Basement foundation drain

[Tom_in_SC]

We are building a new home which will have a full basement. The waterproofing contractor installed a 4" drain pipe around the entire exterior and covered it with landscape fabric (I assume so the holes in the pipe would not get clogged). This was all covered with #57 washed stone.

Question is - shouldn't we also cover the stone with something to prevent the backfill dirt from clogging it up?

Using 15# roofing felt was suggested to me. Would that be ok?

[kadoka]

I would assume you will have a sump pump connected to that pipe. You wouldn't want to use roofing paper as it will not allow the water to drain down along the side of your house. You want the water to drain down to that pipe easily. That keeps it from seeping through the walls. It more or less sucks all the water near the foundation to the sump pump and then is safely pumped away from the house to keep the basement dry.

[Tom_in_SC]

No sump pump. The drain pipe opens to daylight. You raise the same concern I have. I want to keep the backfill away from the rock, but still allow the water to get to the pipe.

[Pokey]

I would put geotech fabric between the backfill and the rock

[Big Builder]

Our practice is to backfill directly onto the stone. We use "sock tile" covered by 12" of clear stone. Our theory is that once the water reached this point
it needs to exit through the tile asap, anything that delays it departure increases the risk of it finding a way into the foundation.

[Sweep]

Roofing felt would disintegrate within a month underground.

The geotenical filter fabric should be placed over the crushed stone instead of directly on the pipe, so you are right, you need to add a second layer over the stone.
http://www.apexhomeinspections.biz/articles/foundation%20%20drainage.pdf

[Tom_in_SC]

Thanks Sweep. That's exactly what we have. The 4" pipe and some of the stone are covered with geotech fabric. Then there is more stone, then landscape fabric (I agree that roofing felt was a bad idea, and we ran out of geotech), then backfill.

[HDNord]

In the home that we built the drain and rock was wrapped with fabric.