Patent Application
20230038717
This disclosure is directed to a system for basement waterproofing and, more particularly, to sump systems and methods for use in basement waterproofing systems.
The major problem to be solved is the reduction of, or the elimination of, the detrimental effects of ground water near footings that enter the building structure. Solutions to this major problem lower the water level near the footings. In most locations, underground structures, such as footings, are subject to hydrostatic pressure from ground water. A high-water level outside of a footing causes an unbalanced pressure acting sideways against the footing. If the water level gets high enough, an unbalanced pressure acting sideways can be exerted on the wall supported by the footing. Footings and supported walls are not usually designed for such pressures, and eventually water will seep into the building through cracks or joints.
The potential for moisture in the basement of buildings is of ongoing concern to homeowners, building contractors, and structural engineers. Basement foundation footings are typically located several feet below ground level, and water may accumulate around the foundation as the groundwater level periodically rises, for example, due to rain or melting snow. As a result, hydrostatic pressure may build causing leakage at cracks in the footings, structural interfaces, and through the floor. Concrete, typically used in the construction of foundations, attracts groundwater by sorption, and capillary forces in the concrete pores facilitate further penetration of the groundwater. Seepage of groundwater into a basement can cause significant structural damage, as well as promote the growth of harmful bacteria.
A problem in many basements is wet or damp basement floors caused by water seeping under the foundation wall and flowing up between the foundation wall and the basement floor. It is not practical, or even desirable, to prevent water from seeping under the foundation wall. Water pressure build-up behind the wall can damage the wall. Therefore, drainage systems are used to provide a flow path for water entering between the foundation wall and footing to a sump, thus preventing the water from flowing up between the foundation wall and basement floor.
Furthermore, dangerous radon gas, and water vapors contributing to a high basement humidity level, can flow easily through the concrete pores. Interior, sub-floor drainage systems have been developed to address problems with moisture in basements. Such systems typically include various configurations of a drainage conduit installed along the interior perimeter of the basement, positioned below the basement floor and near the foundation wall. The drainage conduit serves to collect and convey groundwater to a basement sump for extraction.
Prior art interior sub-floor systems typically fail to address the seepage that occurs above and below footings, generally focusing on just one area of seepage. Moreover, these systems are positioned at such an elevated level that when covered with concrete to achieve flushness with the existing floor they lack sufficient thickness of concrete and the concrete is susceptible to cracking and fracture when even a modest load is applied over the interior sub-floor system.
A low cost easy to install system for drainage of a cast concrete or block footing, including placing a polypropylene drainage channel adjacent and atop the interior surfaces of the footing. The drainage channel which is canted at an appropriate angle to facilitate flow of the water in the desired direction, is in fluid communication with a sump pump. The drainage channel is supported in position by fasteners and gravel is backfilled beneath the channel. Concrete is poured over the drainage channel with sufficient thickness to provide a durable surface that is suitably leveled with the original flooring and can bear a load without fracturing. It is an object of the system as disclosed herein to provide a robust drainage system to capture water infiltrating beneath the footing as well as past the junction of the footing and the foundation wall and to convey the infiltrated water, by gravity flow, to a point of ejection.
It is a further object of the system disclosed herein to provide a sediment trap within the drainage channel to remove accumulated sediment carried into the drainage channel by infiltrating water.
It is a further object of the system disclosed herein to facilitate the capture of radon and route the captured radon along the drainage channel to an extraction unit for ejection to ambient air.
It is a further object of the system disclosed herein to install sufficient thickness of concrete over the system to reduce the potential for fracture and breakage of the concrete upon exposure to compressive forces.
It is a further object of the system to provide a simple to install and lightweight system that is easy to transport and assemble on site.
It is a further object of the system to utilize materials that are inexpensive to procure and that are resistant to degradation upon being exposed to moisture, concrete, insects and soil.
The contents of this summary section are provided only as a simplified introduction to the disclosure, and are not intended to be used to limit the scope of the appended claims.
Referring now to the drawings, and first to
Referring to
The channel 34 is fabricated from sheets 33 of corrugated polypropylene. Exemplary polypropylene sheets 33 are available from Curbell Plastics™ located in Orchard Park, N.Y. The corrugated polypropylene sheets 33 may be procured in numerous dimensions such as 96-inch lengths and widths of 48 or 60-inches. The thickness of these sheets ranges from a 2-15 mm. The preferred width of the sheets for the system as disclosed herein is 48 inches and the preferred thickness is 10 mm; however, other widths and thicknesses are also contemplated by this disclosure. As illustrated at
As illustrated at
The following discussion of the various panels are contemplated in an as-built and installed system 10 configuration. Specifically, reference to horizontal and vertical orientations in this disclosure are to be understood as in relation to the footing and foundation wall where the system 10 is installed.
Referring now to
Referring again to
The ground water 22 entering the channel 34 through holes 80 may emanate from beneath the footings 20 or infiltrate between the base of the foundation wall 24 and the upper horizontal surface 14 of the footing 20 or possibly ground water 22 intrudes through both areas. The through holes 80 are disposed a distance D above the lower edge 72 of the first longitudinally extending vertical panel 68. Positioning the through holes 80 a distance D above the lower edge 72 provides sufficient height for the ground water 22 entering the channel 34 to drop into the channel 34 and drain to the point of ejection 82.
The placement of the through holes 80 along the longitudinally extending panel 68 is preferably about one through hole every linear foot; however, more frequent or less frequent placement of the holes is also contemplated by this disclosure. The diameter of the through holes 80 is preferably in the range of from 0.35 to 0.65 inches with a most preferred diameter of about 0.5 inches. The frequency of the through holes 80 is dictated by the anticipated volume of ground water 22 that the installer estimates the system 10 shall encounter based upon local meteorological conditions, topography of the land adjacent the building and robustness of current, or proposed, drainage systems exterior to the building.
Returning to
The first longitudinally extending vertical panel 68 and the diagonally disposed longitudinally extending panel 86 form the V-shaped channel 34 into which infiltrating groundwater 22 also flows from intermittently disposed openings 96 in the diagonally disposed longitudinally extending vertical panel 86. This ground water 22 is in addition to the ground water 22 flowing into the channel 34 through openings 80 in the first longitudinally extending vertical panel 68. As previously noted, infiltrating ground water 22 may originate from beneath the footing 20, along the plane of contact between the upper horizontal surface 14 of the footing 20 and the foundation wall 24, or possibly both. No matter the origins of the ground water 22, due to gravity and hydrostatic pressure, the water traverses into the openings 80, 96 and then into the channel 34. The openings 96 in the diagonally disposed longitudinally extending panel 86 are preferably spaced apart by about every linear foot. Additionally, the diameter of the openings 96 may range from 0.35 inches to 0.65 inches with a preferred diameter of the opening 96 at about 0.50 inches.
Returning to
A first fastener 110 extends through the first longitudinally extending horizontal panel 52 as well as the second longitudinally extending horizontal panel 100. This fastener 110 preferably employs a thin flat head 112 that prevents pull-through and a pointed tip 114 for fully penetrating the overlain panels 52, 100. Fasteners with a 0.25-inch diameter tip 114 and a 0.5-inch diameter head 112 are preferred in this application. These fasteners are optimally spaced about every linear foot along the longitudinally extending panels 52, 100.
A second fastener 116 may also optionally be employed in this embodiment. The second fastener 116, is disposed closer to the vertical foundation wall 24 than the first fastener 110. The second fastener 116 extends downwardly from the top, starting at panel 52 and passing through the second longitudinally extending horizontal panel 100. A washer 118 with a diameter considerably greater than the diameter of the head 120 of the second fastener 116 prevents pull-through of the fastener 116. The tip 122 of this fastener 116 is preferably sunk into the concrete of the horizontal surface 14 of the footing 20 and thereby serves to anchor the two panels 52, 100 in position. The second fastener 116 is preferably spaced approximately every linear foot along the longitudinal extension of the panel.
The final flexibly connected panel utilized in the system 10 is a second longitudinally extending vertical panel 126 with a lower edge 128, an upper edge 130, a front face 132 and a rear face 134. The lower edge 128 is flexibly secured to the first edge 106 of the second longitudinally extending horizontal panel 100 at a routed area 136 and the rear face 134 is in abutting contact with the vertical foundation wall 24 above the footing 20. Fasteners 138 penetrate the second vertical panel 126 and secure the longitudinally extending panel to the foundation wall 24. A preferred embodiment of the fastener 138 is a concrete anchor screw. The second longitudinally extending vertical panel 126 is preferably about 4 inches in height. The fastener 138 is preferably positioned approximately 2 inches below the upper edge 130. This centralized location of approximately 2 inches above the horizontal surface of the footing 14 and approximately 2 inches below the upper edge 130 is a mid-point M on this panel 126 and provides stability for maintaining the panel in position. The 4-inch height of the second vertical panel 126 supports a concrete thickness of approximately 4 inches which is sufficiently thick to support most loads in both residential and many commercial buildings.
Because the longitudinal span of the footing 20 and foundation wall 24 may be greater than the longitudinal span of the panel lengths 52, 68, 86, 100, 126, a waterproof tape is preferably employed to secure adjacent panels to one another and to extend the system to recover intruding water along an entire interior wall 24 and footing 20 of a building. In addition, when panels are joined at a corner, waterproof tape is employed to create a watertight corner seal. An exemplary waterproof and high bond strength tape for joining longitudinally adjacent drainage system panels is Flex Tape® produced by Swift Response, LLC.
The system 10 must be installed such that the drainage channel 34 flows toward the point of ejection 82. To achieve this flow direction, various spacers or shims may be utilized beneath the channel 34 to achieve the desired direction of flow of the ground water 22. The spacers or shims are preferably disposed beneath the first longitudinally extending horizontal panel 52 at the furthest most distance from the point of ejection 82. By slightly elevating the horizontal panel 52 at this outer end 144.
As best illustrated in
A preferred installation procedure is to cover the corrugation lumens 35A of the upper edge 130 of the second vertically extending panel 126 with tape during installation of the concrete 21. Once the concrete 21 is in place and has been properly surfaced and cured, the tape is removed. This procedure leaves the corrugation lumens 35A unclogged with concrete and available to collect moisture seeping through to the interior side 18 of the footing 20 as illustrated in
An additional attribute of the system 10 as disclosed herein is that upon installation of the system and once covered with cured concrete 21 one or more slab level drain holes 150 may be drilled into the cured concrete. These slab level drain holes (not shown) allow water to drain from the floor into the drain holes and to enter the channel 34, flow to, for example the sump pit 152, and then be ejected by the sump pump 84.
Referring again to
Backfilling may include, as necessary, the space 146 between the first longitudinally extending vertical segment 68 and the foundation wall 24 with gravel 140 should the first horizontally disposed longitudinally extending segment 52 extend farther than the horizontal surface of the footing 14. This methodology for backfilling as previously noted, facilitates the drainage of ground water 22 from around the footing 20.
Although the invention has been described above with reference to one or more preferred embodiments, it will be appreciated that various changes or modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
The disclosed embodiments of the drainage system detailed above provide a wide range of options for efficiently and cost-effectively installing a drainage system adjacent to the footings and foundation walls of a building. The disclosed system should not be construed as limiting in any way. Instead, the present disclosure is directed toward all novel and nonobvious features and aspects of the various disclosed embodiments, alone and in various combinations and sub-combinations with one another. The disclosed apparatus and systems are not limited to any specific aspect or feature or combination thereof, nor do the disclosed embodiments require that any one or more specific advantages be present or problems be solved.
In view of the many possible embodiments to which the principles of the disclosed invention may be applied, it should be recognized that the illustrated embodiment is only an example of the disclosure and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention. Rather, the scope of the invention is defined by the following claims. We therefore claim as our invention all that comes within the scope of these claims.
The disclosure presented herein is believed to encompass at least one distinct invention with independent utility. While the at least one invention has been disclosed in exemplary forms, the specific embodiments thereof as described and illustrated herein are not to be considered in a limiting sense, as numerous variations are possible. Equivalent changes, modifications, and variations of the variety of embodiments, materials, compositions, and methods may be made within the scope of the present disclosure, achieving substantially similar results. The subject matter of the at least one invention includes all novel and non-obvious combinations and sub-combinations of the various elements, features, functions and/or properties disclosed herein and their equivalents.
Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have been described herein regarding specific embodiments. However, the benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element or combination of elements that may cause any benefits, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be considered as critical, required, or essential features or elements of any or all the claims of at least one invention.
Many changes and modifications within the scope of the instant disclosure may be made without departing from the spirit thereof, and the one or more inventions described herein include all such modifications. Corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all elements in the claims are intended to include any structure, material, or acts for performing the functions in combination with other claim elements as specifically recited. The scope of the one or more inventions should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, rather than by the examples set forth herein.
Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have been described herein regarding specific embodiments. Furthermore, the connecting lines, if any, shown in the various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplary functional relationships and/or physical couplings between the various elements. It should be noted that many alternative or additional functional relationships or physical connections may be present in a practical system. However, the benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any elements that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essential features or elements of the inventions.
The scope of the inventions is accordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims, in which reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one or more.” Moreover, where a phrase similar to “at least one of A, B, or C” is used in the claims, it is intended that the phrase be interpreted to mean that A alone may be present in an embodiment, B alone may be present in an embodiment, C alone may be present in an embodiment, or that any combination of the elements A, B and C may be present in a single embodiment; for example, A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C. Different cross-hatching is used throughout the figures to denote different parts but not necessarily to denote the same or different materials.
In the detailed description herein, references to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” etc., indicate that the embodiment described may include a feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a feature, structure, or characteristic is described relating to an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic relating to other embodiments whether or not explicitly described. After reading the description, it will be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implement the disclosure in alternative embodiments.
Furthermore, no element, component, or method step in the present disclosure is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether the element, component, or method step is explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element herein is to be construed under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for.” As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.
The invention has been described above with reference to one or more preferred embodiments, it will be appreciated that various changes or modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/228,850 filed Aug. 3, 2021, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63228850 | Aug 2021 | US |
