As a home inspector I couldn't agree more. I see homes all the time that I'm told "has a french drain" but still see water issues because the "drain" has no swale and there is negative grading. most of the time grading is the problem.
You had me paying attention within the first minute. I had (2) different nationwide basement waterproofing contractors come look at my house and tell me about the same thing for solutions; interior footer drain and sump. I never pulled the trigger on that work because the estimators didn't even want to look at or talk about the front of the house, where the grade is negative, and there is no swale. I lost trust in contractors after researching further and trying to understand the hydrostatic pressure unvovled in pushing my basement walls/foundation inward. Nobody wanted to fix the actual problem. Thanks for speaking the truth on the issue. Now go fix the big contractors that rubber stamp your last resort solution for all projects.
3yrs later and they're all still push the same interior sump pump drainage system. Three quotes, $7,200k, 11,700k and $16k. I too have been hastened to pull the trigger but I know I need a fix. Wonder how things worked out
@@anthonyrobinson973plus a lot of the drainage systems they install are plastic or really bad. Plus you have to deal with other factors like some of the materials they use might be low quality. But they charge a lot and have a huge markup aside for their labor costs.
Stan, as you know but those watching might not know, is that you should never rely on the advice received from people employed at box stores without double checking with a known source. As for the video, i was a home builder for more than 40 years, and your advise is spot on. Prevent water infiltration from the outside first if at all possible. The remedies from the so called expert water proofing experts on the inside of the basement, are mostly applying band aids to the problem.
As an employee of a big box store, I could not agree more. I know where items are located inside the store, and I know some basic helpful information, but at the end of the day I am a retailer. I put things onto shelves. Ask that guy stocking shelves at the grocery store how to cook dinner using only ingredients he's never actually used himself and you might ruin your meal. Ask me how to reroof your house or repair your foundation... you can see where I'm going here. I'm all for DIY, but sometimes you really need expert knowledge, a seasoned eye, and practical experience. Things that can let water into your house or burn it down should not be left up to me.
What gets me the most, I had 2 estimates for the water intrusion in my basement, and neither company even bothered to look at my roof/gutters. I found that I had 3 downspouts leaking and one that was pointed straight at the ground. I had the gutters repaired and solved 99 percent of my water problems. 550 bucks vs 17k at the cheapest for the interior drain.
This is exactly what I was looking for. I am a first time homebuyer, under contract on a one floor home with a basement that has a sump pump and a french drain. There is evidence that water has been an issue in a few places, and upon getting the inspection, the inspector said it is a grading issue. I am contemplating hiring the proper professionals to properly correct the issue from the OUTSIDE so that it no longer becomes an issue INSIDE. Thank you so much!
These guys make so much sense.Stop the water on the outside! if thats possible.Thank you for making this video.You've answered so many questions i have.
Thank you for the information. I have a leaky basement and got 2 estimates for waterproofing (12K and 28K). Neither company mentioned grading the outside. A very knowledgeable man mentioned based on my property (slopes up in the front and slopes down in the backyard) no water should be getting in. He suggested checking the gutters and grading/back filling around the property first. After "looking up" I saw the gutter was tilted and leaking right to the spot in the basement where the water was getting in. Also, there was soil erosion next to the house (so it literally slopes down again right by the foundation of the house). I am so grateful he mentioned it to me-saves quite a bit of money and hopefully will fix the leaking!
Up here in canada we use the rubberized coating first then the plastic with dimples facing the wall so any water that gets in runs straight down to a drainage system below.
When repairing the leak in my Mothers foundation ,first I had to dig down to footing,graded for french drain,using truck brush and hose to rinse of concrete.Then went to concrete supply company to get membrane,where it was far cheeper and it came with a thumb drive video on application! By going to a supplier I gathered wisdom and saved a bunch!😊
Great video Sean. Thank you to both of you for taking the time to put this together. I've followed your channel for a year and I'm inspired and learned a lot from you. It makes a home owner more confident when tackling jobs DIY, or even when contractors come to quote work. Your videos are encouraging and very informative. Always awesome work guys!
Lucky for me, we hesitated before getting the whole inside drain/sump. Our basement only leaked during heavy rain AND when gutter overflowed next to basement window. I Pitched the gutter away from house and it’s been dry. But I wanted to find out where it was coming in so got an “expert” out to look at it. They insisted it was the false water table rising. Did some investigating. Ran the hose at that spot. It was filling the window well and coming in through the sill. Probably need to grade, and fix window well draining. That was before I saw this video. I hope I’m right, but this video has me thinking I am.
Finally a video showing the various methods one can use to eliminate water coming into a basement. I know what my plan is now thanks to your video. I also liked your comment on the 1" slope for 8 feet. Another video the guy said 1" per foot or 4" per 4 feet. Interior plumbers using a 1/4" per foot or 1" per 4 feet. That's what I'm going to use because it match the main yard or 2" slope per 8 feet. I'll be digging the soil out to put the exterior foundation coating on and then filling back with a different type of soil composition. Then the interior coating just to be on the safe side. And redoing the window sills with the angled covers. Your video rocks!!! Thanks!!!
This is one of the best videos I’ve watched on DIY stuff. Ever. You are very honest about what is needed and freely give us tons information. This was very helpful to me and Now I feel confident to do this to my house. Thank you
I have to say, that was a fantastic video. You covered all the options and gave the caveats for each. Each choice comes with pluses and minuses. Thanks for taking the time to make this. You don’t really appreciate this video until you are in this situation.
I ran into a similar situation to the one shown in the video where water was being trapped between a concrete slab and the foundation. In my case, it was a narrow strip of landscaping between the driveway and the house. Luckily, I was already planning on replacing the driveway as it was all cracked and wonky thanks to tree roots. I had the concrete guys dig out that landscaping strip and run the new slab all the way up to the house (minus the expansion joint, of course). No more grading issues, plus no more mowing and weeding. Aside from that, all I've needed was nice, long downspout extensions (proper metal ones, not cheap flex tubes).
Fantastic video guys! 👌 very informative, honest helpful advice. Straight to the point! I really appreciate that you suggested dealing with the water at the source of the problem (exterior solutions). I’m dealing with hydrostatic pressure leak and when searching online most of the suggestions were for expensive interior solutions goin out into a pump and my immediate gut instinct felt off… none of them were talking about how the water is travelling outside making its way to the foundation in the first place. Makes complete logical sense yo deal with drainage on the exterior first (if you can). Great job!
Wow wow wow I learned sooooo much. My basement is drinking water from the wall cracks. And I really like solution number 1&3. The pitch on my walk ways are pointing into the basement. Water sits.
Great video guys. One thing you may have forgotten to mention. When searching for the source of water intrusion, consider a leaking water service lateral. Especially if the yard is soggy near the area where the water pipe comes into the house. If the water meter is in a pit near the street, you might even see the meter spinning when all the fixtures in the house are off.
This happened to me at a carwash in Tulsa. Everything was off and my bills went from the standard $88, to $1,000 in one month! Rusty pipes were the problem.
Hey. That dimpled plastic thingy is called "nopovka" here. It should be installed with dimples towards the wall to create a gap. It is to ventilate radon gas and allow air to carry moisture from as large wall surface as possible (that's why only dimples should be touching the wall). We here use some kind of asfalt/rubber asfalt coating and than heat up and stick asfalt strips to the wall. Alter that you can use "nopovka" and if you feel like it you can place perforated pipe at the bottom to catch and possibly pump the water if it is needed.
I never realized just how many states don't build basements under their houses but I guess there's a lot of places you can't build a basement because of water which is weird to me because the excavating company I worked for, for 25yrs did mostly pipelines but we dug a lot of foundations for basements here in my state PA
I had many waterproofing companies quote my leaky basement. This was very informative. I actually had to have my basement dug up on the outside which this video did not show. But for this house, the interior waterproofing was the best call. Thanks for the good information.
I agree with waterproofing the foundation. I cleaned the walls with a steel wire brush down to the footing then slapped on a thick coat of flashing cement, plastic membrane, and insulation. Lastly, I installed a french drain and never had a drop of water in my basement.
i dont mean to be off topic but does any of you know a way to get back into an Instagram account?? I was stupid forgot the login password. I would appreciate any help you can offer me.
@Achilles Duke i really appreciate your reply. I found the site thru google and im trying it out now. Takes a while so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
This is the reason why I tell my customers to watch Stanley. With a couple of exceptions I agree with his repair methods. My only difference here is that I don’t use a coating on concrete walls. I use Grace Bituthane, which is like a 60mil tar paper with an adhesive back. Using it insures that no spot can be missed. I also wouldn’t recommend interior drainage on this house. In one scene you can see the exterior face stone has cracked which would show that there is foundation settlement. So I would stop the water before is gets under the foundation. Other than that... perfect. I have probably recommended 1000 customers to watch the Dirt Monkey. Well Done!
Wow , this is the best wet basement video I've seen as I have the same exact situation, yard slopes into one side of my double wall brick house, and it takes in a lot of water. I'm in the process of getting a permit to do option 3 which is to excavate exterior to foundation, add rubber mat and foam insulation, etc etc. Only problem I see now is I want to do it myself but it is possible the city will force me to hire a contractor, which will easily cost 12k to 15k, when I can do the job for about 4k with a rental excavator.
Glad I found this video! Our home is on a slope and every time we get hard rain the crawlspace floods. We had three water proofing companies come out and two of them went sump pump and new vapor barrier. But that doesn't help keep the water from intruding, I thought. The third company wanted to basically do your third option but around the entire house which would have been 30k. Only one part of our foundation is exposed to the soil bit of the slope. I'm going to dig my own trench, water proof membrane the foundation and add the pipe myself. Then grade away from the house when I fill it back in. Luckily this North Carolina soil is mostly clay LOL.
Straight shooting and timely... Owned the house for 13 years never a problem. Then one of the wettest winters.. torrential rain for 6 weeks. then 8 inches of snow, on the ground only 3 days and the temperature went way up.. and the net result rapid melt and water in the basement.. not a lot but significant. So I called "the guy". He says pull all the sheet rock first , 2 4 ft wide walls, so he can see the problem, I did it.. these are concrete block walls, the usual stuff. Yup, you guessed it, no water on the walls...very little water at the base but 1/8th inch along the base of the walls and 16th" on to the floors. The "guy" shows up and looks at the situation. Within 2 minutes, he suggested a sump pump and a 4 ft of "c" channel. .$4K .. three guys and done in one day. I am responsible for the replacement of the sheet rock and clean up. Really ? Gets better. He said if that doesn't work...next step is to strip the sheet rock off another 16' of wall in the adjacent room and rip out the carpet and moldings etc. They will continue the "c" channel and run the sump pump discharge pipe out of the base of the front of the house. They will add some kind of cloth barrier on the walls. I do the sheet rock and cleanup. Additional cost $16K !! Oh yeah.. sign me up. I might be ignorant but I'm not a fool. I watched more videos Thankfully I watched several videos, and now yours. Here's what I got from your video. SUMP PUMP IS THE LAST RESORT. Then: Me, the guy that didn't clean our gutters on the wet side of the house.. the basement water side. I cleaned the gutters which go into two black corrugated pipes which goes down the hill in front of our house into a roadside drain. What I will do next: Grading..Mine is a 3 inch slope over 8 feet.. aimed right at the house. Time to get out the shovels. Third, sill plate how about mine ?..touching to 5 inches. I'll dig it out. Next French drain. in the center of a swale. I ran all this by my neighbor who is a civil engineer (so was my father RIP) He confirmed it was the right course of action. He said, as did you, Sump pump .. last resort and usually by those companies who are clueless greedy, con artists or all of the above. Thanks for the video, liked and subscribed.
The yellowing is referred to as Alkalinity Browning. When water dries slowly it can become alkaline, creating a discoloration. This term is used frequently in the carpet cleaning industry. Same concept for armpit sweat on a white shirt. In the carpet industry, we use an acid rinse to neutralize the ph. Acid rinse doesn't apply to concrete walls, but the more you know. Enjoyed the video man. Thanks for all the good info 👍👍👍
A thermal camera can help find damp spots in the wall even if you can't spot the tell-tale signs you mentioned. The thermal cam will show a cold spot anywhere there's dampness.
One of the better videos providing proper solutions as with your other content as I've commented before. Thanks for the Lowes and Menards run because home cheapo had no idea when I asked about foundation solutions. They pointed me to the tintable interior gallon solution not the exterior rubberized fiber coating in the 5 gallon container. Also, I couldn't find the name of the hard plastic wrap to price match and your description plus the pallet racking label shot was unmistakable. Grade A video. Props.
We did 3/4 of our external basement walls on our house in France last year. Dug out the basement walls down to the the bottom of the foundation walls 2.5m x 1m for 20m length (using hand tools as no way to get a mini digger in there). Cleaned up the stone, repointed it, 3 layers of render to get it all flat, Rubberised / tar paint over that and then the dimpled membrane over that. 3" of compacted sand in the trench base, followed by a 'geotextile' sheet in a giant U into the bottom of the trench, the ends sitting above ground level (it was a 4m wide roll). We then laid our pierced drain tubing into that and filled with gravel all the way up to slightly below ground level. Closed over the Geotextile and then added more gravel / stone over the top to just above ground level and sloping away from the wall. It took 9 months to complete but should do the trick ! One thing you want to add is a metal strip that forms a lip over the top of the dimpled membrane to stop water running down the wall from above and behind the membrane. You also need to make sure to tape the joints in the membrane sheets to make them really sealed shut. over engineered maybe but for the sake of an hour and a couple of rolls of tape, worth the peace of mind. At 15 mins in the video, what's that pipe on the opposite house wall? Hope its not throwing water out?
You know what you're talking about I appreciate it even this video you definitely know what you're talking about thank you very much New York Staten Island I did that to my house I end up using flushing cements old school way but thank you I wish you were there 28 years ago
I have family that install drains in Missouri and they have told me that unless you line the trench of a french drain with non-woven filter fabric before you put in the rock and drain tile and wrap it over the top, that the soil will migrate through and mix with the rock and slow down if not stop water from reaching the drain tile. Wrapped with a non-woven filter fabric, all of the water in the soil that reaches all of the rock flows to the drain tile and quickly drains off.
They did say that the all-in-one drain tile are a good second choice. Not as efficient but the foam "rocks" wrapped in the fabric do prevent the drain tile from getting plugged up.
This video was extremely helpful. I had the same problem others have mentioned here, getting a proper diagnoses of my occasional flooding. Even though I told them it only flooded when the gutter overflowed onto the side of the house, they told me it was the false water table coming through the bottom at the footing. It made no sense. No flooding for years, as long as the gutter was pitched away from the house. After the sticker shock of their solution, I did my own investigating and found that when I ran the hose next to the house, the small window well was filling up and running into the basement thru the sill. That’s not to say their solution wouldn’t have solved that. But I’ve got to believe grading, French drain with a good draining window well will actually solve it. Maybe not. But we will see. Their solution involved tearing out the walls and cabinets, digging trench, and Installing sump. Just tell me the options instead of insisting on the last resort “guaranteed” to work solution.
When we built our new house this year I made sure to put a drain tile in near the footer and then fill it with clear til a foot from the ground level then clay and then top soil to grow grass because the house is built into a hill here in PA. And here it's nothing but hills and flood zones haha so we built on the hills haha I also put a small basin in the one corner of the sub floor in the basement to hold the sump pump and the water drains all go to the pump and that way if I do get water it will run straight to one of the drains we installed in the basement floor and then to the basin where the sump pump is and hopefully it works great I got the idea from our last house we bought and lived in for about 10 years it had a sub floor in the basement with a drain system and a pump
Nice overview of the scope of a drain and waterproofing project. Very good starting point to explain to other homeowners the process we have learned about. Glad I found out about a water backup to my sump. If I had not already had an interior drain, I think I would look to the ones you can hose out if they clog.
This is the only vdeo I have seen that even mentiomed doing it yourself . After getting an estimate to do mine, the basement drainage with sump pump. I got major sticker shock. I am pretty sure we can handle it each step of the way. We have already done lots of major work ourselves. Moving the broken concrete, dirt, gravel and new concrete will be hard heavy work but my husband and brother that lives with us can be a big help with that. I can save $1,000s of dollars.
If you are dealing with a slight cracked foundation that is allowing the water to enter the basement, there is a method to inject expanding material from inside the basement that will expand throughout the crack all the way out into the soil.
Damnnn excellent video A LOT of very good knowledge that you only get having a business yourself ! Thank you ! This video deserves all the thumbs up and subs !
when you have shady basement windows like that with the old nails and no seal they are creating a moist environment with temperature differential bugs ect must cost a lot to try to heat in winter sunken sidewalks and splash protection of walls good points good video as a concrete guy I would say new properly sloped sidewalks cheers from ontario
I'm in a similar position as these two houses but my house is closer than my neighbors then the house is in this video. I was thinking if you dug up maybe 2 ft down and then made a v in the ground between the two houses and then laid your plastic down with the drain pipe in the center and then filled everything with gravel this should fix the drainage between the two houses very well.
Excellent intro regarding option 1 and the mention of option 2, but I wasn't at all clear on why the featured house needed the more invasive full foundation dig that was claimed. If that were mine I'd try window wells with bottom drains that fed into french drain and the slope ... especially since an existing neg slope was identified.
Good video. I can see the next door neighbor adding 1.5x as much drain slope as the project house next year to combat his newly wet basement 😂 💦 Water, can’t live with it, or without it.
for someone so fixated on the IRC stipulation that we keep grade 6" below the sill plate (and siding), you missed the part that says high termite areas may not use foam board on the exterior subgrade surfaces. you also missed where it says to use a 5% grade extending 10 feet from the foundation. 5% of 120 inches is 6 inches. your 1 inch drop over 8 feet of run works out to abt a 1% grade. with that out of the way, step one is to determine WHY the water is coming in. if water comes in through cracks, then obviously seal the cracks. if water percolates DOWN through the soil and penetrates at the footing, there are a number of options. clean gutters with downspouts extended to discharge at least 10' from foundation. correct the grade. dig out and waterproof with compound or EPDM, install footing drain, install dimple board, or a combination of the three. if water table rises and overflows the footing, no amount of grading or waterproofing is going to fix the problem. dig out the footing and install a drain BELOW THE FOOTING, install a sump and discharge somewhere it won't find it's wake back in, or both. talking to a local historian i learned that before my block was redeveloped there was a cistern near what is now the corner of my basement. that would make a perched water table. sump pump it is.
Sorry but the dimpels goes inn against the wall to let the wall breathe. Here in Norway it's almost only drainage with the plastic/membrane and also waterproof concrete first than the plastic with the dimpels inn, than isolation xps.
I was going to say the exact same thing. Treat the wall with a water proofing like the rubberized coating then attach the membrane dimple side in so the water will drain down the wall around the dimples to the drain tile below the footing.
I did the wrong order in My comment, it's water proofing the wall first, than isolation and last the plastic/membrane with the dimples against the xps isolation. It's been a lot of discussion about if the isolation goes first ore last but here the Sintef research organisation have researched the topic and found out that the plastic membrane is the last before rocks. So that's how I install it when I do my drainage jobs.
The System Platon® - www.Isola.com is a Nordic invention made in 1960's used on outside basement walls to waterproofing or on concrete basement floors to get rid of moisture vapor. I use it also between wood and soil f e in compost crates and around wood poles in ground. Dimples always against the concrete side. [It's pronunciated as the name of Greek philosopher Platon plaat-on just as flat-on]
You mentioned several times to get a battery backup sump pump. Then you have problems if the battery dies. There is another option for backup sump pump, it uses fresh water supply from the city to power the pump. It's a bit more expensive but how much is it worth to not have your basement full of water.
As long as you do it properly! Example: [Knock-Knock... "Hi, neighbor,, do you realize that Your rainwater is FLOODING my F#*()>&- basement? Or are you just a complete, clueless idiot? FIX YOUR f>=$)!@ downspouts to not point at my F>=%$ house! ] (Point out their stupidity- the love that!) "Oh, hi Charlie- is your mom and dad home?" KIDDING! 😆😂🤣😁 It's been a long year! 🤧😷
Good luck with that.. for 16 years my neighbor in a townhouse section i lived in never cleaned his gutters so it dripped off his roof next to the foundation and it would always leak in my basement
My neighbors just moved after 22 years and they never cleaned the gutters and ran it down into my basement. Now they are gone , they have new gutters now so we shall see.
If you're referring to the downspout extension at the rear corner, it would be a minor concern compared to the poor grading of the site itself. Properly graded, a swale would still take that water away from the building rather than back towards it. Improperly graded, you're just trapping water against the building until it flows over the foundation (or through the window). Still, changing the direction of those things takes maybe $10 and a trip to the Home Despot?
I know the grading is the obvious issue, just pointing out a scene in the video. Like I said, the neighbor could be so kind as to change the direction. Would be cheap and wouldn't hurt.
I've used drylok before on basement walls and certain spots water was still able to get through even after multiple coats. So It's not a guaranteed seal. It's got sand in it which fills in all the nooks and crannys in the cinder blocks and it's supposed to seal the interior walls but it doesn't work on stubborn areas.
At 10:17 the box labeled Hydraproof 3000 is a super sticky thick rolled waterproofing membrane. We used to use that stuff to waterproof ICFs, but you better have experienced help cause if it sticks in the wrong spot, its not coming back off. Its like an innertube for your wall if done properly.
How do you feel about using hard pipe for a French drain when it is under 6' worth of dirt? I feel as if the perforated drain pipe is too weak and will collapse under that much weight.
My french drain was done like that, and the permeable fabric became impermeable with dirt clogging the pores. I had it redone with no fabric around the pipe, no fabric on the rocks, no dirt on top, and it works perfectly. The french drain has to be perfectly free to catch surface water immediately so the water doesn't have time to build up and run somewhere else.
Your advice also applies to folks in the south who may not have a basement but we have settlement of our structures. Send the water away from your structure.
i have an extreme flooding problem in my back yard. i have 3-4 houses with sub pumps UP hill from our house. all that water drains and collects in my back yard. the standing water is so much last year i couldnted 27 cat tails. i live in the middle of town! im almost afraid a DNR officer will show up and say its a wild life refuge! lol. im thinking of filling it in with class 5. its slightly up hill from the water to the house and then down hill (2 foot) to the sidewalk/street. it drains that direction now but in the winter time we ice the crap out of everything from the side walk to the street. thankfully the house is above the water settling line and stays dry! we do have a nice subpump ourself and it runs perfectly. the "swamp" im looking to fill is around 24x40 foot. im guessing 12-14 inches deep. 70% of that area is water right now from the snow melt.
I own a New England home built in 1860 on the original stone and mortar foundation. The basement wall literally has several waterfalls when we get heavy rain, and the exterior features of the house are really weird and make it difficult to properly set a grade and swale. It's on my to do list though haha
Dimples in on the Foundation wrap. At least on the DMX AG that you showed. Helps relieve Hydrostatic pressure and counts as a damp proofing not water proofing.
Drylok traps moisture and accelerates efflorescence and breakdown on the concrete. Home Depot does not sell this but look for master building product systems like master seal. They have specific sealants for inside and out. Stuff is used on Waterdam’s and ponds just saying..
If anyone does the interior water proofing please undermine the floor once you jackhammer or saw the the concrete. Otherwise you well contuine to get hydrostatic pressure causing you to get cracks in your floor. If your floor has cracks with water coming up from them, but the drainage tile in those cracks an make a direct line to your sump pump. Also do not buy the drainage tile either popcorn around it. It WELL clog up and you well have issues down the road. Also make sure your sump pump is in a Croc with a sealed lid, that way you can reduce the amount of humid feeling. Seal up any and all crack while you are replacing the concrete or the water well find the weak spot and come up. Its alot harder then they make it seem. As a professional water proofer I know.
Great information. One thing that was not clarified. For simply adjusting the grade away from the house it is implied that using dirt is OK. In the discussion about exposing and sealing the basement wall using clay as a top material to direct water away from the foundation is suggested. Assuming clay is the preferred material for both?
What type of contractor would you contact to do this work? Would it be a landscaper an excavator? Great video! I had two companies come out with option of pumping out from the basement...it didn't make sense to me... isn't that basically recycling the water over and over?
I loved this fast but detailed review of options!! Wish video included results of what you actually ended up doing with that particular house. I live in a neighborhood of houses where spacing between home foundations is an alleyway width of 3-7 feet max’ and we have issues with water seeping in to our basements even though alley is asphalted and we have gutters. This is a poor neighborhood. What should we do? Can we use cement to better pitch and divert to front or back of homes?? I am at a loss on what to do. Water seems to seep in from lower 3rd of my basement rubble wall of 1900 home.
hey.. 27 min in the video u say that the dimples on the platoon are to go on the outside.. actually its going on the inside so that the vall can breathe.. we have been using this stuff in norway for maaaany years.. french drain, platoon, xps insulation, gravel. sorry for bad english.. From Norway with love :)
This needs to be the top video when searching "wet basements"
Zero BS and good advice. Just what I like 👍
As a home inspector I couldn't agree more. I see homes all the time that I'm told "has a french drain" but still see water issues because the "drain" has no swale and there is negative grading. most of the time grading is the problem.
I like how they talk back and forth and explain it I couldn't stop watching even after I got what I needed to hear...👍
You had me paying attention within the first minute. I had (2) different nationwide basement waterproofing contractors come look at my house and tell me about the same thing for solutions; interior footer drain and sump. I never pulled the trigger on that work because the estimators didn't even want to look at or talk about the front of the house, where the grade is negative, and there is no swale. I lost trust in contractors after researching further and trying to understand the hydrostatic pressure unvovled in pushing my basement walls/foundation inward. Nobody wanted to fix the actual problem. Thanks for speaking the truth on the issue. Now go fix the big contractors that rubber stamp your last resort solution for all projects.
3yrs later and they're all still push the same interior sump pump drainage system. Three quotes, $7,200k, 11,700k and $16k. I too have been hastened to pull the trigger but I know I need a fix. Wonder how things worked out
@@anthonyrobinson973plus a lot of the drainage systems they install are plastic or really bad. Plus you have to deal with other factors like some of the materials they use might be low quality. But they charge a lot and have a huge markup aside for their labor costs.
Stan, as you know but those watching might not know, is that you should never rely on the advice received from people employed at box stores without double checking with a known source.
As for the video, i was a home builder for more than 40 years, and your advise is spot on.
Prevent water infiltration from the outside first if at all possible.
The remedies from the so called expert water proofing experts on the inside of the basement, are mostly applying band aids to the problem.
As an employee of a big box store, I could not agree more. I know where items are located inside the store, and I know some basic helpful information, but at the end of the day I am a retailer. I put things onto shelves. Ask that guy stocking shelves at the grocery store how to cook dinner using only ingredients he's never actually used himself and you might ruin your meal. Ask me how to reroof your house or repair your foundation... you can see where I'm going here. I'm all for DIY, but sometimes you really need expert knowledge, a seasoned eye, and practical experience. Things that can let water into your house or burn it down should not be left up to me.
What gets me the most, I had 2 estimates for the water intrusion in my basement, and neither company even bothered to look at my roof/gutters. I found that I had 3 downspouts leaking and one that was pointed straight at the ground. I had the gutters repaired and solved 99 percent of my water problems. 550 bucks vs 17k at the cheapest for the interior drain.
This is exactly what I was looking for. I am a first time homebuyer, under contract on a one floor home with a basement that has a sump pump and a french drain. There is evidence that water has been an issue in a few places, and upon getting the inspection, the inspector said it is a grading issue. I am contemplating hiring the proper professionals to properly correct the issue from the OUTSIDE so that it no longer becomes an issue INSIDE. Thank you so much!
Did you fix the grading? Also look at your gutters and downspouts
@@nofurtherwest3474 actually the whole french drain has to be replaced because some genius poured concrete into it and sealed off its sole purpose.
@@indiegarona oh… are you the same person?
These guys make so much sense.Stop the water on the outside! if thats possible.Thank you for making this video.You've answered so many questions i have.
Great! Thanks for the comments!
Thank you for the information. I have a leaky basement and got 2 estimates for waterproofing (12K and 28K). Neither company mentioned grading the outside. A very knowledgeable man mentioned based on my property (slopes up in the front and slopes down in the backyard) no water should be getting in. He suggested checking the gutters and grading/back filling around the property first. After "looking up" I saw the gutter was tilted and leaking right to the spot in the basement where the water was getting in. Also, there was soil erosion next to the house (so it literally slopes down again right by the foundation of the house). I am so grateful he mentioned it to me-saves quite a bit of money and hopefully will fix the leaking!
Thanks Julie, hope it works out well for you !
Thank you Julie
Stanley was very good in explaining the 4 solutions of dealing with water coming into the basement. I taken him to be a very honest and competent man.
I'm not an expert, but this is the most thorough video I've seen. Now i know how to get started with my water issue. Thank you
Awesome Tim, thank you !
Up here in canada we use the rubberized coating first then the plastic with dimples facing the wall so any water that gets in runs straight down to a drainage system below.
When it rains on the wall the dimple allow the water to go in.. its never permeable with the wall...
What drainage system? You had one installed?
When repairing the leak in my Mothers foundation ,first I had to dig down to footing,graded for french drain,using truck brush and hose to rinse of concrete.Then went to concrete supply company to get membrane,where it was far cheeper and it came with a thumb drive video on application! By going to a supplier I gathered wisdom and saved a bunch!😊
Great video Sean. Thank you to both of you for taking the time to put this together. I've followed your channel for a year and I'm inspired and learned a lot from you. It makes a home owner more confident when tackling jobs DIY, or even when contractors come to quote work.
Your videos are encouraging and very informative. Always awesome work guys!
Lucky for me, we hesitated before getting the whole inside drain/sump. Our basement only leaked during heavy rain AND when gutter overflowed next to basement window. I Pitched the gutter away from house and it’s been dry. But I wanted to find out where it was coming in so got an “expert” out to look at it. They insisted it was the false water table rising. Did some investigating. Ran the hose at that spot. It was filling the window well and coming in through the sill. Probably need to grade, and fix window well draining. That was before I saw this video. I hope I’m right, but this video has me thinking I am.
Stanley, thank you again ….. I always learn and appreciate you taking your time to make and post these helpful and informative videos. All the best!!
You are very welcome
Can u do this water proofing in my house in ny
Finally a video showing the various methods one can use to eliminate water coming into a basement. I know what my plan is now thanks to your video. I also liked your comment on the 1" slope for 8 feet. Another video the guy said 1" per foot or 4" per 4 feet. Interior plumbers using a 1/4" per foot or 1" per 4 feet. That's what I'm going to use because it match the main yard or 2" slope per 8 feet. I'll be digging the soil out to put the exterior foundation coating on and then filling back with a different type of soil composition. Then the interior coating just to be on the safe side. And redoing the window sills with the angled covers. Your video rocks!!! Thanks!!!
This is one of the best videos I’ve watched on DIY stuff. Ever. You are very honest about what is needed and freely give us tons information. This was very helpful to me and Now I feel confident to do this to my house. Thank you
I have to say, that was a fantastic video. You covered all the options and gave the caveats for each. Each choice comes with pluses and minuses. Thanks for taking the time to make this. You don’t really appreciate this video until you are in this situation.
I ran into a similar situation to the one shown in the video where water was being trapped between a concrete slab and the foundation. In my case, it was a narrow strip of landscaping between the driveway and the house. Luckily, I was already planning on replacing the driveway as it was all cracked and wonky thanks to tree roots.
I had the concrete guys dig out that landscaping strip and run the new slab all the way up to the house (minus the expansion joint, of course). No more grading issues, plus no more mowing and weeding. Aside from that, all I've needed was nice, long downspout extensions (proper metal ones, not cheap flex tubes).
Fantastic video guys! 👌 very informative, honest helpful advice. Straight to the point! I really appreciate that you suggested dealing with the water at the source of the problem (exterior solutions). I’m dealing with hydrostatic pressure leak and when searching online most of the suggestions were for expensive interior solutions goin out into a pump and my immediate gut instinct felt off… none of them were talking about how the water is travelling outside making its way to the foundation in the first place. Makes complete logical sense yo deal with drainage on the exterior first (if you can). Great job!
Very thorough video again! I appreciate the time and going to the different stores to show the products. Above and beyond the rest. Thanks.
Wow wow wow I learned sooooo much. My basement is drinking water from the wall cracks. And I really like solution number 1&3. The pitch on my walk ways are pointing into the basement. Water sits.
Great video guys. One thing you may have forgotten to mention. When searching for the source of water intrusion, consider a leaking water service lateral. Especially if the yard is soggy near the area where the water pipe comes into the house. If the water meter is in a pit near the street, you might even see the meter spinning when all the fixtures in the house are off.
This happened to me at a carwash in Tulsa. Everything was off and my bills went from the standard $88, to $1,000 in one month!
Rusty pipes were the problem.
I've always used the 3 G's - gutters, grade & ground water. Very often it's gutters & grade to fix as you've indicated.
Hey. That dimpled plastic thingy is called "nopovka" here. It should be installed with dimples towards the wall to create a gap. It is to ventilate radon gas and allow air to carry moisture from as large wall surface as possible (that's why only dimples should be touching the wall). We here use some kind of asfalt/rubber asfalt coating and than heat up and stick asfalt strips to the wall. Alter that you can use "nopovka" and if you feel like it you can place perforated pipe at the bottom to catch and possibly pump the water if it is needed.
I was gonna say. We just call it dimple board. But dimples in, drain tile at bottom.
Just like you said.
I never realized just how many states don't build basements under their houses but I guess there's a lot of places you can't build a basement because of water which is weird to me because the excavating company I worked for, for 25yrs did mostly pipelines but we dug a lot of foundations for basements here in my state PA
I had many waterproofing companies quote my leaky basement. This was very informative. I actually had to have my basement dug up on the outside which this video did not show. But for this house, the interior waterproofing was the best call. Thanks for the good information.
Understanding made easy! Opening doors and minds to infinite possibilities.
I agree with waterproofing the foundation. I cleaned the walls with a steel wire brush down to the footing then slapped on a thick coat of flashing cement, plastic membrane, and insulation. Lastly, I installed a french drain and never had a drop of water in my basement.
i dont mean to be off topic but does any of you know a way to get back into an Instagram account??
I was stupid forgot the login password. I would appreciate any help you can offer me.
@Achilles Duke i really appreciate your reply. I found the site thru google and im trying it out now.
Takes a while so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Achilles Duke it worked and I finally got access to my account again. I'm so happy!
Thank you so much you saved my ass :D
@Dustin Charles glad I could help :)
Would this be the way to go if I wanted my basement functional and not have to worry about things being damnagwd bwcause of moisture??
This is the reason why I tell my customers to watch Stanley. With a couple of exceptions I agree with his repair methods. My only difference here is that I don’t use a coating on concrete walls. I use Grace Bituthane, which is like a 60mil tar paper with an adhesive back. Using it insures that no spot can be missed. I also wouldn’t recommend interior drainage on this house. In one scene you can see the exterior face stone has cracked which would show that there is foundation settlement. So I would stop the water before is gets under the foundation. Other than that... perfect. I have probably recommended 1000 customers to watch the Dirt Monkey. Well Done!
Wow , this is the best wet basement video I've seen as I have the same exact situation, yard slopes into one side of my double wall brick house, and it takes in a lot of water. I'm in the process of getting a permit to do option 3 which is to excavate exterior to foundation, add rubber mat and foam insulation, etc etc. Only problem I see now is I want to do it myself but it is possible the city will force me to hire a contractor, which will easily cost 12k to 15k, when I can do the job for about 4k with a rental excavator.
Glad I found this video! Our home is on a slope and every time we get hard rain the crawlspace floods. We had three water proofing companies come out and two of them went sump pump and new vapor barrier. But that doesn't help keep the water from intruding, I thought. The third company wanted to basically do your third option but around the entire house which would have been 30k.
Only one part of our foundation is exposed to the soil bit of the slope. I'm going to dig my own trench, water proof membrane the foundation and add the pipe myself. Then grade away from the house when I fill it back in. Luckily this North Carolina soil is mostly clay LOL.
Straight shooting and timely... Owned the house for 13 years never a problem.
Then one of the wettest winters.. torrential rain for 6 weeks. then 8 inches of snow,
on the ground only 3 days and the temperature went way up.. and the net result rapid melt and
water in the basement.. not a lot but significant.
So I called "the guy". He says pull all the sheet rock first , 2 4 ft wide walls, so he can see the problem,
I did it.. these are concrete block walls, the usual stuff.
Yup, you guessed it, no water on the walls...very little water at the base but 1/8th inch along the base
of the walls and 16th" on to the floors.
The "guy" shows up and looks at the situation. Within 2 minutes, he suggested a sump pump and a 4 ft of "c" channel.
.$4K .. three guys and done in one day. I am responsible for the replacement of the sheet rock and clean up.
Really ? Gets better. He said if that doesn't work...next step is to strip the sheet rock off another 16' of wall
in the adjacent room and rip out the carpet and moldings etc. They will continue the "c" channel and run the sump pump
discharge pipe out of the base of the front of the house. They will add some kind of cloth barrier on the walls.
I do the sheet rock and cleanup. Additional cost $16K !!
Oh yeah.. sign me up. I might be ignorant but I'm not a fool.
I watched more videos Thankfully I watched several videos, and now yours.
Here's what I got from your video. SUMP PUMP IS THE LAST RESORT.
Then:
Me, the guy that didn't clean our gutters on the wet side of the house.. the basement water side.
I cleaned the gutters which go into two black corrugated pipes which goes down the hill in front of our house into a roadside drain.
What I will do next:
Grading..Mine is a 3 inch slope over 8 feet.. aimed right at the house.
Time to get out the shovels.
Third, sill plate how about mine ?..touching to 5 inches. I'll dig it out.
Next French drain. in the center of a swale.
I ran all this by my neighbor who is a civil engineer (so was my father RIP)
He confirmed it was the right course of action. He said, as did you, Sump pump .. last resort and usually by those
companies who are clueless greedy, con artists or all of the above.
Thanks for the video, liked and subscribed.
The yellowing is referred to as Alkalinity Browning. When water dries slowly it can become alkaline, creating a discoloration. This term is used frequently in the carpet cleaning industry. Same concept for armpit sweat on a white shirt. In the carpet industry, we use an acid rinse to neutralize the ph. Acid rinse doesn't apply to concrete walls, but the more you know. Enjoyed the video man. Thanks for all the good info 👍👍👍
Thank you Chris and thanks for the comments !
Great advise 👍🏼 Look up...and to the left lol those homes are super close. May also have water coming in from the neighbors roof. Just my thought.
I would recommend in areas with high groundwater pressure tandem sump pump basins to prevent short cycling sump pump
I wish I could afford to have this done for my house.
Great video. Very informative!
A thermal camera can help find damp spots in the wall even if you can't spot the tell-tale signs you mentioned. The thermal cam will show a cold spot anywhere there's dampness.
Yup, gotta love Flir.
Where do you buy this thermal camera
@@amyvaughn2440 www.flir-direct.com/category/flir-thermal-imagers
One of the better videos providing proper solutions as with your other content as I've commented before. Thanks for the Lowes and Menards run because home cheapo had no idea when I asked about foundation solutions. They pointed me to the tintable interior gallon solution not the exterior rubberized fiber coating in the 5 gallon container. Also, I couldn't find the name of the hard plastic wrap to price match and your description plus the pallet racking label shot was unmistakable. Grade A video. Props.
You guys rock. That was so informative and covered everything a homeowner needs to know about preventive measures and solutions. Thank you!
Your last part about doing it inside a good illustration would be a good idea and very helpful thanx
Learned a lot. My basement is brownstone block construction from 1889. Even more difficult
We did 3/4 of our external basement walls on our house in France last year. Dug out the basement walls down to the the bottom of the foundation walls 2.5m x 1m for 20m length (using hand tools as no way to get a mini digger in there). Cleaned up the stone, repointed it, 3 layers of render to get it all flat, Rubberised / tar paint over that and then the dimpled membrane over that. 3" of compacted sand in the trench base, followed by a 'geotextile' sheet in a giant U into the bottom of the trench, the ends sitting above ground level (it was a 4m wide roll). We then laid our pierced drain tubing into that and filled with gravel all the way up to slightly below ground level. Closed over the Geotextile and then added more gravel / stone over the top to just above ground level and sloping away from the wall. It took 9 months to complete but should do the trick !
One thing you want to add is a metal strip that forms a lip over the top of the dimpled membrane to stop water running down the wall from above and behind the membrane. You also need to make sure to tape the joints in the membrane sheets to make them really sealed shut. over engineered maybe but for the sake of an hour and a couple of rolls of tape, worth the peace of mind.
At 15 mins in the video, what's that pipe on the opposite house wall? Hope its not throwing water out?
You know what you're talking about I appreciate it even this video you definitely know what you're talking about thank you very much New York Staten Island I did that to my house I end up using flushing cements old school way but thank you I wish you were there 28 years ago
You guys are good teachers thanks
Thank you!!
Your channel is legit. This is good solid stuff. We appreciate it.
Great video, been battling this for years with my house. Sucks!
I have family that install drains in Missouri and they have told me that unless you line the trench of a french drain with non-woven filter fabric before you put in the rock and drain tile and wrap it over the top, that the soil will migrate through and mix with the rock and slow down if not stop water from reaching the drain tile. Wrapped with a non-woven filter fabric, all of the water in the soil that reaches all of the rock flows to the drain tile and quickly drains off.
They did say that the all-in-one drain tile are a good second choice. Not as efficient but the foam "rocks" wrapped in the fabric do prevent the drain tile from getting plugged up.
Hey, if you don't mind me asking how much did that cost tou total,? Do they charge based on dimensions? Thanks
This video was extremely helpful. I had the same problem others have mentioned here, getting a proper diagnoses of my occasional flooding. Even though I told them it only flooded when the gutter overflowed onto the side of the house, they told me it was the false water table coming through the bottom at the footing. It made no sense. No flooding for years, as long as the gutter was pitched away from the house. After the sticker shock of their solution, I did my own investigating and found that when I ran the hose next to the house, the small window well was filling up and running into the basement thru the sill. That’s not to say their solution wouldn’t have solved that. But I’ve got to believe grading, French drain with a good draining window well will actually solve it. Maybe not. But we will see. Their solution involved tearing out the walls and cabinets, digging trench, and Installing sump. Just tell me the options instead of insisting on the last resort “guaranteed” to work solution.
Thank you....good info....I am in New England and lots of water in my basement...I am learning what will be right for the job that needs to be done!
This was awesome 👏 thank you for sharing your knowledge in such great detail. You have great camera presence too!
When we built our new house this year I made sure to put a drain tile in near the footer and then fill it with clear til a foot from the ground level then clay and then top soil to grow grass because the house is built into a hill here in PA. And here it's nothing but hills and flood zones haha so we built on the hills haha I also put a small basin in the one corner of the sub floor in the basement to hold the sump pump and the water drains all go to the pump and that way if I do get water it will run straight to one of the drains we installed in the basement floor and then to the basin where the sump pump is and hopefully it works great I got the idea from our last house we bought and lived in for about 10 years it had a sub floor in the basement with a drain system and a pump
2 very intelligent men thanks guys
Nice overview of the scope of a drain and waterproofing project. Very good starting point to explain to other homeowners the process we have learned about. Glad I found out about a water backup to my sump. If I had not already had an interior drain, I think I would look to the ones you can hose out if they clog.
This is the only vdeo I have seen that even mentiomed doing it yourself . After getting an estimate to do mine, the basement drainage with sump pump. I got major sticker shock. I am pretty sure we can handle it each step of the way. We have already done lots of major work ourselves. Moving the broken concrete, dirt, gravel and new concrete will be hard heavy work but my husband and brother that lives with us can be a big help with that. I can save $1,000s of dollars.
Hope it helps out, thanks for watching Sandy !
If you are dealing with a slight cracked foundation that is allowing the water to enter the basement, there is a method to inject expanding material from inside the basement that will expand throughout the crack all the way out into the soil.
Great information and an orderly presentation!
Glad it was helpful!
Damnnn excellent video A LOT of very good knowledge that you only get having a business yourself ! Thank you ! This video deserves all the thumbs up and subs !
house advice from Richards Rollins cousin. great vid
when you have shady basement windows like that with the old nails and no seal they are creating a moist environment with temperature differential bugs ect must cost a lot to try to heat in winter sunken sidewalks and splash protection of walls good points good video as a concrete guy I would say new properly sloped sidewalks cheers from ontario
I'm in a similar position as these two houses but my house is closer than my neighbors then the house is in this video. I was thinking if you dug up maybe 2 ft down and then made a v in the ground between the two houses and then laid your plastic down with the drain pipe in the center and then filled everything with gravel this should fix the drainage between the two houses very well.
Excellent intro regarding option 1 and the mention of option 2, but I wasn't at all clear on why the featured house needed the more invasive full foundation dig that was claimed. If that were mine I'd try window wells with bottom drains that fed into french drain and the slope ... especially since an existing neg slope was identified.
My problem was not the gutters but the downspouts they were not long enough at the ends so I extended them out farther into my lawn and that helped
Good video. I can see the next door neighbor adding 1.5x as much drain slope as the project house next year to combat his newly wet basement 😂 💦 Water, can’t live with it, or without it.
for someone so fixated on the IRC stipulation that we keep grade 6" below the sill plate (and siding), you missed the part that says high termite areas may not use foam board on the exterior subgrade surfaces. you also missed where it says to use a 5% grade extending 10 feet from the foundation. 5% of 120 inches is 6 inches. your 1 inch drop over 8 feet of run works out to abt a 1% grade.
with that out of the way, step one is to determine WHY the water is coming in.
if water comes in through cracks, then obviously seal the cracks.
if water percolates DOWN through the soil and penetrates at the footing, there are a number of options. clean gutters with downspouts extended to discharge at least 10' from foundation. correct the grade. dig out and waterproof with compound or EPDM, install footing drain, install dimple board, or a combination of the three.
if water table rises and overflows the footing, no amount of grading or waterproofing is going to fix the problem. dig out the footing and install a drain BELOW THE FOOTING, install a sump and discharge somewhere it won't find it's wake back in, or both.
talking to a local historian i learned that before my block was redeveloped there was a cistern near what is now the corner of my basement. that would make a perched water table. sump pump it is.
Great info very professional I gained a lot of information thanks
Sorry but the dimpels goes inn against the wall to let the wall breathe.
Here in Norway it's almost only drainage with the plastic/membrane and also waterproof concrete first than the plastic with the dimpels inn, than isolation xps.
I was going to say the exact same thing. Treat the wall with a water proofing like the rubberized coating then attach the membrane dimple side in so the water will drain down the wall around the dimples to the drain tile below the footing.
came here to say this too, this stuff is common here in europe
I did the wrong order in My comment, it's water proofing the wall first, than isolation and last the plastic/membrane with the dimples against the xps isolation. It's been a lot of discussion about if the isolation goes first ore last but here the Sintef research organisation have researched the topic and found out that the plastic membrane is the last before rocks.
So that's how I install it when I do my drainage jobs.
that makes sense, because if you put your insulation on the outside it can get wet and wet insulation loses its insulating properties.
The System Platon® - www.Isola.com is a Nordic invention made in 1960's used on outside basement walls to waterproofing or on concrete basement floors to get rid of moisture vapor. I use it also between wood and soil f e in compost crates and around wood poles in ground.
Dimples always against the concrete side. [It's pronunciated as the name of Greek philosopher Platon plaat-on just as flat-on]
You mentioned several times to get a battery backup sump pump. Then you have problems if the battery dies. There is another option for backup sump pump, it uses fresh water supply from the city to power the pump. It's a bit more expensive but how much is it worth to not have your basement full of water.
French drain man channel need to watch he's the best in building French drains. Says to burrito wrap the whole French drain to make it last.
Yep, that's how I made mine and it works great.
Amazing 👏good tutorial
Thanks so much! Hope it helps
You could also knock on the neighbors door and ask them to run their downspouts away from your house.
As long as you do it properly!
Example:
[Knock-Knock... "Hi, neighbor,, do you realize that Your rainwater is
FLOODING my F#*()>&- basement? Or are you just a complete, clueless idiot?
FIX YOUR f>=$)!@ downspouts to not point at my F>=%$ house! ]
(Point out their stupidity- the love that!)
"Oh, hi Charlie- is your mom and dad home?"
KIDDING! 😆😂🤣😁
It's been a long year! 🤧😷
Old lady:. Oh, so I should point them where? Oh. Hell no. They are fine where they are... don't touch them!
Yeah. I have little faith in people.
Good luck with that.. for 16 years my neighbor in a townhouse section i lived in never cleaned his gutters so it dripped off his roof next to the foundation and it would always leak in my basement
My neighbors just moved after 22 years and they never cleaned the gutters and ran it down into my basement. Now they are gone , they have new gutters now so we shall see.
I use 6in PVC directly from gutter with a good grade and have had no freezing issues draining buried away from the house. Massachusetts
The neighbor's drain is pointed directly at the house in question. @6:50 Stan even looks right at it. I'd be talking to them first.
If you're referring to the downspout extension at the rear corner, it would be a minor concern compared to the poor grading of the site itself. Properly graded, a swale would still take that water away from the building rather than back towards it. Improperly graded, you're just trapping water against the building until it flows over the foundation (or through the window). Still, changing the direction of those things takes maybe $10 and a trip to the Home Despot?
I know the grading is the obvious issue, just pointing out a scene in the video. Like I said, the neighbor could be so kind as to change the direction. Would be cheap and wouldn't hurt.
Hey guys jeff from Southeastern Minnesota I want to give you guys a thumbs up good job and have a good week
Thanks man this video is amazing we are have water problems with our basement
I've used drylok before on basement walls and certain spots water was still able to get through even after multiple coats. So It's not a guaranteed seal. It's got sand in it which fills in all the nooks and crannys in the cinder blocks and it's supposed to seal the interior walls but it doesn't work on stubborn areas.
Awesome video,well informed and explained!Thanks gentlemen!👍👍👍👍🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
At 10:17 the box labeled Hydraproof 3000 is a super sticky thick rolled waterproofing membrane. We used to use that stuff to waterproof ICFs, but you better have experienced help cause if it sticks in the wrong spot, its not coming back off. Its like an innertube for your wall if done properly.
How do you feel about using hard pipe for a French drain when it is under 6' worth of dirt? I feel as if the perforated drain pipe is too weak and will collapse under that much weight.
My french drain was done like that, and the permeable fabric became impermeable with dirt clogging the pores. I had it redone with no fabric around the pipe, no fabric on the rocks, no dirt on top, and it works perfectly. The french drain has to be perfectly free to catch surface water immediately so the water doesn't have time to build up and run somewhere else.
Thanks for the warning
Your advice also applies to folks in the south who may not have a basement but we have settlement of our structures. Send the water away from your structure.
Yep, thanks for watching Sohail !
i have an extreme flooding problem in my back yard. i have 3-4 houses with sub pumps UP hill from our house. all that water drains and collects in my back yard. the standing water is so much last year i couldnted 27 cat tails. i live in the middle of town! im almost afraid a DNR officer will show up and say its a wild life refuge! lol. im thinking of filling it in with class 5. its slightly up hill from the water to the house and then down hill (2 foot) to the sidewalk/street. it drains that direction now but in the winter time we ice the crap out of everything from the side walk to the street. thankfully the house is above the water settling line and stays dry! we do have a nice subpump ourself and it runs perfectly. the "swamp" im looking to fill is around 24x40 foot. im guessing 12-14 inches deep. 70% of that area is water right now from the snow melt.
Lots of wisdom and experience. Thanks.
I own a New England home built in 1860 on the original stone and mortar foundation. The basement wall literally has several waterfalls when we get heavy rain, and the exterior features of the house are really weird and make it difficult to properly set a grade and swale. It's on my to do list though haha
Dimples in on the Foundation wrap. At least on the DMX AG that you showed. Helps relieve Hydrostatic pressure and counts as a damp proofing not water proofing.
Drylok traps moisture and accelerates efflorescence and breakdown on the concrete. Home Depot does not sell this but look for master building product systems like master seal. They have specific sealants for inside and out. Stuff is used on Waterdam’s and ponds just saying..
Another great video
On the inner foundation should we use the Henry brand foundation coating and then paint with drylok masonry paint?
If anyone does the interior water proofing please undermine the floor once you jackhammer or saw the the concrete. Otherwise you well contuine to get hydrostatic pressure causing you to get cracks in your floor.
If your floor has cracks with water coming up from them, but the drainage tile in those cracks an make a direct line to your sump pump.
Also do not buy the drainage tile either popcorn around it. It WELL clog up and you well have issues down the road.
Also make sure your sump pump is in a Croc with a sealed lid, that way you can reduce the amount of humid feeling. Seal up any and all crack while you are replacing the concrete or the water well find the weak spot and come up. Its alot harder then they make it seem. As a professional water proofer I know.
Nemus Gonzales agreed, the pre fab drain tile with peanuts is absolute garbage. Use aggregate
Great solutions. You were vague about where you would terminate a exterior perimeter drain tile.
In a spot where the water would naturally flow down hill, away from the house. Or gets pumped away.
great summary. thanks!
Happy to help 👊
Great information really appreciate your time making these videos with your schedule, have a nice day!
You too Woody, thank you !
Great information. One thing that was not clarified. For simply adjusting the grade away from the house it is implied that using dirt is OK. In the discussion about exposing and sealing the basement wall using clay as a top material to direct water away from the foundation is suggested. Assuming clay is the preferred material for both?
From what I read yes, some sort of clay-loam soil would work.
Glad someone actually tells the truth of how to dry a basement.
What type of contractor would you contact to do this work? Would it be a landscaper an excavator? Great video! I had two companies come out with option of pumping out from the basement...it didn't make sense to me... isn't that basically recycling the water over and over?
I loved this fast but detailed review of options!! Wish video included results of what you actually ended up doing with that particular house. I live in a neighborhood of houses where spacing between home foundations is an alleyway width of 3-7 feet max’ and we have issues with water seeping in to our basements even though alley is asphalted and we have gutters. This is a poor neighborhood. What should we do? Can we use cement to better pitch and divert to front or back of homes?? I am at a loss on what to do. Water seems to seep in from lower 3rd of my basement rubble wall of 1900 home.
I enjoy this video experience is the best key to that game!
hey.. 27 min in the video u say that the dimples on the platoon are to go on the outside.. actually its going on the inside so that the vall can breathe.. we have been using this stuff in norway for maaaany years.. french drain, platoon, xps insulation, gravel. sorry for bad english.. From Norway with love :)
Indeed. But USA would have lot to learn about building houses that last decades at winter and harsh rainy conditions..
No XPS here is most states-termites !
how can you recommend that exterior grading would be less money than doing inside weeping
Great honest overview