Vertical Drainage. No more French Drain. Under $10.00 DIY

hey good afternoon Chuck here with apple drains you know I've been thinking about making this video all the way back here to the shop and if you watch the first video where we fixed this little problem for 10 bucks this video is similar but another area of the yard that holds water can we do it twice can we duplicate our results so we're going to find out test it out when we're done supposed to rain in about an hour so hopefully I can get it all together before it rains vertical dra AG basically we're digging a hole straight down into the ground we've got to get below the hard pan that's the key get below the hard pan put some fabric in there some gravel bring it back up to grade put the sod back on the top and will it drain that small area this works best if you're not allowed to send it to the street remember we're trying to keep our cost down that horizontal drain the French drain yard drains so costly to do and basically we're just moving water from one spot to another but what if we can go straight down into the ground and get rid of that water of course this little vertical drain is not going to replace a French drain or a yard drain catch Basin there's definitely applications for that but if you've got a small area of the yard that holds water and you're not allowed to send it out to the street vertical drainage might be the answer to that so we're going to test this system out remember the first video was really good it worked pretty well but let's try it again and see how well it actually does work I've been watching a lot of videos from the Netherlands and Europe about this particular subject vertical drainage and you know what I thought I got to try this if you watch the first video it shows how well it does work but I've got another area of the yard that we're going to try it in today so I've been thinking about making this video all the way back here to the shop and it's going to rain I'm sorry I'm so dirty we did install but I think we have enough time to do this should shouldn't take more than 20 minutes to do this and you can do this too this is a easy DIY but does it work if we can get rid of the horizontal drainage French drain yard drainage wow can we save some money let's try this out and I'll give you the results you got to see the results because wow this is going to really make a difference in how you approach your yard drainage problems so the first thing we're going to do is cut off a section to side you want to cut off about a 9 by9 section just use your shovel 9 by9 and pop out this plug set that over on your tarp because we're going to put that back next using your post hole diggers go ahead and dig down down to the hard pan got to get down to the hard pan for this to work so we want to get down about 24 in you can hear me hitting the hard pan right there if you don't know what the hard pan is this is a nonpermeable soil and it's like rock hard once you get down to about 24 in you should be below your hard pan so here's our vertical drain we need a little piece of fabric it doesn't matter what kind of fabric it is as long as it's a good fabric that drains out we're going to push it down into the hole open it up we're going to fill this up with gravel we're going to fill this up with gravel this is gravel by the bag with an inch and 1 half crushed wash stone you can find it at Lowe's or Home Depot about $5 a bag really easy to do this you can see I brought the gravel all the way to grade now we just fold the fabric over now fold the fabric over take your sod put it back on the top and we're ready to test out vertical drainage so I'm going to dig one more hole I'm not going to cut side I'm just going to use my PST hole diggers we might be able to put that back but we're going to get down to the hard pan just use your post hole diggers try to get as deep as you can you can hear that hard pan hear it that's just super hard soil it's nonpermeable it won't let water go through it post hole diggers really do a great job to dig a straight down hole shovel works but the post hole diggers really are a little bit better remember we want to get below that hard Pan about 24 in deep so we've got a hole about 24 in deep we're going to use another piece of fabric just push it in open it up and we're going to pour some gravel down in that hole gravel by the bag I'm really excited about this project and I hope that you guys try this out this could really change things here in the industry yes we still need French drains and we need catch spacers and things like that but what if we can solve these smaller problems for under $10 you guys can do this this is an easy DIY project I can't wait to see the results try to bring your gravel as close to grade as possible then fold your fabric over there was a little a little bit of s so I'm going to set that back on top so there's some dirt in there now we just need to clean up the area haul that old dirt away that's no good we got to get rid of that let's just see Let It Rain let's see what it does let's do one more hole right here and again I'm not too worried about my side we just want to get down to the hard pan there it is after watching all those videos about vertical drainage in Europe and in Australia and New Zealand as well you know but they didn't show results so I made the first video and it worked pretty good I showed that but let's take a look at this one this is a little bit different I'm going to add a small 3in grate on the top of this vertical drain this will allow any flooding to drop directly through the hard pan into the soil below let's see if this works any better so a third hole 24 in deep little piece of landscape fabric push it down in now we're going we're going to pour some gravel in [Applause] here pour some gravel in there were a number of comments um from senior citizens actually about this project on the first video and I really hope that they gave it a try this is not hard to do it doesn't take a lot of energy you can do this you want to we want to bring that gravel to grade perfect see we brought that gravel right up to the top fold this over tuck it down in and what I'm going to do here is actually put a grate on the top so I put a grade on the top now all we need to do is step it down let it rain we'll haul this old soil away so we just had a pretty good rainfall and yeah there's some spongy areas you can see that but look how much difference there is in this area that we put the vertical drains that is just amazing it really did work pretty good what I want to show you though but what I want to show you is remember I've talked about Fabric and how it's slows down the inflow of water so area one area two we have fabric all the way around it right up to the top but where we have the great watch this this is amazing it looks like it'll take water all day straight into the ground below the hard pan look at that vertical drainage the secret is to get below the hard pan hey this is Chuck with apple drains reminding you that if you believe you can do something I guarantee you can do it have a great [Music] day I did a live consultation with a new company in Houston Texas just the other day and Manny the owner showed me some of their work and wow these guys are really on the ball I highly recommend that you give them a call flood mitigators link is in the description box [Music] below

Channel: French Drain Science

Views: 4,976

Keywords: french drain, yard drain, catch basin, storm drain, capillary action of soil, capillary action, crawlspace waterproofing, crawl space, waterproofing, Apple Drains, french drain installation, Chuck with Apple Drains, appledrains.com, channel drain, mirco channel drain, French Drain Science, how to install a french drain, how to build a french drain

Id: dQ_VBRoRT0U

Length: 10min 47sec (647 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 31 2024