How To Unclog Window Well Drain

How to Fix a Window Well that'due south Filling with Water

Apr 18, 2014 • By Matthew Stock.

Having windows in the basement is great. They admit natural low-cal, tin can be opened to allow in some often badly needed fresh air and, properly configured, can serve as an emergency escape.

Of course, when there are windows in the basement, at that place have to be window wells outside unless, of class, the homeowner enjoys a close-up view of dirt. A window well provides infinite for all that light and air and forms a rigid bulwark to hold back soil.

On the downside, a basement window does create some other opening in a foundation wall that can admit water into the basement. A properly fitted and maintained window volition keep out pocket-size seepage and is an essential office of keeping the basement dry.

The window well also plays a significant office. For all its virtues, a window well is nothing just a big opening in the ground next to a foundation and, similar any large opening in the ground has the potential to fill with water during a heavy or sustained rain or snow melt.

When a window well does fill with water, it puts the basement window to the test by creating force per unit area on the window and by property water that seeks any minor opening to alleviate that pressure level past inbound the basement space.

So, what'south the all-time mode to fix a window well that'south filling with water?

Fixing a Window Well That's Filling with Water

Fixing (or preventing) a window well filling with h2o is all about two components of the window well system – the drain and the encompass.

Window Well Bleed – Every window well should have a drain to allow h2o to go out the window well and not build to a level that creates a basement seepage trouble. Drains can be connected to interior or exterior drain tile or can be run to daylight where a proper slope exists. With a well-constructed and properly maintained bleed, a window well should never fill with water.

Of form, some dwelling house builders will have short cuts with window wells and install them without drains. More commonly, though, the drains are there but, because of lack of maintenance, they clog up.

And then, one way to prepare a window well that is filling with water is to find and unclog the drain. Cleaning droppings from the opening to the drain is usually a fairly piece of cake task but, if the drain has get clogged below the surface it can exist difficult to unclog. The best way, of course to deal with a clogged window well drain is to prevent it from clogging in the outset identify by installing a proper window well encompass.

Window Well Covers – The nearly of import function of a window well cover is not keeping out water but keeping out the kind of debris – leaves, grass clippings, trash – that will clog the bleed. Many homeowners make the understandable error of installing flimsy plastic "bubble" covers from the hardware store thinking that they will keep out water. While yet intact these covers create a surprisingly efficient greenhouse for weeds but are hands cracked and broken, rendering them useless.

A steel grid cover is ameliorate simply can still admit a lot of debris.

The best window well encompass will be synthetic of reinforced polycarbonate and volition be custom-fitted to the window well to ensure that it covers information technology completely. This type of cover, while incidentally preventing most water from inbound, will do an first-class job of keeping out droppings (and modest animals) and keeping the window well drain open and working.

Of class, these window well covers aren't bachelor from the big box store; the homeowner volition need the assistance of a basement waterproofing contractor with feel in fabricating and installing polycarbonate covers. At U.South. Waterproofing, we take installed custom-fitted polycarbonate window well covers for thousands of the 300,000 happy homeowners nosotros take served since our founding in 1957. Why not ask for our gratuitous advice on keeping your window wells from filling with water?

If you'd like to know more virtually window wells, please postal service your questions in the Comments box below.

Tags: window well filling with water, fix window well

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