French Drain Dries Out Yard in Minutes, Watch and See

hey good morning Chuck carrot-apple drains you know today I want to show you guys a couple of different things we're going to show you how fast that quick and easy drain actually works we're going to show you how fast gravel perforated pipe works with fabric and soil over the top a lot of this stuff is out there and you know we really need to set the record straight so let's take a look at what we can do here just to show you a quick demonstration okay let's build a French drain in this section right here you can see I have to put some wood to hold to contain the gravel then we're going to put dirt on both sides so we're going to start by laying a base of gravel down at the bottom of the trench let's do that right now okay next we poured the base of gravel we've got about two inches of gravel down here at the bottom maybe into gravel that's fine and now we're going to lay some perforated pipe and it's going to discharge through the outlet but we're gonna test it we'll just let it come right out but this is how you build the French drain we've got a base of gravel next we're going to put perforated pipe let's do that now we're using standard slotted pipe from ATS you can see all the holes the slashes they go all the way around the pipe and this is setting in a bed of gravel see the gravel down below and now we're going to cover this with gravel right up a few inches above the top of the pipe let's do that next so you can see we've got a good covering of gravel you can see it nice French drain next we're gonna lay a piece of fabric geo fabric over the top of this because when we put the soil in here I don't want that soil to drop directly down you know gravity's a big thing we cover the top but not the sides or the bottom okay you've seen me show you how quickly this stuff drains in lots of videos water passes right through here this is nonwoven geo fabric and it's it's made before this this is what it's for and I've laid it across the top as you can see there's a gravel related across the top remember this woods here because I'm building this inside of a container and I just want to show you how the system works this is going to be a great example of how fast the French drain works without fabric again this is at the top just to keep the dirt from dropping directly down into the gravel over a period of 15 to 20 years so again I'm using some of the worst soil that you can imagine this is clay and I mean you can see it it's just it's packed right that's a clay and we've got clay we've chopped it all out we've saturated it same on this side now we're going to go ahead and pull these dividers out so that we can create the yard so just so you guys can understand I found some of the worst soil I could find you see how it's see how much water stays in that that's clay it's a mixture of clay and sand but look at that you can see a easing losing out of my fingers this stuff holds water and we're gonna use this as the demonstration remember we've got a French drain without fabric we did not wrap it only on the top so we've got a gravel encased pipes ABS pipe and look at this I mean you can see it's already totally saturated I'm holding a lot of water wait till we finish this and take a look okay so there you have your French drain you can see we've got the gravel surrounding the pipe we've got fabric over the top now we're just going to go ahead and put a little soil across here then we'll set the sod on here and what we're going to do is we're going to saturate this soil like it's a section of your yard and let's see how fast a French drain actually works okay so far in this series I've showed you how quick that the easy flow the styro rock peanut pipe works very fast I showed you how slow or how well a gravel perforated pipe French drain wrapped in fabric works now we're gonna take a look and see what happens when you don't wrap it in fabric let's go ahead and let it rain we're gonna let this rain for a little while and what its gonna do it's gonna all that water is gonna come down to the bottom and then you can see it see it right there starting to rise this is how a French drain works and you can see it I hope you can see it it's up here now we should start to see a flow yep there it is can you see that as I need to see it going back in the back as more water enters that pipe from the bottom even though we have holes on the top it still comes from the bottom and it works great it's working much faster believe it or not then with the fabric around it so we're gonna go ahead and put the clean-out papillon we're gonna put the clean-out cap on and then we're gonna let it fill up okay so I put the clean-out cap on and now we're gonna simulate a flooded yard okay we're just going to go ahead and saturate the soil so that we see we see water sitting in the ground and then we'll take off the clean-out cap remember it's gonna drain quick at first but how much water is left in the soil remember how much was left with the fabric I mean it's so slow it worked and it worked great but it was very slow without fabric let's see what happens can you see the water level see it rising so let's just say that you you know it rained for two days just a drizzle or even a hard rain that ground fills up with water you can see it all through your property your neighbor's property through your entire development there's going to be different levels of this water but you can see it rising rising up I mean this risen almost 2 inches in just that short period of time we're gonna fill it up so that it floods there'd be a you know water sitting in the yard and then we're going to open up the clean-out cap see what happens remember this is gravel encased pipe but no geo fabric okay we've got a saturated yard you see the water it's totally saturated and this would be after a rainfall right so if there was no French drain it would just be to take time for all this water to perk down through the soil until it disappears but with a French drain we can empty this quickly oK we've got that saturated soil yards flooded we're gonna open up the clean-out cap let me get it started let's open that up is it gonna look dirty well of course it's gonna pull some of that debris down through there but it's set some small amount take a look look at that look at this water level you see how fast that's dropping do you remember the other video that water just stays there look at this this is just going down down down down down and I'm still adding the water to the top this is a great example of a French drain and how it should be installed take a look see that water it's bubbling up from the bottom it doesn't come through the slots at the top it comes from the bottom up so let's look at the back can you see here's the water level you see it right there and still going down it's still getting sucked up because the pipes running downhill a little bit so in the front it's but you can see that water it's just disappearing slowly slowly slowly and we've stopped adding water all of the surface water that we had because we gave the water a place to go right we gave that water a place to go it disappeared need more proof well I'm going to take this apart and we'll see how much dirt is actually in the gravel how's that okay pull it back to the side let's pull back some more and let's take a look can you see that gravel see all the voids in there do you see any debris if we can dig this out a little bit and you just watch [Applause] can you see how clean that gravel is there's no debris sitting in that gravel such a miss about fabric you guys I can't make a better demonstration and if you continue to use the fabric that's fine I think your systems gonna last five years but if you don't use it I think it'll last 10 15 maybe 20 so how do you prevent how do you prevent the water from standing remember how we had it pulling up in the yard well you put a catch basin in because that grabs immediate surface water runoff so if water floods up here it's just gonna drop into your Basin and be carried away remember what a catch basin is it catches things so we've got actually the pipes about right here we've got about two inches of basin that collects debris and yeah you have to maintenance it it's just that simple you might have to Mason it make maintenance it every year every two years you know how easy it is all you need to do is pop off the grate and put a garden hose down inside and clean it out or you can reach the side and clean it out does the great gate cover wood debris of course that part of me you know nothing lasts forever nothing the only way a French drain would last forever is if you encased it in concrete and made it a display you hey this is Chuck with Apple drains reminding that if you believe you can do something I guarantee you can do it have a great day [Music]

Channel: Apple Drains

Views: 66,952

Rating: 4.7705479 out of 5

Keywords: French Drain, Yard drain, exterior drain, drainage, pipes, slotted pipe, Apple Drains, perforated pipe, catch basin, NDS Quick Drain, EZ flow drain pipe, how to install a french drain, yard drain system, trench drain, channel drain, downspout drain, backyard sump pump

Id: JLg6jL4vm2c

Length: 11min 18sec (678 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 16 2020