July 15, 2009

Who would have known that a footing and drain tile could be so important in the energy efficiency of your home? When we designed the building envelope of the home we took into account the footings and keeping them dry with drain tile on the inside and the outside of the footing. You may be asking why this is any different than any other home and my answer to that would be the functions that drain tile performs. It serves three purposes in the design of the home.

1. We installed 4" of clear stone under the entire lower level slab and footings to allow the moisture and air to move freely under the house.
2. We installed 4" sleeves in all the footings to allow 3" corrugated pipe to pass through the footing for easy flow.
3. We installed an active radon system that will perform two things for us - removal of any harmful radon gas and removal of moisture under the home through the drain tile system.

All these functions of our drain tile system will keep our lower level dry so we don't have to run a dehumidifier and remove any harmful radon gas.