I'm an actual civil engineer from Germany and this man just spend way too much time and money to achieve something that could have been done way easier and cheaper with less maintenance over the years. And all of that, because he hates it when it rains once a month in his area. Gotta catch that RUclips money I guess.
@@ailmlvr5905 - Yes, all french drains are built using perforated pipes. You will sometimes find a similar design along the edge of motorways and other roads too. How do you think the groundwater will find its way into the pipe if it is not perforated?
Your supervisor sure was keeping a close eye on you while you were working on your downspout. Thanks for another interesting and informative video. Mike
I''m a 5th Generation farmer's son and a Home Inspector. IMO, installing underground drain pipes for underground down spout's water run off management "should be minimum building code". Use solid pipe at 12"-18" deep to "take the water away" from the building. Below 12" and it reduces summer time drought marks on the above lawn. If wondering, I did this to my previous house 25 years ago, did this to my cottage 8 years ago and currently doing this upgrade to my new retirement home (which is on a little hill). For all sites, I used a no holes drain pipe and the last 10 ft (in the low ground bush with the pipe on the ground surface), I used 4" pipe with holes / sock and end cap with holes as well. Instead of using landscape fabric, I used old rugs instead. Being under ground the scrap rugs last much longer than thin landscape fabric. All works great. And yes, there are many positive reasons why farmers spend mega dollars on tiling (which is large scale french drain install) their fields for a reason.... French drain pipe with holes / filter for ground's low spots is a great idea as well. I did this for my one wet spot (that was a semi natural spring) and it worked great Seriously... If you are thinking of doing this DIY upgrade, simply do it. Its worth it in the long run...
I'm thinking about doing this as an extra layer of protection to keep water away from my foundation. Have you had any issues with your system? Specifically, issues that required extensive repair.
@@ApostateApostrophe42276 i did mine for the same reason-always wet under my house.i put it around 3 sides and out to the street.Nice to watch the water shoot over the sidewalk-i had hardly any slope too.the weed block keeps the dirt etc from getting in.Im a plumber so trying to clean these if they get to junked up is diifficult-machine will tear the cheap corrogated pipe-better to just replace.add clean out spots so u can run a hose thru in the off season to maintain
Thank you so much for this video. We just built on raw land over the winter and this is our first spring here. We just had a heavy rain and noticed a SERIOUS drainage issue. I have a lot of work to do but this gave me the confidence I needed.
Spring is brutal. Every spring I have a couple spots that are always standing water. Only in last couple days are they starting to dry out, and one I’ll be unable to mow for another two weeks-only then does the spring rain start to dissipate.
Great installation, most people don't understand that you need to use a solid line for your down spouts. The only thing I would add is that I would use rigid PVC drain pipe or SDR-35 storm drain pipe. You have a fair amount of mature trees on your property, their roots will seek water. The roots have the potential of clogging your french drain line. If that happens to the corrugated pipe you will have to dig it up and replace it. If you use rigid pipe you can call a rooter company and have them snake the line and you're back in business again.
@@WakeywhodatI'm no expert but I think you may still want gravel at the very least, because it will create a path-of-least-resistance and guide the water to the pipe. The sheet may still be handy to keep sediment out
Thank you! My front and back screened in Porch flood badly. The previous owners neglected to tell us that when we bought the home so imagine my surprise when at the first storm water flooded both areas to almost 5 inches. We do have a French Drain but it's not doing it job. I called several companies with promises of helping me with this situation and no shows. So I'm going to have to do this project myself. Thank you for your helpful advice. Hope to get this problem fixed soon.
Couple tips from a landscaper… - use the excavator to tamp the soil - use flashing tape if using tape as a second added layer of connection - install a “ Y “ clean out valve by the bottom of downspout - use a small butane torch to cut the tarp instead of a box knife - use a separation fabric the line the bottom of the trench. Use a geotextile tarp to “burrito” wrap the drains to allow water to pass
Doesn’t the separation fabric under the stone restrict the ground water from coming up into the perforated pipe? Im asking because im planning my project and there is a lot of debate about fabric vs no fabric. Id like to use fabric because I think over time the clay will migrate upwards and suck up the gravel. Id like to protect the gravel but I also want to maximize water flow to the perf drainpipe. Thanks in advance for any tips.
@@Seashea you want fabric and clean rock. It is the right way, no debate. And like someone else said you want SDR-35 if you want this to last and be serviceable for decades. You also want a cleanout at the beginning of the drain (the high point).
We bought an old house in western Oklahoma to be our forever home. It was sitting on rock hard clay. Shredded mulch, seed and worm castings spread thin over the yard will get the job done. We only had to do it once too. It's been about ten years since then and my yard is like walking on pillows. Except a race track that our dogs have packed down running their route around the house. It pretty much does the same job as a french drain, because our basement has not flooded since our second year. I like the way you overbuild though, mad props. Thanks for the content.
My sister had water leaking into her garage and back porch because the way the soil was graded. Thankfully she sold her house but anyways so glad you demonstrated this! Always enjoy your videos
That perforated drainage pipe we here in New Zealand have a sock that goes around the whole pipe, so all you do is full the trench up with gravel from the bottom and both sides and top and you're done! 👍👍👍
3:40 actually, 1% slope is closer to 1" per every 8', rather than 9' or 10'. because there are 96" in 8 feet. And there are 120 inches in 10 feet. So if you dropped 1" per 10 feet, then you only dropped 1"/120" , aka 0.83% which is less than 1%
Nice job. I like how you added the non perf pipe to carry away the downspout water. I had this same issue and did this back breaking job last summer. Only difference is I added a few more catch basins to move the above ground water quicker as my septic field slopes toward the back of my house .
1% slope is not 1” for every 10 feet. To get your slope get the total distance in inches than times by .01 for 1% . So 10ft x 12= 120 inches x .01 = 1.2” not a big deal for short distances but you need to do the math for longer distances and get it right. GL
@@tobiasknowles5555 Or they could invent a new bad ass name for something not even remotely straight forward. Since they already have names for measuring things in feet, thumbs and what not, how about measuring angles in butts? 1 butt may be a quite reasonable angle of 67.5478223 degrees, which is an angle of an average butt in a missionary position.
whether it's needed at all entirely depends upon a lot of factors. i have no gutters and no water issues at all at the house i built at 9000' in the CO mountains. semi-arid climate. i will, however, be using a system like this for an upcoming house i will build in north Idaho
I like your approach. What I would do different is to rent a sod cutter to set a consistent and thick sod piece to the side. Once the trench is filled with rock and fabric, I can add soil, level it with a garden rake then place the sod on top. Just need to keep the sod moistened. Nothing wrong with your approach IMHO, just sharing what I've done in the past and how I like to do this kind of project. I haven't had good luck with standard gray duct tape once exposed to dirt and water. Thought the first tape you used at the beginning looked better. That looked like a gorilla exterior grade tape that was 4-5" wide. That is some incredible tape.
Awesome work, I recently started working in farming, we have a clay soil, we were recommended to plant winter rye as a cover crop, keep it short like grass and eventually the roots reach so deep that it will drain through clay. We haven't planted them yet but we are planning to this year.
If graded properly, water will run over the tight roots of grass. This is why they recommend to plant grass right up to the house. Shrub and flower beds allow water to drain into the ground and to the foundation.
@@lehmejoun A full, thick lawn will slow water from penetrating into the ground compared to just plain dirt, rocks, sand, gravel, etc. If you have low areas that pool up, the water will go down but slower thru grass. If the ground has fall or a downward pitch, a good amount of water will run over it before it has time to penetrate. If your roof water downspout empties into a flower bed that's relatively flat, the water often drains into the soft top soil and runs underground to the foundation. Extending the downspout out past the open dirt can make a big difference as long as the lawn is graded away from the house. The best is to have grass right up to the house, but cosmetically, it's not always pretty, especially in the front. All properties are different, but I can assure you that if you can eliminate roof water dumping on to flower beds and running over a somewhat thick lawn away from a house, you might not need underground pipes. And just as important, keep gutters and leaders clean. Overflowing gutters send water almost straight down against the house. Hope this helps.
Hey man. Thanks for this video. I have to get a French drain put in and this gave me a lot of good tips. If I may, your grass issue in the yard and around the pool….your soil seems hydrophobic. Use a product called hydretain OR you can use baby shampoo in a hose sprayer. It will loosen the soil and allow the water to penetrate. I had similar in my yard and thought I had grubs. No grubs. But someone told me about hydrophobic soil. I tested and sure enough water was just not penetrating. Hit the section of yard with Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo in a hose sprayer and i have a lush green lawn.
Great project! Lots of awesome pointers. Thank you. Only thing I might recommend would be grates at the end of your lines. To keep animals from nesting in your pipe.
Very informative. I found this very helpful and appreciate you breaking down the steps. I also found the info about the freeze-proof sump pump connector extremely valuable as I had mine freeze up last year...now I know how to fix it! Looks like your Pennington Ironite helped. I just bought some of the Pennington coated Super Seed lawn seed...will let you know in a couple weeks how it works! Thank you Komar Project for all this info!
Henry Flagg French (1813-1885) of Concord, Massachusetts, a lawyer and Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary described and popularized them[3] in Farm Drainage (1859).[4] French's own drains were made of sections of ordinary roofing tile that were laid with a 1⁄8 in (0.32 cm) gap in between the sections to admit water.
That’s good to know…i have been talking about installing a French drain to my guy workers…they don’t know much but if I show them, they get to work and do what i ask…so they speak Spanish and I’ve been telling them Drenaje Frances…like the country French, haha… the correct literal term in Spanish would be agricultural drainage or drenaje Agricola - nothing French about this. From Massy too and have been to Concord…
Very awesome video. Currently under contract with a home me & my better half are trying to finance. Hope all goes well & if so, a French drain will probably be the route that I take. Just one of many projects for the future
Hey man, here’s a tip that works great for the shallow catch basins that will keep you from having to clean them as often, and will help keep the pipe from stopping up! Take some of that geo fabric, cut it to the size of the grates. Then, put the fabric over the top of the basin, and press the grate over the top. I’ve got 8 catch basins in my yard, and have had the same filter on mine for 2 years, and there still good.
Ya I noticed they get gunned up after a while and need to be washed out to let all the water through during a down pour. Sometimes when I pours crazy hard and the filter is in there I’ll take it out just so the flow is not slowed down.
@@KomarProject That’s the downside to making a filter for the grate. When It stops up, it will drain slower, but it will drain, it just takes a few minutes longer. I tied my French drain system in with my gutters system, which is the main reason why I put the catch basins in, so it would catch the granules from the roof. Then I added some more down the line to catch the standing water, and to use as a clean out. I probably didn’t need a filter, but my main concern was that I didn’t want the holes in the pipe to get clogged up because I never wanted to have to dig it up again lol. I had to hand dig a 70 foot run, 4 feet deep because the electric cable just happened to be right where I needed to run the line, and our soil is pretty much clay, which I heard will eventually plug the hole in the pipe. I used the NDS peanut pipe, wrapped it in fabric, then filled the rest of the trench with gravel, except for the last 6 inches, which i filled with topsoil. And that’s the main reason for the filters lol. I didn’t know topsoil was so light! Before I could get the grass to regrow, It kept get washed away down the line. But with the topsoil, water moves through it better than the clay.
When you're ready to put the soil back on top, take some photos of the whole run because it'll help find it later if needed. Should you sell the house it will also help the new owners with finding where the run goes.
Thanks for the video. I will be doing this in the late spring, once things dry up, and your video will be a good source of information. Luckily when I moved into my house last year, I bought a tractor with a backhoe, knowing all the land work I will have to do.
At 9:10 we see you install the Y connection but I'm confused because it looks like the main pipe is perforated and I thought you said that pipe would be solid. Also, is it wise to leave the outflow wide open for critters to enter and potentially get trapped?
Great job! The only thing I would change is your catch basin at the bottom of your downspout. As water falls in there, some of it will escape. You want every drop away from your house. Connect a pipe directly to your downspout and add a cleanout pipe to go with it. It's an easy fix.
I just did the clean out method with one of my downspouts and it's working great. I will say I'm not sure if it's even necessary because I have seven other downspouts that drain directly into a pipe underground and they have never clogged. 30 years strong!
Or just use some matching material to extend the sides of the catch basin up. BTW, whether you want "every drop away from your house" depends on your foundation and whether there's a basement. A guy here who had a basement decided he wanted every drop away from the house but after doing just one line for one downspout when the rains came all the doors and windows on that corner of the house jammed: in soils that will hold a lot of water, a foundation and/or basement can actually float as much as half an inch and if the whole house isn't doing it evenly that can cause annoying problems. Of course don't go the other route; I had to go see for myself when a development in what had been swamp land where dirt excavated from elsewhere had been dumped cheap and then spread: they started out putting in basements for a dozen houses with just minimal drains, then the rains hit, and those basements started popping up out of the ground, floating loose from the soil due to the abundant water. [I liked their fix, though: they braced the basements at their highest floating level and pumped in some kind of slurry that kept the basements from all settling again -- they would have settled crooked.] The moral of this story is know your situation before playing around with water drainage.
I am a pro plumber and people always ask me to clear their storm system. 99% of the time there is no access and nothing I can do besides dig it up. Good job planning ahead!
That's a ton of water 😲😳 great video, and thanks for taking the time to create and educate us. I'm so pleased with the result 👍 love the dry creekbed. Great look ❣️❤
Great video..We just closed on our 5 acre homestead and one of the issues we are gonna need to tackle is drainage..It actually rained during our walk thru and also when the inspector was out so he noted areas that needed to be addressed, one of which was where the pool pump is located as water is draining down to it so this will fix that issue an we can cut a trench down to the pond.. Keep Crushing It!! Stay HUMBLE, Stay HUNGRY, Stay FOCUSED...~The Jarhead Entrepreneur
Komar Project. I like those devices...but yeah not cheap. I have started using some old technology...my father-in-law use to use. A "water-level" which is a really simple long skinny piece of tubing...with a couple marks on it. The aquarium host cost 11 bucks...and water is free-ish. BUT once you figure out how to use it, it is really accurate and quite easy to use.
Just want to start by say Happy new year and a massive thank you for sharing you project/ ideas and all the advice, needed this video, we are currently a full wraparound extension, it has not stopped raining, starting to see damp patches on new walls, the garden is full of clay under the soil. So you can imagine how bad the drainage is around the house, need to sort it ASAP, have been soo stressed with it all. Thanks man ❤🤛
Not certain how I feel about the downspout drainage with all that water making contact with the wood on your house...that said this was an OUTSTANDING video. Very clear and informative! I learned a lot! Thank you!
Same. If a house has a crawl space or a basement then it has the potential to cause more damage. I think the best option is to hook a downspout adapter to it with some type of leaf filter. It eliminates standing water from the downspout and carries it away in a solid pipe.
On thing I did on the same type of project was to use 4X4 plastic sheets so I did not kill my grass with the extra dirt. When I was done you could hardly tell any excavation had been done.
Hi, very informative. With the part where you use the bobcat for the gravel, i had similar issues over 3 days of shoveling, on the last day my neighbor came over and advised to use a metal garden rake and simply prop on top and drag back towards me, the gravel will follow the rake and fall into the trench. I wish he told me at the beginning of the job :) Regards George
The drainage mechanism works even without pipes. It can be made from practically anything. The gravel itself is already a drainage and only needs to be covered with geotextile. I've seen 200 year old drains in Europe that were still functional. The best drainage I've seen was in Germany. Typically 150 years old. Burnt plain bricks stacked in a square tunnel, all covered with fine stone.
Landscape fabric stakes work well to hold it open during filling and for wrap\closure as well. I've done two so far, one for the lakes on my gravel driveway by the house and one for the gravel road leading to my house. Nonwoven Geo fabric is great stuff.
Great job. I did learn from doing my drainage dry creek bed not to use the small gravel on the bottom because it just washes away or ends up at the end of the trench clogging the culvert. I ended up just using the big rock I put on the sides of the the dry creek bed for all of it.
Great video, very informative. Just installed one of these yesterday. Watching your video before that would have been great, but now I know better for next time. Thanks for the info @myRatchets. New sub. Keep it up.
At 9:15 when you connect 2 pipes using a Y, it looks like your main pipe is perforated. My understanding is that perforated pipes are only used for French drains. Does that mean that you connect your gutter down spout solid pipe to your French drain?
You connected your downspout to a perforated pipe. @9:19 after putting the filtered grate you used a y connector into a perforated pipe. All your downspout water will now leach out underground
"all" would be highly debatable. gravity will take the water down the path of least resistance. some will leak out and back-drain up the other pipe and leach out during a rain event, but who cares? as soon as that is saturated, it will just start flowing down the pipe. in a moderate rain, maybe 1-2% might leak out
If I'm not mistaken, the way the perforated line works is by filling up (through the holes on the bottom) and then being carried away through the tube to where you want it. For the downspouts, once it gets away from the house and to the main trench, it can be treated just like any other lawn water and travel through the perforated line.
Thanks a lot for your informative video. I have a muddy back garden from the rain and thinking to put the French duct drain and my question is where it will be finally drained please ? Thanks
You also could skip grinding the nubs off the drains so they fit in the PVC pipes by putting a heat gun to the top of the PVC pipes and getting them soft. Then press the drain in and it should form in about 30 seconds.
Was it okay to connect the downspout line to the perforated line with that Y connector? Seems like you'd want the downspout to go into the non perf line.
I'm a civil engineer, you did a great job. Attention to detail is everything when it comes to this kind of job.
I'm an actual civil engineer from Germany and this man just spend way too much time and money to achieve something that could have been done way easier and cheaper with less maintenance over the years. And all of that, because he hates it when it rains once a month in his area. Gotta catch that RUclips money I guess.
@@ailmlvr5905 - Yes, all french drains are built using perforated pipes. You will sometimes find a similar design along the edge of motorways and other roads too. How do you think the groundwater will find its way into the pipe if it is not perforated?
lmao @ the 2 dorks having a pissing contest in the comments
@@allwoundup3574 - Hahaha!
@@StrayFire Please enlighten us. I have a real problem.
Your supervisor sure was keeping a close eye on you while you were working on your downspout. Thanks for another interesting and informative video. Mike
Haha ya I noticed that when I was editing lol. She is always on the job
I''m a 5th Generation farmer's son and a Home Inspector. IMO, installing underground drain pipes for underground down spout's water run off management "should be minimum building code". Use solid pipe at 12"-18" deep to "take the water away" from the building. Below 12" and it reduces summer time drought marks on the above lawn. If wondering, I did this to my previous house 25 years ago, did this to my cottage 8 years ago and currently doing this upgrade to my new retirement home (which is on a little hill). For all sites, I used a no holes drain pipe and the last 10 ft (in the low ground bush with the pipe on the ground surface), I used 4" pipe with holes / sock and end cap with holes as well. Instead of using landscape fabric, I used old rugs instead. Being under ground the scrap rugs last much longer than thin landscape fabric. All works great. And yes, there are many positive reasons why farmers spend mega dollars on tiling (which is large scale french drain install) their fields for a reason.... French drain pipe with holes / filter for ground's low spots is a great idea as well. I did this for my one wet spot (that was a semi natural spring) and it worked great Seriously... If you are thinking of doing this DIY upgrade, simply do it. Its worth it in the long run...
This is a great video-I installed mine this way over 20 years ago around my house and its still works today
Did the guy use duct tape?
I'm thinking about doing this as an extra layer of protection to keep water away from my foundation. Have you had any issues with your system? Specifically, issues that required extensive repair.
@@ApostateApostrophe42276 i did mine for the same reason-always wet under my house.i put it around 3 sides and out to the street.Nice to watch the water shoot over the sidewalk-i had hardly any slope too.the weed block keeps the dirt etc from getting in.Im a plumber so trying to clean these if they get to junked up is diifficult-machine will tear the cheap corrogated pipe-better to just replace.add clean out spots so u can run a hose thru in the off season to maintain
@@uptone12111 Thanks for the info. I was thinking about adding clean-outs every 100 or so feet.
@@kingtut5923yes he did helps hold in place until settles
Thank you so much for this video. We just built on raw land over the winter and this is our first spring here. We just had a heavy rain and noticed a SERIOUS drainage issue. I have a lot of work to do but this gave me the confidence I needed.
Spring is brutal. Every spring I have a couple spots that are always standing water. Only in last couple days are they starting to dry out, and one I’ll be unable to mow for another two weeks-only then does the spring rain start to dissipate.
Great installation, most people don't understand that you need to use a solid line for your down spouts. The only thing I would add is that I would use rigid PVC drain pipe or SDR-35 storm drain pipe. You have a fair amount of mature trees on your property, their roots will seek water. The roots have the potential of clogging your french drain line. If that happens to the corrugated pipe you will have to dig it up and replace it. If you use rigid pipe you can call a rooter company and have them snake the line and you're back in business again.
Thumbs up on the rigid pipe. also help maintain the slope.
I'm leaning that way now. Using storm drain pipe means I don't need to use gravel or cloth, right?
@@WakeywhodatI'm no expert but I think you may still want gravel at the very least, because it will create a path-of-least-resistance and guide the water to the pipe. The sheet may still be handy to keep sediment out
Can you elaborate on the pvc vs the drain system? Just make it out of solid pvc without any holes?
Thank you! My front and back screened in Porch flood badly. The previous owners neglected to tell us that when we bought the home so imagine my surprise when at the first storm water flooded both areas to almost 5 inches. We do have a French Drain but it's not doing it job. I called several companies with promises of helping me with this situation and no shows. So I'm going to have to do this project myself. Thank you for your helpful advice. Hope to get this problem fixed soon.
Wow that's amazing , same thing happened to me😂
For anyone being overly critical in the comments or claiming to be a pro… why are you watching this in the first place? Good video man
He's not gonna let you suck his dick even if you make comments like this.
Yup
Is Dale Junior not supposed to watch races on his off time...
Couple tips from a landscaper…
- use the excavator to tamp the soil
- use flashing tape if using tape as a second added layer of connection
- install a “ Y “ clean out valve by the bottom of downspout
- use a small butane torch to cut the tarp instead of a box knife
- use a separation fabric the line the bottom of the trench. Use a geotextile tarp to “burrito” wrap the drains to allow water to pass
Doesn’t the separation fabric under the stone restrict the ground water from coming up into the perforated pipe? Im asking because im planning my project and there is a lot of debate about fabric vs no fabric. Id like to use fabric because I think over time the clay will migrate upwards and suck up the gravel. Id like to protect the gravel but I also want to maximize water flow to the perf drainpipe. Thanks in advance for any tips.
@@Seashea you want fabric and clean rock. It is the right way, no debate. And like someone else said you want SDR-35 if you want this to last and be serviceable for decades. You also want a cleanout at the beginning of the drain (the high point).
I like the fact that you also did a decorative & practical rock and gravel in the dry creek you drained everything into
Great work I’m a landscaper and a lot of customers request these.
We bought an old house in western Oklahoma to be our forever home. It was sitting on rock hard clay. Shredded mulch, seed and worm castings spread thin over the yard will get the job done. We only had to do it once too.
It's been about ten years since then and my yard is like walking on pillows. Except a race track that our dogs have packed down running their route around the house. It pretty much does the same job as a french drain, because our basement has not flooded since our second year.
I like the way you overbuild though, mad props. Thanks for the content.
Thanks brother! Keep those gods running lol
My sister had water leaking into her garage and back porch because the way the soil was graded. Thankfully she sold her house but anyways so glad you demonstrated this! Always enjoy your videos
Ya water can be a pain in the butt.
Thanks so much for checking out the videos JewDd!! Is much appreciated !!!
@@KomarProject thank you for creating! You put a lot of hard work into your content and it shows 🤘🏽
That perforated drainage pipe we here in New Zealand have a sock that goes around the whole pipe, so all you do is full the trench up with gravel from the bottom and both sides and top and you're done! 👍👍👍
Thanks for the tip! How would I make sure slope is downward? I don't want to dig too much on the other end...
@@mikeinjapan2004 String and bubble.
@@otofoto can you explain 'bubble' please?
@@mikeinjapan2004 Bubble level.
The only problem with that type of pipe is that your gravel will eventually get silted in and stop water infiltration.
Yes, great vid. I liked the pace of everything and not boring. Of course I loved your Aussie. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for taking so much of your time to make that video. Very informative. I liked it. Good job.
3:40 actually, 1% slope is closer to 1" per every 8', rather than 9' or 10'. because there are 96" in 8 feet. And there are 120 inches in 10 feet. So if you dropped 1" per 10 feet, then you only dropped 1"/120" , aka 0.83% which is less than 1%
lmao these units
@@5ch4cht3l7 Meanwhile if want a 1% slope in metric, then you just drop 1cm every meter.
In imperial you'd need to drop 1 13/64" each 10 foot lol
You actually want 2 % for drainage, but sometimes you just don’t have it.
But people always forget that you do have 4” in the pipe.
This guy Maths!
Nice job. I like how you added the non perf pipe to carry away the downspout water. I had this same issue and did this back breaking job last summer. Only difference is I added a few more catch basins to move the above ground water quicker as my septic field slopes toward the back of my house .
GREAT video, easy for the layman to understand..
.
At 9:12, it looks like you are connecting your downspout to the french drain (pipe with slits in it).
Yes, it seems to be a mistake
It was what I was looking for. Very easy to follow the steps. It works!
1% slope is not 1” for every 10 feet. To get your slope get the total distance in inches than times by .01 for 1% . So 10ft x 12= 120 inches x .01 = 1.2” not a big deal for short distances but you need to do the math for longer distances and get it right. GL
it's almost like they need to generage a numerical system to improve this.
It’s 1” for every 8.3 feet. That’s the math. but yes over large distances it’s easy to use phone and punch in numbers
@@tobiasknowles5555Lol! Yes, on a base 10 ...
@@tobiasknowles5555 Or they could invent a new bad ass name for something not even remotely straight forward. Since they already have names for measuring things in feet, thumbs and what not, how about measuring angles in butts? 1 butt may be a quite reasonable angle of 67.5478223 degrees, which is an angle of an average butt in a missionary position.
Close enough. Was it really worth the criticism?
I appreciate these types of videos. I like to do things myself and i can pretty much find detailed instructions anywhere i want on RUclips. Thanks
Wow, great job , every house should have this system in place when a house is built.
whether it's needed at all entirely depends upon a lot of factors. i have no gutters and no water issues at all at the house i built at 9000' in the CO mountains. semi-arid climate. i will, however, be using a system like this for an upcoming house i will build in north Idaho
there's a french drain in our yard and the sound of it draining in heavy rain is always fun!
I like your approach. What I would do different is to rent a sod cutter to set a consistent and thick sod piece to the side. Once the trench is filled with rock and fabric, I can add soil, level it with a garden rake then place the sod on top. Just need to keep the sod moistened. Nothing wrong with your approach IMHO, just sharing what I've done in the past and how I like to do this kind of project. I haven't had good luck with standard gray duct tape once exposed to dirt and water. Thought the first tape you used at the beginning looked better. That looked like a gorilla exterior grade tape that was 4-5" wide. That is some incredible tape.
Awesome work, I recently started working in farming, we have a clay soil, we were recommended to plant winter rye as a cover crop, keep it short like grass and eventually the roots reach so deep that it will drain through clay. We haven't planted them yet but we are planning to this year.
Very clever idea
If graded properly, water will run over the tight roots of grass. This is why they recommend to plant grass right up to the house. Shrub and flower beds allow water to drain into the ground and to the foundation.
@@joeshmoe7789 So if I understand you correctly, grass roots doesn't allow water drainage?
@@lehmejoun A full, thick lawn will slow water from penetrating into the ground compared to just plain dirt, rocks, sand, gravel, etc. If you have low areas that pool up, the water will go down but slower thru grass. If the ground has fall or a downward pitch, a good amount of water will run over it before it has time to penetrate.
If your roof water downspout empties into a flower bed that's relatively flat, the water often drains into the soft top soil and runs underground to the foundation. Extending the downspout out past the open dirt can make a big difference as long as the lawn is graded away from the house.
The best is to have grass right up to the house, but cosmetically, it's not always pretty, especially in the front. All properties are different, but I can assure you that if you can eliminate roof water dumping on to flower beds and running over a somewhat thick lawn away from a house, you might not need underground pipes. And just as important, keep gutters and leaders clean. Overflowing gutters send water almost straight down against the house.
Hope this helps.
@@joeshmoe7789 That was good advise and educative, thank you.
Hey man. Thanks for this video. I have to get a French drain put in and this gave me a lot of good tips. If I may, your grass issue in the yard and around the pool….your soil seems hydrophobic. Use a product called hydretain OR you can use baby shampoo in a hose sprayer. It will loosen the soil and allow the water to penetrate. I had similar in my yard and thought I had grubs. No grubs. But someone told me about hydrophobic soil. I tested and sure enough water was just not penetrating. Hit the section of yard with Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo in a hose sprayer and i have a lush green lawn.
Great project! Lots of awesome pointers. Thank you. Only thing I might recommend would be grates at the end of your lines. To keep animals from nesting in your pipe.
I love the dog appearing in the window at 7:25
Very informative. I found this very helpful and appreciate you breaking down the steps. I also found the info about the freeze-proof sump pump connector extremely valuable as I had mine freeze up last year...now I know how to fix it! Looks like your Pennington Ironite helped. I just bought some of the Pennington coated Super Seed lawn seed...will let you know in a couple weeks how it works! Thank you Komar Project for all this info!
How's the Super Seed doing?
Led me to think
Henry Flagg French (1813-1885) of Concord, Massachusetts, a lawyer and Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary described and popularized them[3] in Farm Drainage (1859).[4] French's own drains were made of sections of ordinary roofing tile that were laid with a 1⁄8 in (0.32 cm) gap in between the sections to admit water.
Oh wow.... Bet that would work great!... Could be a cool use for discontinued roofing tiles
That’s good to know…i have been talking about installing a French drain to my guy workers…they don’t know much but if I show them, they get to work and do what i ask…so they speak Spanish and I’ve been telling them Drenaje Frances…like the country French, haha… the correct literal term in Spanish would be agricultural drainage or drenaje Agricola - nothing French about this. From Massy too and have been to Concord…
Very awesome video. Currently under contract with a home me & my better half are trying to finance. Hope all goes well & if so, a French drain will probably be the route that I take. Just one of many projects for the future
Very helpful video! I didn't think about using two different pipes for my french drain I'm putting in. Thanks
Hey man, here’s a tip that works great for the shallow catch basins that will keep you from having to clean them as often, and will help keep the pipe from stopping up! Take some of that geo fabric, cut it to the size of the grates. Then, put the fabric over the top of the basin, and press the grate over the top. I’ve got 8 catch basins in my yard, and have had the same filter on mine for 2 years, and there still good.
Ya I noticed they get gunned up after a while and need to be washed out to let all the water through during a down pour. Sometimes when I pours crazy hard and the filter is in there I’ll take it out just so the flow is not slowed down.
@@KomarProject That’s the downside to making a filter for the grate. When It stops up, it will drain slower, but it will drain, it just takes a few minutes longer. I tied my French drain system in with my gutters system, which is the main reason why I put the catch basins in, so it would catch the granules from the roof. Then I added some more down the line to catch the standing water, and to use as a clean out. I probably didn’t need a filter, but my main concern was that I didn’t want the holes in the pipe to get clogged up because I never wanted to have to dig it up again lol. I had to hand dig a 70 foot run, 4 feet deep because the electric cable just happened to be right where I needed to run the line, and our soil is pretty much clay, which I heard will eventually plug the hole in the pipe. I used the NDS peanut pipe, wrapped it in fabric, then filled the rest of the trench with gravel, except for the last 6 inches, which i filled with topsoil. And that’s the main reason for the filters lol. I didn’t know topsoil was so light! Before I could get the grass to regrow, It kept get washed away down the line. But with the topsoil, water moves through it better than the clay.
When you're ready to put the soil back on top, take some photos of the whole run because it'll help find it later if needed. Should you sell the house it will also help the new owners with finding where the run goes.
… so they can replace it with PVC.
Thanks for the video. This helped me immensely when installing a short one in my front yard. 🤘
Thanks for the video. I will be doing this in the late spring, once things dry up, and your video will be a good source of information. Luckily when I moved into my house last year, I bought a tractor with a backhoe, knowing all the land work I will have to do.
I'm about to do this to my home, very nice vid dad
Great! I’m so glad I did this. It’s been a game changer for our yard
At 9:10 we see you install the Y connection but I'm confused because it looks like the main pipe is perforated and I thought you said that pipe would be solid. Also, is it wise to leave the outflow wide open for critters to enter and potentially get trapped?
Saw this as well! wonder if its just some video editing magic and he connected it to the solid pipe after?
Bart great job. Glad it's working out very well. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friend. Keep making. God bless.
Thanks Jared. It’s one of those things that I’m glad is working better then I expected
@@KomarProject yes most definitely.
Great job! The only thing I would change is your catch basin at the bottom of your downspout. As water falls in there, some of it will escape. You want every drop away from your house. Connect a pipe directly to your downspout and add a cleanout pipe to go with it. It's an easy fix.
Good tip!
and that method mentioned above will also save your post/wood from getting wet and rotting over time
I just did the clean out method with one of my downspouts and it's working great. I will say I'm not sure if it's even necessary because I have seven other downspouts that drain directly into a pipe underground and they have never clogged. 30 years strong!
Or just use some matching material to extend the sides of the catch basin up.
BTW, whether you want "every drop away from your house" depends on your foundation and whether there's a basement. A guy here who had a basement decided he wanted every drop away from the house but after doing just one line for one downspout when the rains came all the doors and windows on that corner of the house jammed: in soils that will hold a lot of water, a foundation and/or basement can actually float as much as half an inch and if the whole house isn't doing it evenly that can cause annoying problems.
Of course don't go the other route; I had to go see for myself when a development in what had been swamp land where dirt excavated from elsewhere had been dumped cheap and then spread: they started out putting in basements for a dozen houses with just minimal drains, then the rains hit, and those basements started popping up out of the ground, floating loose from the soil due to the abundant water. [I liked their fix, though: they braced the basements at their highest floating level and pumped in some kind of slurry that kept the basements from all settling again -- they would have settled crooked.]
The moral of this story is know your situation before playing around with water drainage.
I am a pro plumber and people always ask me to clear their storm system. 99% of the time there is no access and nothing I can do besides dig it up. Good job planning ahead!
Great job. So much work but definitely had to be done for your years.
Dayuuuuuuuum beautiful video my friend. Am going to do this to mine. Before my basement gets flooded.
very good work. I loved working with this team
Thank you for the idea about putting two pipes in the trench. Seems obvious in retrospect but this will really help me out.
You are very welcome. We have had it in for over a year now and it’s worked beautifully. Our yard is dry
That's a ton of water 😲😳 great video, and thanks for taking the time to create and educate us. I'm so pleased with the result 👍 love the dry creekbed. Great look ❣️❤
Great video..We just closed on our 5 acre homestead and one of the issues we are gonna need to tackle is drainage..It actually rained during our walk thru and also when the inspector was out so he noted areas that needed to be addressed, one of which was where the pool pump is located as water is draining down to it so this will fix that issue an we can cut a trench down to the pond.. Keep Crushing It!!
Stay HUMBLE, Stay HUNGRY, Stay FOCUSED...~The Jarhead Entrepreneur
shut up
Homestead?
So patient for such a big project!
Great job describing the installation of this system!! Thank you!
Really awesome job! Excellent video
Thank you for uploading! Great work! ❤
This was the absolute correct installation...no shortcuts here.
As a commercial inspector for a local gov't , I wish every contractor could perform that function. Good job.
Komar Project. I like those devices...but yeah not cheap. I have started using some old technology...my father-in-law use to use. A "water-level" which is a really simple long skinny piece of tubing...with a couple marks on it. The aquarium host cost 11 bucks...and water is free-ish. BUT once you figure out how to use it, it is really accurate and quite easy to use.
This was amazing and great to see step by step.. it's encouraging to know that it can be done.. thank you for taking the time to instruct..
Just want to start by say Happy new year and a massive thank you for sharing you project/ ideas and all the advice, needed this video, we are currently a full wraparound extension, it has not stopped raining, starting to see damp patches on new walls, the garden is full of clay under the soil. So you can imagine how bad the drainage is around the house, need to sort it ASAP, have been soo stressed with it all. Thanks man ❤🤛
I like to put cloth fabric on the catch basin to help keep the system clean
Funny that your non-perf pipe for the downspouts was clearly perforated when you look at 9:00 making the Y splice… 🤣
Would love to know more and what costs were on the project overall for an idea. Thanks!!! Great video too. Very much needed.🌦
I've also heard that for general drainage in your lawn, you can add gypsum. I have to add it to my soil so I can use as backfill
Not certain how I feel about the downspout drainage with all that water making contact with the wood on your house...that said this was an OUTSTANDING video. Very clear and informative! I learned a lot! Thank you!
Same. If a house has a crawl space or a basement then it has the potential to cause more damage. I think the best option is to hook a downspout adapter to it with some type of leaf filter. It eliminates standing water from the downspout and carries it away in a solid pipe.
Great video ....crazy informative and concise all without being boring!!..nice work
On thing I did on the same type of project was to use 4X4 plastic sheets so I did not kill my grass with the extra dirt. When I was done you could hardly tell any excavation had been done.
Great video brother, unfortunately I live in California so I don’t have to worry about a lot of rainfall each year, very informative and well done.
Ya , never rains in southern Cal
Big project. Well done!
Seasonal rain streams, love it !
Hi, very informative.
With the part where you use the bobcat for the gravel, i had similar issues over 3 days of shoveling, on the last day my neighbor came over and advised to use a metal garden rake and simply prop on top and drag back towards me, the gravel will follow the rake and fall into the trench.
I wish he told me at the beginning of the job :)
Regards
George
I’m picturing him looking out his kitchen window with a sly grin, sipping a cup of coffee and thinking, “Tomorrow. I’ll tell him tomorrow….”
Great Job but at 9:09 you connected the solid drain to the perforated pipe, is the correct?
9:18 solid downspout pipe into perforated pipe, that's an example of what not to do.
Learned a lot from this video.
The drainage mechanism works even without pipes. It can be made from practically anything. The gravel itself is already a drainage and only needs to be covered with geotextile. I've seen 200 year old drains in Europe that were still functional. The best drainage I've seen was in Germany. Typically 150 years old. Burnt plain bricks stacked in a square tunnel, all covered with fine stone.
That's good to know. Cheers
Landscape fabric stakes work well to hold it open during filling and for wrap\closure as well. I've done two so far, one for the lakes on my gravel driveway by the house and one for the gravel road leading to my house. Nonwoven Geo fabric is great stuff.
Are you able to walk on top of the drain?
Awesome video. Amazing job, sir! Respect!
Great job. I did learn from doing my drainage dry creek bed not to use the small gravel on the bottom because it just washes away or ends up at the end of the trench clogging the culvert. I ended up just using the big rock I put on the sides of the the dry creek bed for all of it.
Another how to video shows that pea gravel can solidify over time, too. They recommended the larger round river rock.
great content. i learned so much about my own project. thank you for your time and education!
This was awesome to watch.
Great video, very informative. Just installed one of these yesterday. Watching your video before that would have been great, but now I know better for next time. Thanks for the info @myRatchets. New sub. Keep it up.
Awesome job guys. This is just what I needed. Thanks for sharing. GBU
Very informative and helpful.
Love that catch basin
I'm in Orlando Florida I I'm impressed with your double double pipe video where can I get the material you used
This was incredibly informative and helpful. Thank you.
FDM makes a downspout cleanout thats placed inline and looks way cleaner. Its a vented clean out with hand-hole access and an angled leaf blocker.
At 9:15 when you connect 2 pipes using a Y, it looks like your main pipe is perforated. My understanding is that perforated pipes are only used for French drains. Does that mean that you connect your gutter down spout solid pipe to your French drain?
You connected your downspout to a perforated pipe. @9:19 after putting the filtered grate you used a y connector into a perforated pipe. All your downspout water will now leach out underground
"all" would be highly debatable. gravity will take the water down the path of least resistance. some will leak out and back-drain up the other pipe and leach out during a rain event, but who cares? as soon as that is saturated, it will just start flowing down the pipe. in a moderate rain, maybe 1-2% might leak out
If I'm not mistaken, the way the perforated line works is by filling up (through the holes on the bottom) and then being carried away through the tube to where you want it. For the downspouts, once it gets away from the house and to the main trench, it can be treated just like any other lawn water and travel through the perforated line.
You did a very nice job 🎉🎉❤❤
Thanks a lot for your informative video. I have a muddy back garden from the rain and thinking to put the French duct drain and my question is where it will be finally drained please ? Thanks
👏👏wow, quite the project and great job !!
You also could skip grinding the nubs off the drains so they fit in the PVC pipes by putting a heat gun to the top of the PVC pipes and getting them soft. Then press the drain in and it should form in about 30 seconds.
Absolutely right my friend. That works great as well
I did that to join some four-inch PVC pipe ends in order to use up a bunch of scrap sections -- works great.
Those drain grates fit inside green SDR pipe without modifying the pipe
SDR doesn't describe a product. do you mean SDR-35 in this case?@@bighammer822
7:26 That dog is so cute
9:22 sure looks like the perforated pipe somehow got mixed in here.
Love the dog in the window 7:35 !
thats a genius system
Was it okay to connect the downspout line to the perforated line with that Y connector? Seems like you'd want the downspout to go into the non perf line.
Amazing video! 👏 just wish there was more information out there on where or how to drain the water in the city. Can't always tie into the storm drain.
Great video! I’ve learned a lot. Thank you.
You are legend !
Excellent. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us. Stay safe.