Getting standing water out from an already placed home

I wanted to see what suggestions or things people have done to resolve an issue of standing water under a home. Any input, thoughts, comments, are appreciated. (attaching a couple pictures as reference.

Could you french drain to a lower area away from the homes, ideally into a drainage ditch or equivalent.

I had to dig up some pics, but here is before…

and after…

Since this thing had gutters I had them tied in… Hope this helps.

BTW, I hate homes that have the pole barns built on top of them. I should have torn it down and just fixed the original roof.

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I normally dig down about a foot all around the base of the skirting and install a drain line directed away from the home. This may require adding some fill to the lot to direct the water away from the home as well. I will also add fill under the home higher in the center sloping toward the outside. This will prevent standing water under the home directing it toward the skirting drain trench.
The trench is then filled with pea gravel and the skirting extended down about 4 inches into the pea gravel.
At the very least you must regarded the lot around the skirting to direct water away from the home.

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Thanks guys! This is exactly what I was thinking. @Greg s comment about adding fill, are you doing this on existing homes or just new? That was my thought but i don’t really see how thats practical on an existing one.

@jhutson This is pretty much the conclusion we were working towards. We have to work to get some ditches and culverts added but my logic was, once we have those to route the water in there. Thank you very much!

@jhutson What pipe did you use?

It seems like perforated makes sense, I’m just not sure if thats what kind you have from the pic? Here is the article i was working off of .

Do you by chance have a picture of the inlet or the rain gutters are the only inlet (and the pipe is perforated…) ?

You can send me an invoice for all this consulting :wink:

Hey Jack,

I used regular non-perforated for a couple reasons: 1) It’s less work to use regular pipe as you don’t have to cover the holes with a fabric or sock; 2) It’s less expensive because less labor; 3) Because it is just carrying the water out I didn’t need to put gravel in the entire length of the trench, further saving time and money.

I put the surface drains where I needed them, and tied into the trunkline accordingly. If I had the mobile home on a hill and one whole side had water coming down under the entire homes I definitely would have used perforated and then just backfilled with gravel similar to what @Greg mentioned, but that was overkill for my situation. I just had standing water like you did that during a heavy rain was getting under the homes.

The sewer pipe I used was this. This is the PVC adapter for the gutters. And for my surface drains I used a couple of these. I connected everything up with a bunch of wye adapters to a main trunkline sloping downhill and have not had any issues since.

Did this for two homes at the same time. For 500 feet of french drains total cost was about $1,500 including labor, from Craigslist, for both (I also pitched in connecting all the lines with primer and glue and this requires some problem solving and finesse). It was a pretty bulletproof setup, but I really needed it for one of the homes as it had a “recessed” pad - why I will never know. Pro tip: get lots of 45 and 30 degree elbows to make the wye’s work. Return the extras you don’t use.

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This is gold. Thanks so much for taking the time to post this and explain this. :cowboy_hat_face:

Really appreciate it.

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I am just starting work on one I bought that looks, lot wise, almost the same as yours. I will be jacking the entire home up 12", adding about 4"f fill under the entire home and installing a drain around the home directing it to a shallow ditch at the road. I will not gain much slope but it will be enough to direct the water off of what is actually a lot that is lower than the surrounding area.
This is a home I bought for 10K and after reno will sell in the 100K range so this is necessary work in my case.

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