If my basement footing drains are clogged, why can’t I just clean them??

When your home’s foundation was installed, a footing drain was installed next to the basement footing to help keep the basement dry. Since the footing drain is installed deep in the ground, next to your foundation, you can see that getting to the drain to clean it can present a problem. Cleaning the footing drain typically involves excavating and digging down to the footing drain, then digging it up to clean it out. This process is messy, damages your landscape and can damage your basement foundation. (Yikes!) But you can keep your basement dry even with clogged footing drains, by waterproofing your basement.