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coreyhi

Window Well Drainage

CoreyHi
9 years ago

Live in Manga, UT. Soil is basically rock and clay.

So I'm in the middle of renovating my new homes unfinished backyard. Previous owners disclosed the basement had flooded, but was caused by the building behind my homes water storage/gutter system backing up and flooding directly into the yard. I have not had any leaking or water fill up issues in the wells since we purchased the home this summer. So this is purely preventative and/or maintenance.

The grading in the lawn isn't great, something I intend to fix in Spring when I plant the lawn. Gutters are clear and downspouts go out away from the home. I will be grading all the soil down and away from the well openings and foundation before Winter comes and putting on covers. Will also be applying masonry sealant where the well meets the foundation to prevent any seeping of water through there.

The wells obviously looked in bad shape from the flooding and apparently weren't dug out and cleaned after it occurred so I'm doing it now. Prior to digging I ran a hose in it for awhile and it did pool a bit, definitely not percolating down through the rocks quickly. Dug about 16" down in one of the wells, no pipe drain installed. First inch or two were fairly clean rocks, rest was compacted clay and rock. Ran hose in it again after digging, still pooling.

My plan at this point is to dig out a hole about 6"x6" in the center and fill it with water repeatedly to see if it will freely drain. My understanding is repeated fills should drain faster every time, and would indicate I don't need a pipe installed. Is this correct? If there's no water entering the well from above, can it still flood from groundwater or water pockets surrounding the well?

At that point, is the best route to simply fill it all back up with clean gravel. Leaving 4-6" empty below the window seal ledge? I've dug probably 8" below the well itself at this point, is it still okay to put rock that low or is it supposed to be clay+rock?

This post was edited by CoreyHi on Fri, Oct 17, 14 at 12:00