I've hit the dad milestone where I am spending more time wathcing more videos about lawncare and DIY projects than anything else. Excellent content by the way.

While it's true that a geotextile can slow the movement of water, it will only get worse if the french drain gets clogged. So an engineering decision is made: make the drain circumference large enough so that the flow change due to the fabric doesn't matter. Since engineering time is expensive, most installers just wing it and try to over-build the drain so nothing could ever fail in the lifetime of the customer, and that works. That's also why the engineered drain products you see in stores with fabric or foam peanuts around the pipe are so much smaller than the average drain you see on youtube; those products are designed precisely for a certain load, but nothing more. Exactly how big YOUR drain needs to be depends on your environment on site, and that's where having an experienced local professional comes in. Keep up the great informative videos!!!

I don't have any drain or septic issues today (I've done my share in the past ;-) but just enjoy hearing a man who knows his stuff. Thanks Chuck.

So glad I watched your video. You are the first person that made common sense. I like the old clay tile as well.

AM FROM THE UK 🇬🇧 I TRULY THINK YOUR VIDEOS ARE THE VERY BEST AND MOST HELPFUL FOR THE D.I.Y PERSON YOUR SO HONEST AND HELPFUL I WATCHED YOU FOR YEAR'S AND YOU EXPLAIN IT ALL SO EASY FOR US NOT TO SMART ABOUT DOING THIS STUFF KNOW ONE DOES IT BETTER G.B.Y

I've been watching your videos for a bit over a year now. I just wanted to say thanks for all the work you do. I've learned tons and am ready to take on some of these projects myself Keep up the good work!

Thank you for keeping it simple & straightforward 😊

GREAT Channel, thanks so much! Love the tests and the money saving corrugated pipe joining technique, brilliant!

Not only are your videos awesome, but your timing is on point.. Thanks for this video!! Long time subscriber 4shO...🍻

One the best, most informative, videos I have seen related to drainage! Awesome, and thank you!

Awesome video! It will be so much easier to direct people to your video vs explaining how French drains work!

Best description yet!

Good stuff. Thanks Chuck!

Great videos so far,thanks for the information

Awesome video, thank you

Thank you so much for lovely démonstrations. I love your personality, professionalism as well as your honesty. I wish you a great, healthy and beautiful long life.❤❤❤

Great video!

You and Mike Haddock are so cool!

Very good. Thank you.

Good video on how to do it right.

Hey Chuck! Quick question. How do you terminate the end of the drain? I have a 7 foot basement. Do you have a video for that?

Great video. Glad i found it before i put my drains in.

The common element in your bucket tests is the clay. The fabric suspends the clay but it's the clay that resists water flow. Gravel holds clay back. Gradually clay particles will get into the fabric and pipe but with water flow the clay components get broken up. So it gets somewhat broken up and a little more able to pass water than the unaltered clay.

Great stuff

Well done...thank you for this. I am building a few retaining walls out of PT 6x6 in clay in Canada, QC. One of them needs to be about 6 feet tall/high. Do you recommend the same type/system all of the way from the bottom to the top of the wall? Crushed stone all the way? And for clay you are saying it really doesn't matter if you use a sleeve or not on the big pipe? Thanks

Hey Chuck , I have really been enjoying watching a few of your videos lately. I am from New Zealand and we have very similar construction methods to yoou in the states. But currently I am in Indonesia and about to start to build a home with a basement half underground and i really want to achieve a dry space . Here we have hard and semi hard limestone , so probably not much sediment . But materials are hard to find , like the perforated flexible pipe for example , i am thinking to use 4"pvc with 2 rows of holes at the bottom. wrapped in clean shingle and geotextile also with a 4% fall... any advice ?

Thank you!

Best advice I saw was “do not backfill the trench” - use gravel so that water can get to the pipe.

Love your videos Chuck. Planning on doing my own drain project in the near future. Do you cap off the start of the perforated pipe with anything or just leave open?

I enjoyed watching the Apple Drain By Chuck DIY 3 ways to install vertical drainage under $50.00 all 3 of them. The DIY Vertical Drainage Projects saves you a lot of money. Without spending plenty of money for a French Drain cost

Thank you I have clay here and you just saved me.

so, next video, please tell us how you truly feel about grate boxes and popups. Somewhat impertinent question, yet I want to see your view... Fillbillies in C.FL put grates right under the downspout and then squirrel the pipe up down and around then cap it with a pop up. It must be some Fredneck universe where water travels uphill, IDK...

Sure seems the pvc is better. But one question, how thick do you make your stone base? I’m going to be putting in a French drain in the back yard with an open stone top (no dirt on top). Just not sure how deep to make that stone base. Thanks.

Hi I have clay soil and an area in the backyard where a puddle forms and would like to build a French Drain but little confused about what you materials you recommend for me to use? Fabric wrapped perforated plastic pipe or something else for better drainage?

please tell me which sta green product you used. lowes has different types

Nice video

Thanks

Do you have videos using nonwoven geotextile double punch fabric? Curious in clay soil and if no fabric how long will soil overtake all gravel and system fail

Thanks I live in the south and having drain issues and wondering if a French drain will actually help

Could you run your sump pump pipe directly to a french drain instead of using smooth pipe?

Nice video compilation. The water in the white pvc drain looked much dirtier than the water in the corrugated drain shown prior to it. To me it looked like much more dirt infiltrated the white pipe but the fflow was faster. Any significance? Just the variability one might expect from uncontrolled factors? In my case I went with black fabric-wrapped corrugated pipe laid directly in shallow clay trenches and back filled with garden dirt, no rock, no peanuts. I figured that if it gives me a problem I can dig it up and redo. I did not want to deal with the amount of rock required. So far so good at three years. (It is possible that it could plug quite badly and I would be none the wiser. It is a rather large but shallow rain garden at the corner of my yard, well down slope from my house, fed via 100 ft unperforated pvc. It receives roof run off and sump pump discharge. If the corrugated plugs, it means water just exits the rain garden with less water soaking in).

So I live in upstate NY and my ground is pretty much all clay. So should I wrap my pipe and not? Guess I’m confused in your conclusion of the clay test.

The video shows that PVC works just as good as corrugated pipe. So which one is better?

I watched a video the other day and the guy said that the new way to do it is put the pipe directly on the bottom, forgo any gravel on the bottom and then cover with gravel. Years ago I did my entire house using a method like in this video. So has the protocol changed?

Long time no see chuck, hope your doing well

I want a combination pipe, slots n holes!!

Can you bury a french drain along a river at the level of the water to pump water from the river without pumping directly from the river? Would the water inflow keep up with the pump as well as it would if sucking the water directly from the river?

Your Awesome 😎🔥😎🔥

That is not 4oz, that crap from the hardware store doesn’t work you need the needle punched filter fabric that the used in commercial application.

You didn't do a demo on the Sta-Green Premium Gardening Landscape Fabric that you said works. But I don't think it works any different than other fabric. If clay soil smears around it, it will get clogged. I just feel it's common sense what clay can do to small holes. Enjoy your video though, it does prove my suspicion about fabrics as a water filtration material for clay soil.

I tried to look inside but it was dark. I’d think the way you secured the pipe with the coupling is a problem waiting to happen. I can envision debris getting caught on it.

I bought the French Drain Man fabric. It doesn't work in Arkansas clay soil. I burrito wrapped 35 ft of 6" corrugated drain pipe with clean 1" gravel. I installed a cleanout at the end and then added 50ft of non wrapped corrugated pipe. At the very end of the last 50ft non wrapped, water flows good. From the beginning to the cleanout 35ft down, water trickles as I peer inside the cleanout. Huge mistake wasting money on the fabric and now I have to rent an excavator and pull the rock and wrap out so it will flow. I should have listened to Chuck here.

In the video, it is mentioned that the french drain needs maintenance. How do you do that?

My French drain is clogged after 2 winters. I used corrugated pipe, with river rock on top, wrapped in geo fabric, with more river rock on top, and left it open. Should I get rid of the fabric? I live in the PNW, and have very clay soil. Thank you in advance.

I use 8 oz landscape fabric over my drainage pipe. I tested it and water from a hose passes right through it as fast as the hose delivers it in about 1 square foot of fabric. The Styrofoam peanuts will probably collapse over time if the pipe is buried very deep or be destroyed by freeze thaw cycles. Perforated , slotted, pipe does require a fabric in a sandy soil as soil cohesion is very weak and grains of sand will wash into the pipe. Not needed on clay. That is not 8 oz fabric you have there. (8 oz per sq yard)

Hey im sure its been answered but whats the purpose of the gravel bed under the pipe? You said it allows the wayer to rise up into the pipe but wouldnt the water be rising regardless?

Why stones under the pipe.? Shouldn’t we lay the pipe closest to ground ?

Won’t moles and gophers tear through the fabric, allowing clay to infiltrate and the gravel?

For thousand years, french drains have been used without fabric. Do we really need it? Maybe it improves performance in certain soils. How many basements use draintile in their footings, with no fabric, since the 18th century? They are still working.

Could we put granular lime into the soil to amend the clay soil?

😎

Does anyone see a big difference between Apple Drains n French Drain Man videos? French Drain Man does not recommend PVC because it cracks. His blue pipe is slotted entirely around his pipe.

Fabric only caused headache 😪.

U need the RIGHT fabric for drainage . Double punched fabric for DRAINAGE not landscaping fabric. Get it from French Drain Man

I thought the whole point of creating a French drain and using fabric was to remove the clay, put the drains and back fill with rocks...

The purpose of the fabric is to prevent dirt intruding and blocking the corrugated pipe water inlet slits. Corrugated pipe with knife cut slits is the best choice. The aggregate rock helps to create air gaps to allow water flow and discourage the invasion of roots. French drains built correctly will last indefinitely. The challenge to building a proper French Drain is the labor of digging the trench and adding the 1.5” aggregate rock. If you choose the peanuts and sock you will learn regret.

I can’t see them peanuts being good, they crush easily.

PVC ME PLEASE!

I'm sorry, but this video really misses the issues the major points of putting drain tiles into clay. None of the common wraps stop the finest clay particles, and OF COURSE there is a tradeoff of fabric pore size and how much water can get through the fabric how fast. Note that the original development of the flexible perforated plastic pipe was for agricultural use, where the pipe goes into clay soil with no fabric, emplaced continuously by cut+cover machines. So why do you need fabric? Pssst ... big roots, tree roots, small shrubs ... etc. Farm fields don't have these roots. The fabric keeps your drains from root-clogging. The issue of clay fines in the drain tile itself is not solved by any fabric you are likely to buy. Drain tiles depend on adequate gradient to move those fines with the flow -- the fines suspend in the water reasonably well because they are fine ... given adequate flow. You need at least 2% gradient, more is better. And of course if you create a spot with low or negative gradient, that's where it will plug. It is normal and expected to see fine silt coming out of the drain, and clearing that from catch-basins etc is expected maintenance. The purpose of gravel (or the plastic peanuts, that I don't like to put into soil) inside a sock is just to provide a cheap "large pipe" surface area through the sock to collect water, in part because the porosity of the fabric is not very high ... but hey, if you are putting the drain into clay soil it is stupid to think that the porosity of the fabric is the issue; the porosity of the clay is terrible. Farmers dewatering clay fields put in a LOT of pipe. Usually in home and garden applications people underestimate the collection area needed due to the soil porosity .. and then they blame the fabric. This is dumb.

Corrugated pipe is junk. We only use pvc. The problem with corrugated perf is that the holes are all around allowing dirt to settle into the pipe from the top. PVC only has holes in the bottom which catches the water as it rises and carries it away faster.

That is not a real life test