Put your drainage quotes side by side
Two or three quotes for the same house routinely differ by more than the work does. This puts them in one table and answers one question: are these quotes for the same job? It does not say which is better value, because that is not a thing a page can know about your property.
What you enter
- The text of each quote, pasted in, or typed in by hand
- Up to three quotes
- The total, only if you want to include it
How it is calculated
- Deterministic comparison written out in the cartridge engine; no score and no ranking
- Decisive items trace to BC Building Code Section 9.14 — discharge, pipe, stone — and to the one rule this site holds, that nothing is diagnosed before a camera has run
- Where the quotes disagree on a decisive item, it says the totals are not comparable yet rather than picking one
What it is not
- It reports only what a quote states. Silence is reported as silence, never filled in with a typical value.
- It never judges whether a price is fair, and it never ranks contractors.
- Quote text is used for the comparison and is not stored or logged.
Local facts this tool reads
Every figure below is quoted from the source shown or is our labelled estimate. Verified dates are the day we last checked the source; a figure whose check is overdue is withheld rather than shown.
- Where a foundation drain is allowed to discharge
- To a sewer, a drainage ditch or a dry well
- A dry well may be used only where the natural groundwater level is below the bottom of the dry well, and must be at least 5 m from the foundation (Sentences 9.14.5.3.(1) and (2))
- Province of British Columbia (BC Codes) · quoted · verified 2026-09-22
- Minimum pipe size for a foundation drain
- 100 mm (4 inches)
- Province of British Columbia (BC Codes) · quoted · verified 2026-09-22
- Crushed stone over the pipe
- At least 150 mm of crushed stone or other coarse clean granular material, with no more than 10% passing a 4 mm sieve
- “Clean” matters: fines wash in and blind the stone, and the drain silts up
- Province of British Columbia (BC Codes) · quoted · verified 2026-09-22
- Victoria: what needs a plumbing permit
- A permit is required for the installation or alteration of a connection to the stormwater utility, and for any sanitary sewer or water service work
- The page does not address perimeter drains themselves; the connection to the storm system is what it covers
- City of Victoria · quoted · verified 2026-09-22
Your next step
The table says where the quotes differ; that page says what to ask about it.
The questions behind each rowGuides that use this tool
Last updated 2026-09-22. Estimates are our labelled calculations from published local evidence; official figures are quoted from the sources shown. Methodology · Sources · Report a correction.