What the heck is the ground made of there??? It looks like a lot of ash is coming out.... I know it isn't... but all that grey matter is weird!

yea, im definitely using this in the backyard. could use about 4-5 of them in various low spots...thanks big chuck you da man

This has transformed our side yard. Usually It stayed wet for days after a hard rain. Now a day later it's dry enough to mow

On your recommendation and with your design we installed a vertical drain behind our garage. It cleared up all of our floodimg issues! Thank you, Chuck!

Chuck is the mvp

I did similar in my yard in Virginia. Except i went down 5 to 6 feet or more until i hit water. I lined with fabric and filled with stone. It completely eliminated my flowerbeds getting filled up and mulch floating away. I also dug about 5 between house and garage to eliminate water puddling there completely. Additionally, I have pipe running underground from my downspouts and I dug exact same under where popup dumps water in the street gutter. Anything left in pipe drains out to vertical drain below, 6 feet.

Looking forward to trying this in my yard in Connecticut. Thanks for this.

I'm going to try this around spots I have already done to help it more. Thank you Chuck!!

Thanks for the great idea, I have clay it is a pain . In my garden I have a problem with drainage due to many factors . I used your idea and the water drained out faster then ever before, thank you.

Very good demo. Thanks.

Thank you so much! I've been battling a spot on the sidewalk in my backyard where a ton of water wants to pool up, making it unusable. I installed one of these bad boys right next to the sidewalk and all of the water runs right into it. I can use my sidewalk again during and after heavy rainfall! Problem solved!

Water finds the path of least resistance. Nice way to speed up the ground recharge process. I like to finish a drain system with a pop up or grate attached to a shallow vertical drain.

We have just had this done in our back garden. 70 holes dug to 2ft depth and already the grass feels better 👌

Thank you for the knowledge share!

Great drainage videos! I saw a few where you just put the sod back on over the vertical hole and others had those caps. Which way do you think is better? Thank you

I hope to do this in a gravel driveway, we have about 3 muddy swimming pools before we get to our bridge to the highway, if I use a metal perforated pipe and metal drain cover I wonder if this would work? The mud holes take over a week to dry out here

Great video man. I imagine some people's hard layer is like really deep though, yeah?

Would it help to make the straight down even much bigger if you have a much bigger area/ water coming? I mean like e.g. 5ft x 5ft, filling it up with gravel?

May 17th we rented a gas powered post hole digger (Dirt Dawg?) with a 16" auger. I precut 15 round sod pieces around the perimeter of our septic field: 10 close to the house and the septic tank, in line with the fingers, and 5 on the other side of the septic field, then augured down as far as it would go. Ended up with holes that were between 28" and 32" deep. Lined most of them with Geotextile material and #8 stone...2 tons just about filled them all. Put the sod back in place. 12 days later (last night) we get a torrential downpour, which would typically get our toilets gurgling. (The water table in the yard was the issue...not providing enough runoff to keep the septic tank from flooding and backing up in to the house!) NO GURGLES TODAY!! The final test will be later next week, as we expect 4 days of rain here in Indiana. SO...THANK YOU for this awesome idea!! My backup plan was to trench out along the same line as the holes we dug, if the vertical drain holes didn't work well enough. Seems to be doing the job of keeping the water table below the septic. Side note: I suggested adding standard french drains around the perimeter to one of the septic replacement companies and they said, "It won't work." But then they turned around and told us that they install french drains when they put in a new septic system. REALLY??!! It's disheartening to see companies still fighting for their bottom line and not advocating for the best and most affordable suggestions for their customers. I would have been more likely to hire them for future jobs had they not been so quick to recommend the $40,000 MOUND SYSTEM to replace our 50+ year old septic. Keeps chugging along!!

Hi Chuck. Recently subscribed to your channel and thank you for your research and educational videos. I am in NY and and I have two vertical drains in my driveway and they are right in front of garage doors. The vertical drains are slotted. The garage is lower than the street level. Two questions hoping you can answer. 1. Is there a way to pitch the rain water away from the house. I see old termite damage around the garage frame. My thoughts is the moisture build up via the vertical drain makes it an attractive home for subterranean insects. Could the vertical drain be angled 45 degrees away from the house? It will create 2 feet distance away from the house. 2. My second question is...during heavy heavy rain, one of the vertical drainage puddles while other (8 feet away) does not puddle. Eventually the impacted vertical drainage will clear on its own. What should I try to clear the drainage before I start digging up concrete. Again, really appreciate you creating these educational content.

Hi Apple Drains, I have a barrel with a sump pump on the side of my house. Could I remove the pump and fill the barrel with gravel and get the same result? Thank you so much.

Just curious how fast this should be draining if I put a water hose in and let it fill it sticks around for a while

I’m in southeast Texas. I installed a vertical drain a week before we received almost 3 inches of rain . If there ever was a test, that was it. There was standing water for about 8 hours after the rain, however, it did dissipate and was completely dry by the next day. Not standing for 2 or 3 days like before. I call it a success. I plan on adding another one like this. Might even go with the 8 inch NDS pipe.

I tried this in my yard, but I have deep clay. The first 16” is good soil, but then clay. I dug down 5’ and it’s still clay. Will vertical drainage work in my situation? Thanks

I have two questions which one would be betterDrainage Trench Wrap Soil Separator vs Drainage Filter Sock to keep dirt from getting into the pipe? I am still trying to understand how to locate the hard pan can I get help with this please?

I'm in East Tennessee and have this problem in my yard so bad just outside the front of my house that my house actually floods in heavy rain 😫 2 ft. down is solid rock. do you think this would still work?

I may need to try this in my driveway. The center strip is mostly moss due to poor drainage.

Chuck! I need ya help! I did the process, I dug down 2ft and it worked good for a few rains but now its backing up with water. I pulled all the gravel and dug an extra ft (3ft total) i have a clear vision of bottom of hole and slowly but surely, water is coming up from bottom of hole. Man idk what to do now. Any suggestions?

Would this work near the home? I have some water that stagnates near the house.

Will pea gravel work? I have gallons of it.

Did you not wrap anything with landscaping fabric?

Is it this the same as a dry well? I thought those didn’t work?

Do you have soil or sand in your yard?

After watching your video on vertical drains I put 3 on the side of my house where it usually stays wet, and lo and behold the water was gone and I was able to mow my grass without any ruts. Thanks

how can you have drainage problems with a foot of sand below your lawn?

My yard don’t have soil like this, mine is mostly clay. I installed 4 of these without the pipe,, just used landscaping cloth and drainage rock, had to go close to 36” deep. It takes about a day to drain where without it took 2-3 days to drain. Do you think it would drain better with the perforated pipe?

12” down to the Hard pan?

How far away from your house's foundation should you keep away so the water doesn't flow under and come back up under the house in the crawl space. We have clay soil, will it work in that. Your soil looked like sand. Could you use a gasoline auger to dig down about 3 feet x 8". Thanks

very good idea, do you think this will work on Texas clay?

I have two places close to my house foundation where the water pools with a hard rain. Can I put in a vertical drain if it is about 4-6 feet from the house?

I live in East Texas where we have sandyloam. What you show in this video is basically very sandy soil with a very short distance to a "hard pan" as you call it. Well, it's not the case in my area. Sandy loam is nasty after rain and the top surface can reach up to and above 3 feet. I gave it a try in one area and I was about 3.5 feet down. Did I notice any difference? Let's put it this way: the water was not receding any faster (at least through my perception) than before. This tells me that the "hard pan" was even lower than my 3.5 feet. At this point, I think, going horizontal with a pipe to the nearest outlet is probably a better solution due to the diminished results of "vertical" drainage.

Would it work if you drilled a 2 ft deep hole with a 6 or 12 inch diameter auger and just filled the hole with gravel without a pipe?

Good idea but very dependent on soil types and layer depths in your particular yard.

I love it 😂, "... Home Da-pot..."

Lots of sand in that demo. Where was this shot? Looks like a good idea for a problem area that is not too extensive. Thanks.

Hey Chuck, do you think a couple of these on a negative grade yard towards the house will do good during an event rainfall?

I’m in the early stages of putting in a drain around the footing of my foundation as the water table is coming up through a hole in my basement. I’m curious if I have to fill the trench 6’ deep all the way to the surface with stone or can I back fill with soil. Again I’m not trying to collect surface water. I’m trying to divert the water table. Any advice is much appreciated. I am thinking of using geo fabric and perforated piping all the way to the storm drain in my driveway. I’m going to tie in where the gutters meet the storm drain.

Where does the water go/? i have standing water next to the house will doing this drain the water into de crawlspace?

Not surprised you had to fix a yard with baughman tile. Need it done right call Chuck

Maxed out my post hole digger in Houston clay (maybe 4 or 5' deep). Can't get deep enough. Hole holds water and doesn't drain. Got to take it to the street.

I tried this in my houston back yard. I dug 5 feet down and couldnt get past the clay :(

Hello, i did that but dug 4' deep in northern Indiana. Water is currently sitting in the hole I dug. Im having a hard time finding a solution for my sump pump discharge due to alot of water sitting in the back yard.

I live in PA how would I know my depth of the hard pan

Does this create a mosquito nest

Has anyone tried this in the Midwest where we don't have sandy soil? "Ours is more clay"

Could you use EZ Drain on vertical drian?

Due to precipitation increasing dramatically because weather is turning extreme, vertical drain may not work for all locations The best principle is collect the water and discharge to a mayor collecting system designed to haul large amounts of water or floods

North Texas with an ass of a clay here, I'll try this over the french drain and report the result

Yeah, a few minutes to do if you have sandy soil; not here in Southern NY where we have rocky clay…

Does this work in a heavy clay yard?

Just curious, does using this technique raise the possibility of sinkholes?

I have huge problem with water . The property i bought. Is very wet . And there is farm land and orchards behind me that is higher and drain naturally into my property. If i am going to fix it i will have to dig 10 feet at least and shuve 4 10 feet culverts vertically with wholes in them the diameter of each one should be at least 1foot and half or more . And pray it works . I have alot of standind water . At times it looks like a freaking spring .

How is this a new way? My dad has had a vertical drain in his backyard for over 20 years.

UFC should have chuck vs fdm

Does not work in my Chicago yard with clay.

Irrelevant to this video….. but if I do a backyard with catch basins (12x12) How many of them can I connect to the same pipe to an exit way? Like every 15 feet I have one catch basin connecting to another… then all exiting at the back of a yard through a pop up

Thats what my colon looks like. I'm all backed up and i just need some vertical drainage to get past the hard pan 😂