French drain directly under foundation
French drain directly under foundation
(OP)
Can a house be built directly over a spring head? if permits(state, fedral) are obtained, can I do it? and if done are there any recommendations for methods to accomplish that? would a French drain system suffice? What are future complications and issues that i need to consider? Any help will be greatly appreciated.





RE: French drain directly under foundation
Yes... but not with the approach you appear to have in mind. When a house is over water or even a wet area, don't want the living space coupled with the ground. The Owner will have ongoing moisture / mildew / mold issues no matter what steps are taken (e.g. vapor barrier, french drain, sometimes even forced ventilation of a closed crawl space).
Best to have natural ventilation between the living space and the ground:
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RE: French drain directly under foundation
RE: French drain directly under foundation
Is this a spot spring, or a line?
If the spring is artesian, can you catch the water low and pipe it laterally to a natural drainage course away from the structure?
Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)
RE: French drain directly under foundation
An edit here. I refer to the Wisconsin code for footing drains as developed by plumbers, not engineers, section SPS 321.17. There they spec a pea gravel with the percentage passing the #8 sieve as 0 to 5%. Any agency that specifies that as the drainage material around a performed drain or pipe wrapped with fabric darn well has lots of plugged drains. My efforts to change the Wisconsin code falls on deaf ears. Reason: only plumbers control what the code says.