Replacing a Drain Tile System that is Not Working

the following program is sponsored by the today's home remodeler television network [Music] welcome to today's home remodeler I'm Stuart Keith and on today's show well we're solving a home's basement water problem by installing a drain tile system we'll begin with Mike Hogan s'en from standard water control systems who introduces our project next we'll see what caused the existing drain tile to fail and learn how a professionally installed system will provide a worry-free solution and we'll finish up learning about the various components and discharge options that provide the ultimate peace of mind so we have a lot to cover today then we'll get started right after this message [Music] you get the towels in the squeegee clock at the shop back go back to sleep I'll explain tomorrow tomorrow we're gonna have an inch of water in the basement no I had standard water control fix it for good standard water control when when you're on your golf trip we're not the light will yeah I can go to sleep please for real peace of mind call or visit standard water calm today [Music] one of the biggest fears homeowners share is water in their basement so imagine the frustration when an existing drain tile system fails today will visit one such home and show a solution to this all-too-common problem as we get started with Mike Hoganson from standard water control systems Mike I can see the guys are busy prepping this basement what's going on oh the homeowner is doing a little remodeling yeah they want to add some more living space in the home try to increase the value of the property and one of the best ways to do that is to remodel the basement maybe add a bedroom or family room down in the basement now this particular homeowner as part of that wanted to replace this drain tile system because his drain tile system that is existing isn't working right he's still getting water in the basement and he wants to protect his investment and that actually happens quite often how frustrating would that be to be a homeowner you have an existing system and it's not working and they actually had that much water that all this sheetrock down here was absorbing that moisture and mold was starting to form that's horrible yeah exactly this homeowner gets water year-round you can see over here there's water on the floor and you can see the mold that's still on the wall oh my gosh okay so the homeowners obviously had a problem down here they want to increase the value of their home by adding usable living space in the basement that makes total sense to me how is your company going to assist them with that well the drain tile system we put in is going to be a deeper drain tile system we're going to drain all the water from the blocks we're gonna put in a system that comes with a lifetime warranty transferable to owners that's a big selling point because the next homeowner coming in has it sure enough to worry about that that's one less thing that they have to worry about I mean as a homeowner we all know the biggest fear or at least one of the biggest fears is water in the basement and if you go to the expense of a drain tile system you want to make sure it's going to work so it makes total sense they obviously did their homework and selected a company that can stand behind the product so you're gonna add a new system are you going to leave it set up down here this is gonna be the living room now we're gonna move the pump into a more convenient area over and where the mechanical room might be let's go over there and take a look where you're going to be putting it before we get there I wanted to show you what's going on you can see right where the floor in the wall meet at one point somebody had tried putting some caulking in oh my gosh look at all the water standing here so it hasn't been a one-time event they've had a lot of water down here for a long time yeah you can see that their personal belongings are starting to get mold growing on them and I can even see moisture on the wall right now I know and let me show you something right here is where you would put it back up oh and it is just full of water that water is underneath this entire slab then that's correct this shows you that the drain tile isn't deep enough okay you saw inside the sump pit the drain tile was coming in probably an inch and a half from the top of the floor so it's not draining all the water in when we put our drain tile in it's going to be about eight inches deep so we're gonna drain all this water away that explains it to me I mean when we came down here it was dank damp it was very humid down here that's the reason why isn't it well exactly all that moisture is coming up through this concrete slab you can see the moisture just working its way up as part of our system what we're gonna do is we're gonna put in a sub slab ventilation system and what that does is connects to the drain tile it's got a fan in it so it sucks the air out from underneath the slab and it also circulates the air through the hollow cavities of the blocks to help dry the blocks out and take that humidity out from underneath the slab before it gets up into the home and it'll discharge it out above the roof line now those also take care of any VOCs or organic soil gases that are down there including radon okay good so with your system it's gonna dry out the basement it's gonna solve their base of a water problem and they're gonna have usable space down here that's very comfortable exactly sure they probably never need to run a dehumidifier again yeah that just blows my mind I mean that's six inches deep right there and it speaks volumes to how ineffective the existing drain tile system is now look at this this is all water that's standing on the floor yeah this water here built up inside the block in the hollow cavity so once it reaches the same level as the floor it starts coming out where the floor and the wall meet now you can see approximately four inches of the block here and you got an 8-inch block well that means that about four inches of block is down beneath the floor sure before any water if you get on top of the floor that water it's got to be about four inches deep inside the block well back there you can see that there's definitely water underneath this whole thing it's like a lake underneath a hole now where are you going to be putting the new sub crop when we come out with the original estimate we talked to the homeowner they tell us what they've experienced over the years it's very important to get that information from them sure they know their house better than anybody's right it's important to be there when your estimator comes out exactly we're there for maybe a half hour they've been there for 15 years so what we do is we talk to them say what's your future plans well here they want to put a bedroom they want to put the bathroom in and over there where the sump pit is they want to make that into a family room sure so they do not want the pump in the family room we discussed it with them and we feel this is the best spot because you've already got electrical here okay and we can discharge the water out this side of the house and if you look outside there's a nice hill we're going away from the house so the water won't pool out here and a little drain right down to the street okay so in addition to being here and talking to your estimator is there anything else a homeowner needs to be aware of before they venture into a process like this well you want to make sure your contractor pulls all the proper permits a red flag would be if he asked you to pull a permit you should never do that that would mean then that you're the contractor you're the responsible person also if you're in the older homes and here we don't have it but many homes has the tile on the floor oh sure and that tile many times it's asbestos so you want to make sure that that is taken up before any contractor it gets into the home and you want to get it done by a professional asbestos remover for the health of the employees but more so for the health of the occupants sure and then basically you want to make sure everything is moved to the center so we can come in and cover it with plastic to keep the dust off it sure it looks like these home works did a great job of prepping it they remove the drywall over there they took all their different belongings moved away from the wall so it gives your workers ample room to install the new system that is correct I make just to see the process for installing the new system why don't we get out of their way let them have at it we'll pick it up a little further sounds good still be interesting to see what's wrong with this drain tile system once we get an exposure it certainly will [Music] you get the towels I'll get them up and booking mom dad you guys need to what are you doing it's pouring the base was gonna flood we told you what standard water did for us they were great and our basements been dry ever since and you get a lifetime warranty so I get to sleep it's the best money we ever spent why haven't you called them well dear why haven't we called them tomorrow I'll call him tomorrow visit standard water calm today [Music] now let's continue with Mike Hogan s'en from standard water control systems okay Stu before they get too far along on one of the showing some things they uncovered as I suspected there was something wrong with the original drain towel that's here the first thing you can see is it's too high the top of the drain towel is higher than the top of the foot look at that here's the existing footing and look at that it is it's about an inch higher right now there's not a whole lot of gravel around it when you talk about drain tile being plugged a lot of people think the inside of the drain tiles player well that's not really the case what happens is the fines get into what the little cracks where the water gets into the drain towel with that fines in there the water can't get into it because after all this drain tile here is what's called perforated right so that's needed slots in there and that's what plugs up so plugged up great tile is what you're saying is the outside of the tube that's exactly correct a lot of people think it's the inside that's not the other thing you'll see here this was the four inch area I'd talked about earlier okay sure that was buried below the slab right before any water could get on top of the floor this had to fill up with water also they put these real small tubes in that are prone to blockage not much volume in this tube that's for sure no I'm they only put like one per block so the other issue they have you can see this one is actually buried in the concrete so even if the water wanted to drain out it couldn't cuz it was blocked by concrete oh my gosh and this house was built in like 1985 do you think this was installed at that era oh yeah absolutely contractor to built the house installed the Strand house system so it was prone to failure from day one unfortunately for these homeowners they're suffering the consequences but fortunately for these homeowners your new system is going to alleviate this and they're not gonna have to worry about this type of failure happening again not at all you'll see later on it what we do to combat these problems [Music] Oh Mike were a few hours into the project and boy have they made some great progress here they've even made great progress on the egress window and then this is going to be awesome living space down here yes it is so this these guys are really experienced they've been doing this for many many years and they've seen a lot of basements I mean you look at these guys in action and it really is choreographed they're there in tight quarters but they're not in each other's way and that to me speaks volumes to their experience and their professionalism now what I'd like to touch on is what got us to this point so far a lot of hard works to what we started out doing here is using jackhammers to jackhammer through the floor that way we've got a nice rough edge for the new concrete to adhere to it okay so instead of making a sock up there you use the jackhammer it's a little more jagged and that's gonna help when you finish it off it's gonna help bond the new concrete with the old it ties it together okay makes sense to me and then what we did is we took the concrete off the top of the footing and it's supposed that four-inch area that I was referring to earlier we took the small tubes that were in the block out the previous contractor that put the drain towel and didn't drill enough holes in the block sure and that was evident when they started drilling the new holes around here yeah couldn't believe how much water was still in there pouring out of the blocks right right so we read rolled all the holes in the block we even drilled where the two blocks meet there's another cavity there so we made sure we had all the cavities drilled and then we dig this trench downhill to the new sump basin another problem we had with this system as you saw weather was many things but one was the drain tile was too high some cases encased in concrete the tubes are encased in concrete over here was the old sump pit and the drain tile came in just about underneath the floor it was right here sure and so that's why there's so much water underneath here I mean the amazing thing to me is they've been shoveling all this out there was twice as much water in there they had to use portable sump pumps to evacuate all the water so that they could continue digging out these trenches that's cracked over here was a major problem when they constructed the home they put a footing in here for no apparent reason what so so what happened as the drain tile came up to it on both sides but it didn't go through so the water couldn't make it to the sump pit well again if I were these homeowners or any homeowner watching this TV show I would be thinking about the drain tile system of my house and going boy I hope it's operating properly because I know when we arrived on site the Pope was working but it was only after the water got so high that it really wasn't doing much good at all I mean this is this is just terrible in my opinion it's very misleading to the homeowner I know you think you're protected and then you find out after investing all this money that you've got to tear it all off okay so you said that you're going to be able to move this existing sub crock get rid of that altogether and then as I recall kitty-corner from here is where the new some crock is going so you said it needs to be sloped so would this be the high point and then it's going to sloped away that's correct Stu we're gonna take this pump out of here because this is gonna be the family room now a lot of people think that a drain tile system or a sump pump actually sucks water out from underneath your home and it doesn't the way a drain tile system works is it is on gravity feed the water goes downhill it seeks its own level and then goes to the pump and the pump evacuates it out sure what makes us to learn more about the installation process but before we get into that I got to compliment you I mean we've done several shows in the past but it's always been extremely dusty in the air because let's face it it's back-breaking dusty dirty work put on this job there wasn't much dust at all what's going on well I'm really excited about that what's that new equipment we have it is it's pretty much dust free we'd have HEPA vacuums hooked up to all the jackhammers HEPA vacuum hooked up to the drills and it's better for the homeowner there's less cleanup for the homeowner it's better for the employees and everybody involved yeah well I know if I'm a homeowner out there in need of drain tile that's some of the questions I'm going to be asking different contractors I'm talking to do you have dustless equipment so that I don't have to be breathing in any of that concrete dust that inevitably is going to occur in a project crack stick around we'll see the components that make up the new drain tile system we continue with today's remodeler you get the towels in the squeegee puck at the shop back go back to sleep I'll explain tomorrow tomorrow we're gonna have an inch of water in the basement no I had standard water control fix it for good standard water control when you're on your golf trip the light will yeah I can go to sleep please for real peace of mind call or visit standard water calm today [Music] now let's learn more about drain tile components as we continue with Mike Hogan s'en from standard water control systems here's some of the components that were installed today what we did is we dug a trench you remember it all went downhill to the sump basket what we do is we put a couple inches of gravel in the trench then we install our drain tile we use the rigid PVC drain towel with the holes facing down okay so you install it like this why do you put the holes down well so as the water fills up in the trench it gets up into the holes and then it gets carried away through this area here basically the drain towel is an air space to allow the water to move fast a lot of the water will just flow through the gravel itself okay gotcha I could see some people might think that you'd want to put it with them up but you're saying you put it with the holes down in there so that the water doesn't have to come up as high to enter the pipe that's correct you want to drain the water as soon as possible having in here the water would have to fill up to these holes and then the pipe would try to float okay also what I like about this and it remains at a nice downhill slope versus that corrugated tile that was here oh sure that comes in a roll of 250 feet and when you uncoil it it wants to coil back it so you get it up and down and you get pockets of water that probably don't drain at all exactly it's like a roller coaster plus there's little quarter-inch divots in each one of the corrugation so when the water quits draining out of it you still have water sitting inside the drain towel and hence that system obviously wasn't installed properly to begin with there's lots of water there and all that Danks smell and even if it were installed correctly you're still going to have that water stuck in the corrugation that's exactly correct in today the homeowner came down and said now that we've got that drain towel out of here we put this in the basement already smells drier feels better and I noticed the concrete was actually getting whiter so it was holding all that moisture all that water yeah man he had a big smile on his face I know that and so back to the components here it starts with a bed of washed rock yeah I'm going with the smooth red DC rigid drain tile and a downhill slope to the pump and then looks like you're gonna cover it back up yeah well surround this with gravel all the way a little bit over the top of the footing here then we drilled the holes in the block to allow the water to drain out of the block still blows my mind how much water came out of those yeah these are hollow cavities so the water then drains out of the block down to the footing across the footing and down into the gravel fills up into the gravel and then into the drain tile now what a lot of people don't understand is that a drain tile system is not a plumbing system in the old days it was thought that you would put a tube in here seal around it what we saw earlier yeah and try to plumb that water right into the drain town well what happens is the water still comes out where the block and the footing meet okay okay and that water if you don't have some sort of way for it to get across the footing would then just build up and come in with our patented diamond drainage board we're able to divert that water across the footing and it's adjustable for the depending the thickness of the concrete it can be up to four inches thick or to two inches or one in there oh I see so it's already scored here you can bend it to whatever you want and then how does that actually function well we we put it right here to catch the water coming out of the block and you can see it's got this nice quarter inch gap this allows the water to drain unrestricted so there's no chance of a tube getting been pinched off getting plugged in these little legs here keep it away from the wall and above the footing so it's a perfect facilitation of the water using the top of the footing leading it right down to this channel exactly still and also with these diamonds in here when we pour the concrete it goes down into these diamonds giving you direct contact to the wall and the footing and so it's really locked in place you know I saw him installing this and one thing I noticed is they're running a bead of caulk along the top of that that's correct in this particular home because we're puttin that sub slab ventilation system we caulk the top of this so we're not drawing the indoor air out we want to create a vacuum beneath the slab so we pull all that moisture out of here what makes total sense to me so with all these superior components it's no wonder these homeowners are never going to have to worry about it it's just incredible with the right components what you can do we've really changed the air quality in this basement sure well I know that this all leads to the some crack we can learn more about those components next you got it you gonna tell us I'll get them up a book mom dad you guys need to what are you doing it's pouring the basements gonna flood we told you what standard water did for us they were great and our basements been dry ever since and you get a lifetime warranty so I get to sleep it's the best money we ever spent why how did you call them well dear why haven't we called them well I'll come tomorrow visit standard water calm today [Music] now let's learn what to look for in a sump pump and see the completed drain tile system our crew has installed as we finish up with Mike Hogan s'en from standard water control systems Mike now this is an awesome little demonstration piece I mean so many times we do a show and we talked about the importance of dream tile and all the right components but we only get to look down into the sub crock here you have a cutaway so let's take a minute to walk through the premium components that comprise your system okay so the sump pump is the heart of any drain tile system without it if it fails your basements going to flood this is our premium grade superior sump system it starts with a heavy duty industrial pump it draws only 3.8 amps and will pump 4,100 gallons per hour Wow two things they're very energy efficient and that sounds would you say industrial strength that's a lot of water being pumped out of a basement you bet it is this pump also will pump water up to 2,800 gallons per hours ten feet in the air where most other pumps will shut off at that height okay so to a consumer you should be aware of how tall your basement is and if it's higher than say eight nine ten feet maybe 12-foot basement height you want to make sure you have a pump that can handle that that's right Stu this also has a check valve in it that only allows the water to go one way okay so that way though when the pump pumps it out it doesn't drain back in again and gets pumped a second time the second part of this is the optional battery backup pump which is a whole nother pump that if you have a power failure or mechanical failure it will kick in sound an alarm and keep your basement dry so not only redundant from the stand point if this fails if you have a power failure sure you think about when you gonna have a power failure probably during this heavy rainstorm right and then in that case if you didn't have a battery backup you would have a basement full of water so you would recommend always installing a battery backup I absolutely would this gives a great peace of mind if there's any questions homeowners have I'm sure they can visit your website with all the information out there they can learn more about these awesome components let's head back downstairs I'm anxious see how you finish off the system and where the water eventually gets pumping concrete [Music] well Mike good morning a day 2 of the project and I tell you what a difference from 24 hours ago these guys did a great job and talked about effectiveness I mean when we walked in here yesterday I was like man is it humid down here it was kind of dank it smelled a little musty it's like a total transformation absolutely soo it's much drier down here and it's like you said smells better and feels more comfortable you know when I was watching the guys install the piping immediately water was flowing into the sump crock and being discharged today there doesn't seem to be too much water in there I can only imagine how happy the homeowners are that they're never gonna have to worry about water in their basement again absolutely Stu you can see that we've put the system in much deeper than what was here yesterday you can see the drain towel is about a foot beneath the floor where yesterday the drain towel was right under the floor and actually in the concrete sure and that's what I liked about showcasing your system on this project is there was existing drain tile that had failed I mean it really wasn't installed properly it seemed to me to be plugged up and it wasn't doing its job and really misleading the homeowners thinking that it was working and they just had a musty basement well obviously with the right components and the professional installation that's not the case this is the way to do it absolutely now Stu what we have here is the sump pit inside the sump pit we've got the primary pump and the backup pump so obviously Mike it's a very effective system at getting the water to the sub crock but where is all this water discharged to well the primary pump will pump it up through this discharge line to the outside beyond the landscaping onto the grass and then they'll go downhill away from the house at that point okay and so the second line is that for the battery backup system yeah the second line we put into every home because well it's convenient to put in while we're doing the job in case in the future somebody might want to add a backup pump probably less expensive to do it now than if they realize the value of a backup pump and wish they had put it in they opted to do it it's relatively easy for them to do so exactly so our discharge line is the seamless line that has no 90s no couplings it'll never crack break if it freezes it can expand and contract and we don't have to worry about ever having to come back and repair it you can finish over this and feel comfortable that you're not going to have to again it sounds like a great product a lot of peace of mind for the homeowner is there any maintenance with these systems the only maintenance is to remember to take the discharge pipe off during the winter months and then putting it back on in the spring and if you follow us on Twitter we'll send you a reminder okay that's awesome now that's above ground discharged you offer the option of burying the discharge if you didn't want the pipe on top of your lawn some people would like to have a buried discharge so they don't have to work around that when they're mowing the grass so yes we do offer that well right outside the house we 90 it down into a cone that goes into a four inch pipe that's buried out into the yard where there's a box that the water can then bubble up out of it really seems like you have options for every application out there if you're a homeowner just visit your website you can learn more about all that I'm sure okay what's it going to take for the guys to finish up this project at this point you can see that we put down some poly over the top of the gravel the poly is there to prevent any moisture from wicking up to new concrete but even more importantly still we want to make sure the concrete doesn't go down into the gravel and plug it up after that we've got one crew that does nothing but the installations and then the cement crew follows behind them the next day so they're gonna mix the cement out in the truck we've got a truck with a mixer mounted to it and they'll mix it exactly what we need and they'll bring it in feather it in place finish it and then the last thing we do is we stamp our name right in the concrete's nobody forgets who we are sure your seal of approval and you know and you look at this project what a transformation for these homeowners now they can go ahead finish their remodel job creating that comfortable usable living space adding considerable value to their home without any worries of damaging their personal belongings well thanks Mike for coming out and sharing it with us today well spend my pleasure Stu thanks for watching today's home remodeler and if you'd like more information on the products and services seen on today's show please visit standard water Calm the preceding program was sponsored by the today's home remodeler television network

Channel: CrewcutTV

Views: 188,476

Rating: 4.5927272 out of 5

Keywords: drain tile, drain tile not working, drain tile system not working, Standard Water, Standard Water Control, Mike Hogenson, sump pump, sump pump not working, basement flooding, musty basement, damp basement

Id: JIGsa9devFo

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 14 2018