reglazing tub, putting up surround around the tub, window and heating vent. He was very pro...
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My contractor recommended Klein and I felt comfortable with them right away. The consultation/estimate with Brian was...
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Personable, knowledgeable and helpful.
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Very professional job from estimate on through final touches. Superior craftmanship, easy to work with, very knowledg...
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Jim & Brad from Klein did excellent work replacing our shower pan with stone to match the existing tile work. The...
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Jim & Brad from Klein did excellent work replacing our shower pan with stone to match the existing tile work. The...
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There works are very professional. I had my wet backyard. They installed french pipes all over my backyard. Now there...
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What an outstanding experience. I contacted Klein Home Solutions at the Builders Association Home Expo about dampness...
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Klein Bath and Basement completely transformed our 1970s-style master bathroom. They devised a creative solution to h...
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We recently had Kleins waterproof our wet basement. Soon after we had 2 inches of rain on top of saturated ground fro...
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We recently had our master bathroom remodeled by Klein's. To say we are pleased is an understatement. Brian Miletello...
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Klien came in and did an amazing job fixing my basement. Brian the account manager came over at a time that was conve...
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Fantastic work, great crew, hard working in keeping worksite clean, not tracking debris. Well organized from start to...
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We use Klein to fix some water problems. And after many heavy rains we have had zero problems.
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Wonderful service! Responsive at every turn! We called with questions about a 12 year old basement waterproofing j...
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