In many cases, an interior drain that is installed on top of the footing is much more effective than an exterior drain for the following reasons:
- The drain is almost never clogged because it is never installed on dirt soil like a French drain.
- It intercepts water coming not only from the accumulation of water around your foundation or from below your floor, but also from wall cracks, something that exterior French drains don't do.
- Our interior footing drain (WaterGuard) comes with a guarantee for the life of the house whereas French drains are guaranteed on average 15 years, and sometimes less than that.
- The interior drain does not require major excavation work such as the French drain, which makes the installation cheaper in many cases. Excavating to install a French drain sometimes requires removing and replacing everything around your home such as balconies, driveways, sidewalks, landscaping, air conditioning units, stairs etc. Then, when the work is done, you would have to put the soil back to fill the trench.
- It is possible to install an interior drain partially to protect a specific region of the basement, which is not possible with a French drain since you must do the full perimeter for it to work properly.
A french drain is designed to intercept coming from the surface and redirects it around the house, which is okay for stopping erosion but not good for stoping groundwater seepage.