Help with window well drainage

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We recently put in a large egress window in the back of our house. Our basement walks out to the rear, so naturally most of the rear of the basement walls are above or slightly below grade. In this case, the window is about 4' tall, and the bottom is about 8" below grade (grade is about 3' above the basement floor in this area. I have bought a well like this:

Menard's window well

2' tall, 3' protrusion, perfect size for this window. The soil around the house is all backfilled with sand, so drainage is very good. My plan was to dig out enough soil around the window so that the top of the well sits just above grade, and backfill the area inside the well with a foot or so of pea/crushed gravel, which sits on top of the backfilled sand. Soil outside and inside of the well all slopes away from the house. Some people I've talked to have insisted that I install a drain in this well. But why? Drainage was never an issue before, so I don't see why it would be now. I can't see how water would gather within the well, since it has the same sandy soil as a base as what used to butt right up against the house there before. Does this make sense? Really the only thing that's changing is that the soil within the well will just sit about 2' lower that the soil outside the well, but it still slopes away from the house just the same.

FWIW, lowering the grade so as to not need a window well is not an option, since a tree sits about 5' from the house here and we don't want to take it down.
 
Hey Kluth...

As someone who has battled the forces of nature over the years, I would tend to agree with those who suggested a drain.

I can't be specific with the actual names of the components, but Home Depot sells everything you need and it doesn't have to be elaborate.

A 4" drain elbow with cap and then a trough from center of the well (or closer to the house) several feet into the yard. Lay sone drain pipe and end with another cap (the kind that has a pop top).

Since everything slopes downward and, assuming no rocks, 2 hours of labor and then you'd be sure. You should go deep enough to allow grass to root/grow

Be a terrible thing to find that despite all logic water did start to pool inside.

Just my 2 cents
 
Is this window on the weather side of the house? How will snow impact this? Do you have good eave coverage?

I agree with the drain. In some regions you can uses deep layer of gravel. A pipe drain is the optimal solution.
 
Thanks for the replies. I can easily add a drain, and direct it downslope through a stone wall about 10' from the house, so difficulty isn't the issue. But I also struggle to understand how water will find its way into the pipe. Do I lay a membrane down at the bottom of the well and put the pipe at the lowest point?

And eave coverage is quite good. This area rarely gets more than a few drops of rain even in a storm unless there is a driving wind, although drifting snow will find its way there.
 
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I have seen drains installed that sit just above the gravel base. So incidental rain will drain naturally but anything severe will go to the drain. The exposed drain can was a plastic slotted cap typical of any pavement or floor drain.
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
I have seen drains installed that sit just above the gravel base. So incidental rain will drain naturally but anything severe will go to the drain. The exposed drain can was a plastic slotted cap typical of any pavement or floor drain.


That seems to be what they all look like online. So really, these drains are just meant to handle excess water or overflow from really heavy rain? Because we had several really heavy prolonged showers this year, but the soil never pooled water around the house. It's literally all sand around the house. No clay to speak of whatsoever.
 
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It will be tough for us to help you without seeing pictures or a drawing because there are simply so many different scenarios. Some people have high water tables where water pushes up from below. Sometimes, over many years, stone drainage (alone) can clog with dirt and no longer drain. Is this an egress window with codes to meet? Do you have a foundation drain directly below this area that might already provide a path for excess water to move away? Are you going to put a cover over it?

I have less deep wells on my house without drains, but I have covers and exceptionally good draining soil (on top of a sandy hill). I guess the only experienced-based advice I have at this point is to exaggerate everything a little bit before you lock everything in. Make the top of the well high enough over the final grade to handle a big storm (water or snow). Exaggerate the grade immediately around the well to guarantee runoff away from it and to account for some settling over time.

I imagine you have already googled "Window well drainage" or "egress window drainage" to see all of the different options?

Here's an example of letting the foundation drain do the deed without a drain pipe:
http://atlasconcrete.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/W62-Window-Well.jpg
 
Exactly right... give any potential water an easy way out.

At ground level or an inch or so below will do the trick. Cover it with gravel... won't matter.

10' thru a wall is much more then I would have expected... a few feet out is all you'll need just to get the water away should it accumulate
 
I'll try to post a few pictures of the installation tomorrow. Google hasn't really helped in this case. FWIW, the basement does not have a sump pump.
 
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I like your ideas Finz, but man, we no longer have normal winters here in Michigan. We can have 5 weeks of bitter cold, blizzard conditions with the ground freezing pretty hard (no drainage). And then it can warm up into the 40's and get a good rain in early February and near-surface drainage can fail. I am not sure that those pop up emitters would work under these perverse conditions. I've had periods of multiple freeze-thaw- freeze cycles that results in ice buildup in one vulnerable area and I need to apply some salt to maintain a drainage swale in the 3 inch ice to prevent water backup (almost similar to an ice dam on a roof).

Here's an example of an exterior drain sump pump setup to counter a frozen drain line:
https://dc69b531ebf7a086ce97-290115....rackcdn.com/215/iceguard-detail6-lg.jpg
 
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