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Seepage tanks and Drywells
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This house in New City, New York had been built one year ago. While it is very nice looking on both the inside and out, the builder made a common,yet critical blunder that caused the basement of this home to flood five times during the first year of ownership. Following a detailed site investigation, Bobcats for Hire had determined the causes of the problem and proposed a remediation solution. This particular house required adequate underground storage for the roof water runoff during heavy rain events. The builder did not properly address stormwater management, and incorrectly installed a drywell which then caused excessive basement flooding during rain events. The builder went bankrupt and left the homeowner with little options but to call in a specialist to diagnose and remediate.
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Seepage tanks are required in New Jersey for new additions or new construction. Allowing roof runoff to slowly infiltrate the ground rather than quickly running off the site is beneficial for a number of reasons. Of course, water is then allowed to recharge the aquifer rather than ending up in the ocean. This prevents homes with drinking water wells from losing their water source due to depletion of the aquifer. Reducing runoff also prevents excessive flooding and river swelling downstream due to increased building and impervious coverage. As rainwater is slowly diverted back into the soil rather than quickly moved off site, flooding is minimized in lower lying areas due to reduced water flow to those areas. Also, seepage pits will reduce non point pollution which is caused when runoff water crosses over fertilizers, pesticides, oils, or other hazardous substances and then makes its way to the rivers or, ultimately the ocean. We all eventually drink that water, so taking measures to protect it from non point pollution will benefit everyone, including yourself. A seepage pit or drywell is the responsible way to manage the stormwater runoff created by the newly impervious areas caused by new construction. Years ago, nobody cared about stormwater runoff, but when drinking water began to taste like yesterday's fertilizer or diesel fuel, more responsible management policies have been placed in effect. |
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Many towns require one gallon of underground storage for every square foot of new impervious coverage. Bobcats for hire can design and install your drywell to meet these requirements without having to grossly oversize the system due to the large incremental sizes of traditional concrete drywells. Our design flexibility will save you valuable construction dollars while still meeting the design standards of underground storage. The Storm tech chambers pictured above can be easily adapted to meet the needs of your site in either centralized or decentralized layouts. Another advantage of the Storm Tech chambers is that they have a larger amount of surface area for a given storage volume, which means that any given volume of storage capacity will be more readily delivered to the soil, thereby making them more efficient than concrete chambers by definition. Certain sites with elevated water chambers can not accommodate a concrete storage chamber with its vertical configuration. This house below in Franklin Lakes, had installed extensive hardscaping to the rear yard, but the contractor failed to adequately design the stormwater runoff and caused over $60,000 in damage to the home's basement due to flooding caused by design and installation flaws in the system. |
 Once the excavation is completed to the correct depth, the stormtech chambers are installed with protective filter fabric, a six to twelve inch stone base, and backfilled with crushed stone.
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Don't let an inexperienced contractor cost you major problems and expense when managing your property's stormwater. Even as little as several hundred gallons of water in a basement where it is not wanted is enough to cause significant damage. Traditional concrete drywells are not ideal for all locations. This property had its drywell installed too deep and too close to the zone of saturation. A number of design problems all worked together to cause catastrophic flooding during heavy rain events. Among them were the elevation, size, and type of the drywell, undersized and improperly pitched piping, french drains lacking stone, an undersized grate drain, incorrect height for a critical overflow pipe, and a failure to adequately calculate the site's overall water runoff volumes. The result was that roof, pool, and lawn runoff would combine to cause flooding in the basement level during heavy rain events. We will engineer your system, install it, and guarantee it. Below is a photo of the excavation to the drywell.
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Once the excavation is completed to the correct depth, the stormtech chambers are installed with protective filter fabric, a six to twelve inch stone base, and backfilled entirely with crushed stone. |
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You will save by hiring a reputable company that is equipped to handle the design and installation needs of your project!
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