Do I need a french Drain? Surface v subsurface water?
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- Опубликовано: 22 янв 2024
- These are some considerations when deciding if you need a french drain against the foundation or to divert surface waters. Don't ever pipe gutter water into the foundation!
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This is exactly the problem we have!! I just sent my husband this video, and we will be calling you soon!! Lucky to be in Greensboro!!!
What I like about this channel more than others like FDM is it shows the project start to finish, before and after.
Loved Jeremy's show and tell!
Thank you! I did too and I made sure to include it!
It was really good indeed
Your employee did a great job explaining the work. He deserves more RUclips time 😊
That's Jeremy and he had some fun with this. I'll make sure to get him into future videos.
Yeah, he really did a great job!
I was waiting to see the part 4 of the other house you mentioned. That must be so frustrating to see that a builder has been allowed to persuade the client to use a completely different approach to what you had recommended. Based on the previous videos, it seems like that client will listen to the most persuasive argument, rather than think about the best solution.
Kudos for not freaking out about it!
i wonder how long until that homeowner calls @gcfd back complaining because their solution isn't working?
We did insulate the crawl space and install a basic vapor barrier, so there will hopefully be a Part 4 to that project. I have the footage.
Cannae wait!!! @@GCFD
As a retired engineer, I have observed a fair number of basements and foundations. It has been a mystery to me that so many constructors believe that they can install bitumastic type foundation coating which will last the lifetime of the structure. Just as it is true that concrete WILL crack sometime, it seems true that the mastic types of exterior coating layer will age and dry out such that cracks will form, allowing water to flow into the structure. So, I sure believe in your approach to keep water on the surface and make it flow away from the structure rather than encouraging it to pool next to the structure and go down to the foundation footing. Good video, as always.
A builder doesn't care about the quality of the house, as long as it is as cheap as possible.
Thank you Dale! It also makes sense to me to keep water away in the first place and move on to more important things. 👍
Brilliant - so long as there’s no sub-surface water.
Even if there was sub-surface water and I had to put in a French drain, I would still want the grade fixed (just as in the video) so the water never flows towards the foundation.
So in my opinion, good job all the way around.
Thank you David! We don't have shallow groundwater around here unless it's near a wetland or similar. If you have steep slopes or shallow bedrock you can get some horizontal groundwater flowing.
I like how you stub out for future downspouts, it's little things like that that customers appreciate
Just in case. 👍
A clean out would of been nice on both runs just in case also an extra $10 would save a lot of headaches in the future
Never buy a house that sits downhill from the road unless house has a serious water management system in place.
Great advice! I just looked at a house with a client for an assessment. The house sits below the street and the driveway runs right through the carport into the back yard. I told the client I don't have a solution here and not to buy it!
Yep. But I still wouldn't buy because the "serious water management system" depends on busy human beings to faithfully maintain the system, lol
@@GCFD at least if the house sits on a hill above a road the water can be channeled away from the house. In the front isn’t as easy because of the space limitations and options available in the front vs back. I mention because I’m buying a house with water issues. Water comes down from the back.
lesson learned. we'd been in a drought for a good 10 years when we bought this house. 6 months after we moved in, the rain started, and seems like it hasn't stopped since. the area has natural springs, we're at the bottom of the neighborhood, and the yard on one end is about 2 feet below the road. we had a french drain & sump pump installed in the crawl space, with another sump pump outside to pump all the water up to the road. wish i could go back 16 years and tell myself not to buy this house.
@@GCFDI didn't think it's possible for you to not have a solution. I've watched you pass water through apartments to reach the other side!!
You guys do great work and you're honest.....nice to see
Thank you!
For some reason my favorite parts of your videos are the grading, finish grading, and compacting.
Sean I love the tracking back and forth time-lapse footage. I try to get it at a few different angles and add them in. 👍
The re-grading is a huge improvement! Keep those gutters clear Mr. Homeowner!
Excellent video. I love your videos as they dont try to push products that are lacking at best.
Wow…I caught a video 32 min after being posted! Lucky me. Keep up the good work, Shawn!.
Haha thanks for watching!
Totally agree with the logic of getting the surface water away from the home.
As always, Shawn, I enjoyed watching you and your crew solve another drainage problem.
Great explanation from your coworker. Let him do this more in your videos. By the way, everything looks outstanding. Great Job.
Thank you Mike! I thought he did a great job too and I wanted to include it.
I like the fact that you stubbed you drainage pipes up around 2 1/2 to 3 feet above the surface. Those pipes will flow very nicely. Great job & Blue Sky's.
I honestly have no idea how fast your channel is growing, but it's definitely moving in the right direction from when I subbed, home owners get a lot from your channel Sean the ones with water issues anyway.......Keep up the good work.....Don't over complicate things with too many different camera angles......Sure try different things, but if they don't work, put it down. Anyway, thanks for the video.
I’ve learned so much watching your assessments and the solutions you provide. So happy that I was able to use info I learned from you to successfully manage water around my home. I worked with a contractor but all solutions would have to have been Gate City approved, and it all works great.
Show us your video
I have a yard of full of deep snow now, northern Illinois. I have no videos only photos. Before I met GateCity I tried to slope away from my house using river rock. Over time more and more of them sank into the topsoil. And I learned river rock was the absolute worst solution. I also became over run with thistles from hell. Had my contractor dig out about 3 feet of soil down the foundation wall to get rid of the thistles and the river rock. Then replaced with good dirt, but not clay. In addition he sloped much better down away from my house. I have straw and seed under the snow so next year I can start over with grass and appropriate landscaping (and no thistles).
Thank you! I'm glad my channel has helped you so much! Are you a channel member? 👍
Great video as always Shawn. Very educational. It took me a few years to realize the reason water was pouring through the floor and walls in our basement was because the entire drainage system (downspouts, various basins) was going into some old orangeburg piping that also met with a footer tile pipe. The system was leading to nowhere. Whenever that old piping and drain tile backed up it was going into our basement. We replaced the entire system (except for the footer drain tile, instead we installed a crock in the basement to relieve any ground water) and poof the issue was gone.
Awesome! Proper investigating is key for solving drainage issues. Nice work!
Hey I live in a 50yr old Chicago quad level with a plugged drain tile system & crying floors like yours. What the heck is this "crock" you had installed. Right now I'm down to dehumidifiers and fans. Dreading the idea of clearing the 5ft wide space next to my neighbors concrete driveway. What are your thoughts?
I approve of your methodology. The homeowner should have added a centre down pipe at the front like you suggested. I understand the homeowner spent a ton of money previously, if I were him, I would swallow my pride and break on through to the other side !
I felt so bad for him getting ripped off with that gutter guard. I did give him a written estimate for new gutters whenever he is ready.
I tend to agree with your approach; get the water away from the foundation if at all possible. Those waterproof coatings may work for a while but they will break down and crack and then you're back where you started.
I agree. You may be worse off if you've succeeded in getting water into the foundation.
Bring the dirt over top of all that stone on the house that is porous, everyone is going to say “oh water will never get to the foundation now” water will still get to the foundation with a driving rain, doing all this work will help however there could still possible have issues in the future. Terminating the pipes as close to the house is only going to create pooling water close to the house that doesn’t need to be there, need to start running pipes farther away than 10 feet.
Definitely agree with you. Keep as much water away from the foundation as possible. I like a layer of topsoil on top of the clay for better grass and landscape plants. Also agree on the large downspouts. The small ones just dont have the capacity for a heavy rain. Nice job.
This is precisely what I did - except not as nice looking. Give the surface water a place it would _rather_ go to than your basement walls, and run it elsewhere. Between the stuff I watched on this channel and Apple, it got done. Not easy, because digging never is, but it wasn't complicated either. And it wasn't expensive because I didn't opt for FDM Lamborghinis where the Hyundai stuff will work fine. Plus, the budget was out of the question. Dig a trench a few feet from your house, use the dirt you removed to fix any sloping issues, fill with rocks. Many cases you can get away with no pipe. The water will go where there is least resistance. Thank you for your videos man!!
I love that you keep the surface water on top of the ground. Foundation drainage is only good if you have away to get rid of it,
Have a great day
I like the green glove guy
That's Jeremy!
Found you years ago, you are a pragmatic drainage genius. It is not an opinion it is right vs wrong and wrong in construction generally rules. Thanks👍🏻
I sent this video to my brother in Portland Oregon. He’s on a hillside, with an uphill across the street and a downhill behind him. He had rain water in his basement that he mostly resolved by fixing voids in the cement, but he’s been thinking about the rain, the soil, and long term solutions
Temperatures in my area are as high as 100 degrees in the summer and as low as -75 in the winter. The clay soil here expands and contracts considerably depending on the water content, which pushes/pulls on the foundation. If you deliberately piped water next to foundations your house would need 50k repairs in a few years. Proper grade and 6-8’ downspout runs are standard here
Wow that was an amazing before and after. I agree that keeping surface water on the surface, especially if you don’t have groundwater is the best way to go. Here in Kentucky if you put water into the ground you risk sinkholes due to our karst topography.
Great point Steven! Local soil conditions can greatly affect your drainage decisions.
I did a job once and they had outside surface drainage water going into a basement sump pump. Nuts.😂
Bring it in and pump it back out! Preferably back into their surface drain to complete the circuit!
That drainage system is not bad at all as long as the water is being piped out to a off property drain. A nice French drain and water sealing the wall with that protection will be a great add on to surface sloping with clay dirt. Lets see the same home with the rain coming down and let's see the basement after a rain storm. I bet they will have no problem
I have such a water problem in my yard.
The water was coming in the house.
The slope comes down towards the house similar to this video.
After several years I finally rented equipment and pulled the dirt sloping away from the house but now it has created a gully which fills up with water and now coming back to the foundation.
I was told the dirt did not need to be above the foundation line due to termites.
I have had many quotes on French drains etc and the range of $7-$8,000 but nobody guarantees their work.
And their solutions are not convincing me it will fix the problem.
I'm at a total loss
They might not have a problem after the installation, but a large part of my work is abandoning those systems that inject gutter water into the foundation and turn it back into water flowing out of my pipe during the rain. I see it every day which is why I feel so strongly against sending water into the foundation.
@@GCFD looking good and working good for the first 5 years is a far cry from working 20 years down the line. And why spend so much money excavating when adding the proper dirt is so much cheaper? Love your work, although I do think your area makes for certain solutions that wouldn't make sense for other areas too. Glad you point that out occasionally.
I absolutely agree with your philosophy of properly grading so that the "surface water" will naturally shed away from a foundation, as opposed to inviting surface water to the foundation. You don't need to worry about water penetrating your foundation if it isn't there in the first place. I have learned valuable information from watching your videos, so thank-you for sharing your experiences, knowledge, and expertise. Keep up the good work!
Hey Shaun, I really like your approach to managing water and drainage. You and your guys do a really good job. One thing I would suggest is to make sure your stub outs for the downspouts are plumb. I know its a small thing and its a little fussy to get just right but IMO make all the difference in how the finish product looks. Keep up the good work.
Yeah, that one pipe could have used a swing joint to plumb it especially with how much cover dirt was in place, it would have hidden it nicely.
I totally agree Jef. Often we can't get the PVC plumb because the fittings don't flex. I prioritize having correct fall over the pipe looking good. Looks can be mitigated. Homeowners who have experienced the stress of flooding look at that crooked pipe as a beautiful thing.
Nice job Shawn you save that home owner $$$$ because some other contractors would wanted to put in a french drain in not needed here on this job.
I agree with you. Why do a more expensive solution with no obvious advantage.
In that picture of the foundation French drain, it looks like there are two pipes in the ground - presumably one perforated to catch water underground, and one solid to carry gutter water to the same outlet as the French drain? If that's the case, then while I trust your judgement that this isn't good, it's not the worst-case scenario either. It would be far worse to run the gutter water INTO the perforated pipe and hope it stays there until it reaches the outlet. A previous owner here did exactly that, so whenever the outlet of his stupid black perforated pipe got clogged up with mud and debris, the gutter water would enter the pipe at one end,, back up behind the blockage, escape the pipe and come in through the basement wall. Solid PVC now, problem solved.
Yes you're exactly correct that the pipes appear to be separated by a wye. The problem is if the pipe is ever blocked or clogged, the water can backflow into the FD pipe and out of the perforations into the foundation. If I ever do a FD and catch a nearby gutter, always run a separated pipe for the gutter water. 👍
Fair point.
I was thinking the same thing. I've seen that application before, a perforated and non perforated system working together
Great job Sean 😊
Nice job Shawn - Let gravity solve the water issue - love it!
I like gravity when it comes to drainage solutions.
We plan to downsize our home in a few years. It crossed my mind to seek out a problem house like this to purchase, assuming the owner is selling at an appropriately large discount AND I know I could solve the problem in a straightforward and cost-effective manner as you do all the time. Here in the Oakland/Berkeley California area many homeowners complain about water in their basement during the winter rains.
Could not agree more with keeping water above the surface. Great drainage solution for the longevity of this home's foundation.
Thank you Johnny!
There's something to be said about a nice easy sloping ground swale. Proper grading is nice. Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.
@2:28 I think you're experienced and it would be crazy to disagree with "slope away from the house" or "move the roofwater away as soon as possible", but those look like 4" non-perforated schedule 40 pipes on the outside (where the gutters are diverted to). They are glued up, they'll backup to the downspout before they leak. He used two different pipe runs and the only reason to do that is to keep the ground drainage and the roof drainage separate.
I assume the pipe closer to the wall is perforated on the bottom and the part that goes up above ground is the cleanout.
Shawn, WTG great job to you and the crew. Good Day!
Those Gutters are still gonna be an issue with all those leaves
In his defense the leaves were falling as we were working. I don't think he leaves the gutters full like that for long 👍
I think it all depends on how house is situated on the property and the soil composition. My house is situated like his where it slopes down towards the backyard on both sides, front yard is almost level sloping gently to each side. My downspouts go into corregated pipes sitting above ground that run down next to the house to the back yard. I like having them above ground so I don't have to worry about roots and servicing them is easy. I've never had water in the basement but water does come through, under the house a ton. My sump pump will fire up every 30 seconds if its a heavy rain during the spring thaw. I do like this video format alot. keep it up!
Great content man thanks for taking the time to do the video and help inform the consumer
Another great video, glad to see that you had Jeremy explaining what was done as well. He did a great job with that. Ron as always is a hard worker and those are hard to find. I also believe that surface water should stay on the surface, if that is possible of course. Keep up the good work with explaining why you do things the way you do, that is what I like the most about your videos. 😎
What ive done on a few homes for new construction in one area that has a ton of ground water in southern MN. We do our basement internal and external drain tile (code in MN). Make our rock burrito that goes to a sump or daylight (mostly mostly daylighting it). Back fill but then on the surface we do a surface French drain in the rock bed. I line it with plastic to bring the water a few feet away from the house then into the pipe. Plus a separate pipe the downspouts run into, and catch basins if needed.
Thanks for sharing your technique! I try to avoid placing a FD when there is a a basement at a lower level, but I'm glad it's working for you. Lining with plastic helps keep the water in the FD. 👍
I like the new format! It makes it easier to learn and find info about a specific aspect of drainage.
Thank you! I've thought about doing more how-to video types instead of just jobs. I'll try to do more of that.
Yes. I agree not to pull water to the basement wall. On that slope water won’t sit there long enough to soak into the ground.
Great video Shawn.
Thank you Brent!
That's a really good job done Shawn, 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟service 👍
Thank you Taylor!
Agreed on the slope issue, in sand it won’t work as stated…corrugated pipe stinks unless it is perforated and encased in stone and pointed down hill which almost never happens.
I had a nightmare occur on a house we owned in NC about ten years ago. The entire basement collapsed from pressure due to water soaked soil on one of the basement walls, causing the wall to implode. Cost nearly 80k to repair. It was insane.
Wow that's awful! I ride some of the gravel around Brushy Mountain!
Another goodie ...10/10. ✅
Thank you!
Yeah this was a good video. The waterproof guys they want to make money and charge the homeowners for stuff they really don't need. But when you took the drone up and you showed over the house, those gutters were full of leaves covered up with leaves and they're not even taking the water. They're just running it straight off the roof and I don't like those gutter guards. They don't work. I get up on the roof of the leaf blower at my place and clean them out in the fall and in the spring keep the gutters working but other than that it looks good. It did the trick. 👍👍🙂🇨🇦
Thank you! I was talking to a homeowner recently about cleaning gutters...I said twice a year when she asked if every other year was good.
Sounds to me there's a money issue
I wholeheartedly agree about shedding surface water away instead of introducing surface water into a piping system next to the foundation. In my own situation I have subsurface water and have a French drain system. The water comes up under the basement slab during spring rains or heavy downpours. There is a nearby spring that feeds a pond across the road. My well is just 58 feet deep. I must maintain power to my sump pump or the water will flood the basement. I recently upgraded to a "solar generator (Lithium ion phosphate battery)" to power the pump during loss of power events which happens in just about every rainstorm. PA actually means "Philippines Analogous" not Pennsylvania
The foundation of the house is properly graded and the gutters, thanks to you, are properly piped away from the house. Still the only solution for my house was the French drains and a sump pump. When I first moved in my Labrador thought indoor swimming was the best. The previous owners did not disclose the problem but at that time I had no legal recourse like you do today (after 1995 in PA). Thanks again for your well thought out solutions and great videos.
Thanks for sharing your story Paul! I like western PA and I've traveled hwy 15 dozens of times on the way to Western NY. I recently rode parts of the Pine Creek rail trail and plan to go back. I'm happy you've got your water problems under control and glad I could help! - Shawn
Great job! I was waiting for a concrete install at least at the front of the home with a channel drain. That’s what I’d do as it’ll be easier to maintain and easy on the eyes.
Maybe cost was an issue. One key point I have learnt from your videos Shawn is that it’s best to keep the surface water away. Those silly French drain ideas around a home are unnecessary and who knows if they’ll continue working years down the track?
We could have done concrete and a channel drain, but we had plenty of fall to be able to use clay. 👍
Nice work. I would definitely feel better directing surface water away from the house instead of toward the foundation.
I agree good job best job always keep water away from house foundation 👍👍
Thank you Donald!
THANK YOU for clearing this up - subsurface vs surface water. I've been debating what to do with my 100 yr old garage with dirt+gravel floor that is always damp after a rain. I do have gutters draining rain away but I've also wondered if I have a shallow spring running under there.
Well, dig a hole down in a few different places and see what you find!
I'm glad you found this video useful! Good luck with your garage - Shawn
A student hostel of a high school in Romania just collapsed because they took away the soil from the foundation (they want to solve the water problem). The foundation turned out and collapsed.
I always wondered about that happening if you were to excavate the support of a foundation away. Thanks for sharing!
Great job 👍🏻
Fantastic video
Need to create a blower attachment for the drone to clean gutters off LOL
Haha especially on a steep tall roof like this!
As you said, the only reason to put a french drain upto the foundation is when you are dealing with subsurface water.
A friend of mine bought a house in the northern flatlands of Germany. You would guess the engineering should be exquisite... well, at most partially.
With really high groundwater (like only a foot deep), the house still has a cellar. And how fate would bring, the waterproofing was/became leaky, so whenever it was raining and groundwater rising, water would seep through the walls.
They dug up the ground around the most affected wall (now a decade ago), and there actually was a french drain, but literally the most inefficient and stupid install I have ever seen: Perforated currogated pipe was burried into sand (and was obviously filled up with it) as well as ceveral big-bags of construcion waste like concrete and cinderblock chunks, home insulation, cable insulation and so on. Biggest laugh was, when we dug out the "outflow" of the pipe. Going from the house, the perforated pipe would go to the center of the yard and coil up in a snail there - no fall, no outflow. This is just pure stupidity, like someone pouring water over a chainlink fence to get the yard dry during a waist-high flood.
Putting in new waterproofing, a french drain with gravel, a 2,5m deep cistern out of concrete rings with a bottom and a pump in it to the sewer did the trick.
...to that wall at least, as years later, water is finding a way through the other walls now.
I am not sure, who did that install, but their competence should really be doubted. I am not ruling out the owners themselves, as the previous owner and builder of my house had his "special solutions", too - a real misunderstood "master mind" in engineering. We fixed his "drainage solution" for the back of my house four years ago now, and oof, that would be at least another long comment for what we found there... But nothing concerning french drains, so that'll come at some point later :P
Thats a very interesting story. Thanks for sharing Sophie!
great result!
Love watching your content as I slowly craft my plan on dewatering my terrible yard that is causing basement moisture and some actual leakage at times. My house is at the bottom of a decent incline with driveways on each side, and some solutions are limited. Wish ya'll were up[ here in Northern Ohio! I think i know what to do, but need to rent a mini excavator this summer and have at it haha.
Proper planning and identifying the problem water is a great start to s good solution. Keep up the good work and have fun with the ex!
Seems like your way was the correct solution. GCFD to the rescue.
Thank you William!
Another excellent video
Hi Shawn, it's a beautiful part of town where you live.
thank you!
Thanks for sharing!
You're welcome Alexei - thanks for watching and commenting! - Shawn
I agree very good strategy
I’m with Shawn. !!👍👍👍✌️
👍 Thank you Allan!
Great idea to keep the water in the surface less intrusive. No chemicals. Shawn the tree looks like it has roots ready to ring it and the soil or mulch was too high. If you could fix that.
My parents got leaf guard but the redid the gutters with the job. They have passed now and the real estate the away the brochure for the new owners.
I would love to see like a compilation video of bad gutters, and what your contractor installs for leaf guards. Obviously thats extra but explain that. Instead of spending for people ripping you off.
My issue was pine and fir needles. Found some foam inserts at Home Depot that work great keeping the water flowing in the gutters.
This video is very helpful.. I have kinda the same issue and this video is helping me make a decision thank you
Thank you and Welcome to the channel!
You know you do a lot of great stuff on surface water problems. How about a show for problems with natural Springs in the ground and how to rid that water source from destroying the foundation of a home.
We don't have springs like that in our area. We're in the NC piedmont. If you live in mountainous areas or have a lot of bedrock and horizontal subsurface waters flowing you can get springs.
I agree with you. Surface water should stay on the surface.
Could that be a T shirt?
I think that french drain photo showed the gutters in a separate pipe from the perforated french drain. That should work fine for them. They are eventualy combined into a solid pipe and either pumped out or daylighted another way.
Key word - Should, Jason. If the pipe ever clogs you have a direct route to send gutter water backwards through the perforated pipe and into the gravel/foundation.
Well done
Thank you!
Beautiful work, and I love how you thought to add a connection for a future gutter. You even thought of using dirt with higher clay content! I've question I had is, can you add cleanout at or near PVC pipe bends?
Wish you guys would've done my house!
This poor guy needs some serious gutter replacement, AND trimming his trees a little, to reduce the canopy over the house. Your drone footage showed that huge pile of wet leaves stuck on his roof. That could cause water to penetrate the roof, and cause wet issues, and mold inside his upstairs, and attic(i speak from experience) I feel bad for the homeowner, for spending money on those gutter guards, and i'm sure he loves the shade from the trees, but hopefully he has you install bigger, better gutters, and hopefully he trims his trees, and his water issues will flow away..
He just bought this wonderful property and he's been working hard to get things right. 👍
the owner of that photo probably expected you to use it as a good example of work, but you did the opposite hahahaha
Shawn doesn't play around, lessons are lessons! 😂
I specifically asked if I could use it in a youtube video and he said as long as it's for informational/instructional purposes I could use it. 👍
I think you guy's do great work
I think that the roof water and also window well should not go into the foundation. Also you would be bringing in debris into the foundation drainage system by the footers.
Your way makes much more sense.
Thank you Kubota!
I like your idea better, it works!
Thank you!
with rare guest commentary
Haha that was Jeremy. I think he had some fun with that one!
Ive been watching your cahnnel for awhile now. love the content.
As a first time new home owner. It would be nice if you could include prices for your area as a reference for us to make informed decisions in our areas.
You mentioned this customer got screwed over on gutters/guttergaurd install. and your guy could of done it better, with bigger pipes in 1/2 the price. Like knowing a reasonable base price would be handy for everyone.
I completely understand where you're coming from here. I don't every talk pricing because money is a sensitive topic for most people. While it is very interesting to hear pricing, it won't really benefit me or anyone else to say numbers. This is because markets are so different in different areas. Plus you have drastically differing materials pricing across time and space. My recommendation would be to talk to different contractors and get some quotes. Get a feel for the contractor and check references. Gutters are a place where you can cheap out with fewer downspouts and have a system that doesn't work, so ask about some of the points I mention on gutters. Do you install a downspout at every corner? Maybe I should do a gutter video?
@@GCFDA video about the pros/cons of various gutter configurations/sizing would be awesome! They're key to a good, functioning drainage system. If they're clogged then all the schedule 40 in the would won't help (or be of minimal benefit). One question: when would you upsize to 3x4 gutters on a house vs. sticking with standard 2x3 gutters?
Always love your videos. Guess home owner may find he wasted money on gutter guards also, hope not. I have ,on my home which is gutterless used a french drain system for years. I try to catch the water about a foot down and carry it off. I and later "they' used plastic and pipes to run it off. I do not know, I kind of like a drain system at foundation but NEVER would I introduce water into that system. I had a little water under my house last super rain and have not had it before. I think it May be some of our interlocking land scaping MAY have made a dam and water rose high enough to go by my sewer exit pipe. Not sure how well that was sealed years ago but you can see on the inside where they, as usual, just busted through the wall rather than worry about stucture or neatness. Now I will just watch. 🦇
If you can, install gutters on your house and pipe that water away. The roof is already collecting the water and so gutters catch it at the source. 👍
Yes! It always frustrates me when various landscaping services or instructors just say "put in a French drain". If you have the water on the surface, why the heck force it to percolate through a bunch of soil hoping you might capture it underground?
I have no idea John, but I hear it all the time too. I get calls where people tell me they need a FD but they almost never do need one.
This is your best video yet! I live in dry Utah and have been looking at mitigating some slight water/ moisture intrusion in my old home (1940) basement. We do not have ground water so all of it is coming from the surface. I am however faced with poor grading and elevation. Street is higher than the house so I can’t fix that. The second house in the video (the one with the nice patio, retaining wall) is very similar to mine. How did you propose they get rid of the water by that retaining wall and structure? It appears lower than everything else. You also mentioned you suggested changing the grade I think by the house which also appears lower than everything.
Simple grading can really go a long way. I'd be a little worried about erosion during an extremely hard rain event.. hopefully that grass came in nicely.
Foundation tile is great as belt and suspenders approach. It should also be used in conjunction with surface measures to take runoff away.
This is one of those scenarios where the simple common sense approach seems too simple to be effective. Contractors are able to get Homeownets to believe that this is a very extensive issue and it must be fixed by spending a lot of money and having crazy French drains installed. When you can literally just close your eyes and imagine how simple turning you house into a hill and keeping the water away. It's so simple that homeowner's camp believe it can be that easy. Common sense isn't so common these days.
That's a great point! I never thought of contractors using this to create the need for a complex solution. I often show up for a drainage call where the HO thinks they need something super expensive and it's a quick fix like a clogged pipe or brown downspout.
Great Job Shawn! Hey what type of seed do you use in the clay!
Good Solution.
24:44 - “what do y’all think about keeping the water on the surface instead of the foundation?”
Keeping it on the surface in this instance should be zero maintenance, which is what you want. The home owner can enjoy the natural sloped drainage without having to clear out pipes ever!
I think so too! I like letting it naturally work by itself.
Makes sense to keep the water on top