How to Install a French Drain that Actually Works! DIY Project

here's a video that's going to be very relatable to a lot of people look how high the property is to the left all the water is rolling off all the roof run off water is running down to the home that we're contracted to protect we're building a French drain curtain drain all the way down the side of this house and wrapping around there's a big hill in the back there's High Ground coming at this home from all directions well if you find the perfect home in the perfect neighborhood with the perfect School District don't let something like this discourage you a good drain will remedy this problem it's not a big deal we're going to walk you through it we're going to tell you all the things we did so that we build a really good drain system to protect the homeowner we tied this into a storm drain I did a video on corn tap so I'm not going to bore you with that we did use our HDPE coupler that's shatterproof guaranteed for life it's going to last up to 500 years it's pure virgin HDPE it's the best coupler on the market now we're going to connect our royal blue HDPE virgin pipe same thing rated the last up to 500 years it's not made out of recycled materials now make sure to pull this under your sprinkler lines when you put it in this four inch system on two percent slope is going to move 200 gallons per minute four inch pipe is capable of moving a lot of water we wanted to go with a four inch pipe so that all that roof runoff that's coming off the neighbor's house along with all the water coming off the neighbors Green Belt area along with the water that's falling on the side of this home can all find its way to that storm drain quickly and efficiently now we're also going to put in a roof runoff system we're going to put in a solid pipe this one doesn't have any holes in it like the perforated pipe and then we're going to tie them both together with a Y to one solid discharge line that goes to the city's storm drain now keep in mind when you do two percent slope you can get really really deep in a hurry but luckily we had a lot of slope out to the street already because the developer designed the slot that way that's how they planned on this draining unfortunately grass holds water in it and it's really hard to get at the drain it doesn't drain like a parking lot like an asphalt or cement parking lot now we have a perf pipe to the left we add a solid pipe to the right you can see the roof runoff system is solid the perforated pipe is for the curtain French drain we went ahead and we tied in a basin that's going to catch all the shingle gravel off the roof we don't want this line to build up with shingle gravel we want to be able to maintain it also it'll be nice place to access that system if we ever need to get inside it we're going to tie a downspout in right here we're going to show you the tie-in and we're going to show you how we hooked up the gutter adapter we're going to show you all the connection points now always tape right here you don't want this leaking right at the wall of your house so with four inch pipe we find it best to use a fitting that's going to help you make that bend it don't really Bend too well especially our pipe because it's extra heavy duty it is the thickest sidewall on the market what a great difference here look how high the ground is to the right unbelievable and the downspouts are just dumping the neighbor hasn't thought about running his downspouts to the front yard to help his neighbor out well obviously he's the high house so he's not having any water problems is he this curtain French drain is going to protect the homeowner that were contracted to work for we want to run this drain and wrap it around the house to catch all the water coming off all The High Ground that way it won't find its way to the foundation of this home now we want to also grab up all the roof water we want to catch it at the downspout and we don't want to let it go so you never want to do this in a way where there's an air gap that is a really bad idea it's super hard to gather water once you let it go it splashes everywhere I see times where people just put catch basins here for water to fall down in not such a good idea a lot of mold and mildew and a lot of foundation damage you're in for a treat you're going to see two of our very best two of our veterans are going to tie this downspout into the main now they're going to use a y fitting they're not going to use a t fitting because that'll just slam the water to a stop a y fitting keeps the water in Motion in the direction it needs to go keeping the velocity up you can move more water quicker the guys are tying this Mane before they tie in the downspout notice how they took the Y and they tied it into the main taped it because it was easier to pick up and work with and the last thing you do is tie in the downspout to the main that's the correct way of tying a downspout into a main line notice how they're standing on a line as they backfill they don't want the dirt to hit the pipe push the pipe aside and the dirt to fall under the pipe they're going to lose their two percent slope they worked really hard to get this system perfect so they want to make sure that when they do the backfill they don't compromise the system beautiful job beautiful job by first class team this veteran team nailed this look at this High Ground that all comes right towards this home this curtain French drain that we wrapped around this house and around the corner into the backyard is going to grow up all the water it's going to protect this home and preserve it the homeowner is not going to have any issues we're on two percent slope and we have two pipes one's perforated for the curtain French drain and one solid for these downspouts we got vented downspouts vents are no different than when you vent your gas can and it pours faster and we tied it in with wise we have everything going in the direction of flow the guys did a beautiful job are four inch wide super sticky super stretchy 200 year Plumbing tape is not only watertight but it keeps tree and shrub Roots out so if somebody goes and plants landscape down the side of this house we don't have to worry about it getting inside that fitting because that's how Roots get in that tape will protect that system better than any kind of glue that super stretchy super sticky four inches wide tape is fantastic and it's rated to last up to 200 years beautiful system the guys made every connection methodically two percent slope made sure to maintain that now they're working as a team to hold the pipe down as they put the stone in because corrugated pipe is so light if you dump the stone on it and you don't hold the pipe down in place the stone is going to push the pipe out of the way and then it's going to go up and under the corrugated pipe and it's going to ruin your two percent slope it's going to really throw your system off so for best results after you work this hard you want to go ahead and make sure that you stand on the pipe you hold it down with a shovel you work as a team as you go ahead and cover it up with the stone now we're using inch and a half Round Rock because it has really really big voids if you use crushed stone they lay flat on one another and you don't have as big a voids now it does compact better when it's crushed but nobody's driving over this so we want it to not get compact we want to keep the voids it's okay if it's kind of like rolling around like marbles once you put the grass over top of it it's not going to be an issue and you're not going to feel it when you're walking on it now the guys are keeping this work site safe and I want you to really take note of that these men are true professionals at what they do if you found any of this information helpful give us a thumbs up it supports our Channel I'm your host Robert Sherwood and until the next video [Music]

Channel: FRENCH DRAIN MAN

Views: 194,774

Keywords: how to build a french drain, french drains, french drain pipe, what is a french drain, french drain cost, yard drainage, french drain system, french drain diy, french drain design, french drain installation, curtain drain, perforated drain tile, french drain depth, drainage trench, french drain cover, yard drain, french drain basement, yard drains, yard water solutions, Baughman Tile Company

Id: Ie11haI5WO0

Length: 7min 55sec (475 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 30 2023