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How to Fix a Wet Basement
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Feb 27, 2025
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0:00
about how to fix a wet basement I did
0:04
a survey several weeks ago of my
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newsletter list asking the subscribers
0:11
you know what they would like me to talk
0:12
about and it just so happens I have a
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consult coming up I do a lot of uh
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consults over the phone I do some in
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person here locally and this person has
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got a wet basement many people thousands
0:28
tens of thousands of people do
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and they want to know how to fix them
0:32
you know what's the what's the best way
0:34
to fix a wet basement all right
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so one of the things I bring to the
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table uh is that uh and I know with
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these
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live vertical videos it's very hard for
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me to to show you stuff I'm sorry I'm
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just a talking head uh but that's pretty
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much all I can do uh I don't have a we
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don't have a $100,000 video Studio to do
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these in I'm just using the YouTube app
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all right so anyway the wet
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basements the first thing you need to
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understand is my college degree is in
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geology uh I uh studied geology and it
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just so happens one of the areas that I
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focused on was hydrogeology and
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hydrogeology is simply the study of
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groundwater and using this knowledge
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that I got in college I was able to
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understand how to build build houses so
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that the basements would never be wet
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you know how to make sure water never
1:35
got in the basement so first of all the
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first thing to think about
1:40
is understand that a basement really all
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it is it's really not much different
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than your um local uh outdoor public
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swimming pool right I mean the only
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difference is is that it's got a
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building on top of it so a
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basement um if you plugged up the Flor
1:59
drain and you put a fire hose in it um
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you'd have a swimming pool all right so
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so you're you're constantly battling uh
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that that uh that water Brian how you
2:10
doing hey Jason how you doing good
2:13
uh am I married uh that's that's nice to
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know
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information I'd love the comments All
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right so anyway uh basement's just it's
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just a it's just a swimming pool but the
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trouble is you don't want it to be a
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swimming pool you want it to be dry all
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right so uh the first thing to do if you
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want to fix your wet basement is you
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need to go outside you need to make sure
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that all the water that comes off your
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roof um that it gets directed far away
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from the house all to often in many of
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the consults that I do uh I ask people
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to send me photos of the outside of the
2:52
house and I can clearly see that the
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gutters and down spouts they just drop
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the water and and the down spout the
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water just ends up on a block right
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around the house so think about when it
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rains uh when you have like a standard
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ranch house that might be 2,000 square
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ft and you have think of the roof area
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that you have if you have like a 1in
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rainfall you do the math and you might
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be dropping a, or500 gallons of water
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around your house and so think how much
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water weighs it pushes down it soaks
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into the soil and it's trying to find a
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way to get into your house so if you if
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you eliminate roof waterer uh out of the
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equation and and pipe that to the lowest
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point of your lot or to your city storm
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water system whatever it might be that's
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going to help that's the first step the
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Second Step um
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uh I got to I got to answer this
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question all
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right for this one comment what is the
3:59
secret of happy marriage life it's so
4:02
simple it's so easy just you know just
4:07
when when your spouse says jump you need
4:10
to say how high it's really and where do
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I land that's all you need to do there's
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nothing about this is hard all right
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just pick your battles all right you
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know and and uh you keep your spouse
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happy um you know the old saying right
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happy wife happy life all right so
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nothing about relationships hard all
4:28
right so let's get back to to White
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basements I'm not a marriage
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counselor anyway I I do love the
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comments I I have I'm sorry just little
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uh okay so we've got the roof water away
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from the house now here's what you need
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to know about geology so here's what
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happens when it
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rains um first of all understand I I
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could have made a drawing about this
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think about soil so if you were to dig
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around your house you would the soil is
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divided into profiles and we usually
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call it the a b and c so the a horizon
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is way up top by the grass and that's
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called the top soil top soil has a lot
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of air in it all right a lot of air so
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that's why when it
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rains uh if you if you take a garden
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hose even and you get some water on the
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grass it disappears it's like whoa where
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did it go all right so it's soaked into
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the top soil much like water would soak
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into a dry sponge all right the farther
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you go down into the soil generally it
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becomes more compact many parts of the
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United States have a clay very rich
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clay both top soil and subsoil so what
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do we use clay for all right if you're a
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Potter you already know this all the
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pots all the plates all the cups and
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saucers in your home they're made out of
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clay all right so Clay is a really
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really interesting
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mineral all right and it is it's it's
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you know they call it clay minerology so
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clay uh is is why ponds don't leap you
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know in other words if you have a garden
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pond or you have a pond out in a farm
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generally it's got clay in the lining
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and that's why the water does not leak
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out of the pond so think about this if
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you're subsoil is clay and the water
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comes down and here let's just say my
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hand right here is the Horizon between
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the a here and the B here that is very
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clay Rich the water comes down hits this
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clay and it can't go any farther I mean
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it's tough so what does it start to do
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so if you if your ground around your
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house is tilted which most ground is the
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water hits this clay and it starts to
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move down slope all right across the
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clay
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right across the top of the clay
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so that means so so now I know it's a
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little disjointed yeah by the way hit
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the like button if you like what you're
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hearing um do a comment uh uh and and
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those help the algorithm all right so
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think of how a gutter on a house roof
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works right what does a gutter do so
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here you've got a sloping surface right
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just like the clay in your ground so the
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rain comes down the roof and here's the
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gutter right here my finger is the
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gutter the water comes down the roof
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runs into the gutter and now what does
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the gutter do the water flows through
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the gutter eventually goes to a down
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spout and if you've done your job right
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you've piped that water to the lowest
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spot on your land well imagine if you
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put a gutter in the
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ground how cool is that so how easy is
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that to do so I call it a linear French
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drain and all you have to do is
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basically dig a six inch wide maybe two
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foot deep trench that's on the high side
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of your property meaning if the if your
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house is on a hill and the waters
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remember if you've got a half a mile of
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Hill above you or a quarter mile you've
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got thousands of gallons of water that
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are just slowly seeping through the
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ground ground coming towards your
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foundation so imagine if 6 feet away
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from the house we dug this trm
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put in some rounded gravel that's the
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size of grapes or bonuts no sand in it
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no sand in the gravel put in a
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perforated drain pipe and ex and maybe
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made that in L shape or a u shape to
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surround the house and then extend those
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pipes beyond the front of the house um
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to where they exit at
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daylight then what happens the water
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comes through the soil you know comes
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down the hill hits that
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once we put the perforated drain pipe in
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we've got to fill the trench all the way
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up to the top with more gravel and take
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it all the way to the top eventually
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grass will grow in it you know you won't
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even see it but we want that we want
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that water to come down hit that gravel
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drop into the pipe and then it runs
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around the house remember water always
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wants to take the path of Lea resistance
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so it would much rather flow through the
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pipe than it would to continue to push
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through the ground and try to make it to
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your house it doesn't want to do that so
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you install one of these linear French
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drains problem solved all right there's
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some really bad information out here on
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YouTube uh I really don't want to name
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the channel by name um but he all he
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talks about are these things and he's a
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big advocate of putting geotextile
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Fabric and he he says to line The
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Trenches with it uh wrap the pipe in a
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sock do not do any of that do not do any
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of that you don't need it all right
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here's why once again that gentleman
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obviously never took a hydrogeology
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class in college like I
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did so have you ever thought about well
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water all right so think about Wells it
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could be a shallow well or it could be a
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deep well like I have here at my own
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home how is it that water in a well is
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clear you ever thought about
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that all right think about what happens
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when it rains like a really big
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rainstorm and let's say you have a creek
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or a stream buy your home before the
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storm came and I'm not talking about
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rivers I'm just talking about a
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stream what color is the water in the
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Stream it's clear isn't it that's
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interesting isn't it you know like a
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brook or a stream the water's clear I
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mean you could scoop it up in a glass
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I'm not saying drink it it could have
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bacteria in it but it's clear but when
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it
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rains um and there's a violent rainstorm
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all of a sudden that creates Rises up
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and the water is
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Muddy all right where did the mud come
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from why is it muddy what happens 24
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hours after the storm's gone the water's
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clear again so the mud where the mud
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came from simple up on the surface up in
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that top soil or where there's bare
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ground the raindrops come down boom boom
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boom they're like bullets they hit the
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ground a lot of energy they they raise
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up they get some of that silt and mud
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and suspension and the water runs
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Overland or it runs into a storm sewer
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whatever and it makes it to the stream
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that's why the water is Muddy but as
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that water travels through the soil
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right think about this the top soil
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layer acts like a filter it's no
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different than an air filter in your car
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uh an air filter in your furnace that
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filters out all of those particles
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that's why W water is clear all right so
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you don't need to put a geotextile
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fabric uh around the trench you don't
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need to put a sock on the pipe because
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what those are made for think about this
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those Fabrics are meant to block silt so
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if if for some odd reason silt is in the
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water and it clogs up that Filter Fabric
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the water can't make it into the French
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drain that's where that guy's all wrong
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all right
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um all right so uh let's see here
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um I don't I'm trying to catch up on
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some of these comments uh uh let's see
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uh deep in sand what is it about I don't
12:39
know what that means I don't know what
12:41
that means don't know what that means
12:43
sorry uh go go eat some food if you're
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hungry um all right it's all right so
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there must be some B I did this solid
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pipe and I could not get four feet in
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the ground I have to disconnect the pipe
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and dance before we yeah just you got to
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get you got to get the roof water out of
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the equation so here here's what you
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don't want to do a lot of companies uh
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talk about putting in these systems
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inside where they um come in break up
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part of your basement floor and they put
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this pipe and drain stuff in your house
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then they put a su pump in don't do that
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that don't do that let's just capture
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all the water outside just capture it
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outside and pipe it around the house
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I've in I've I've helped people install
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thousands of these systems they've
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worked all the time there's testimonials
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on my website um I'll take tell you a
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quick story about one that was locally
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here I I helped this uh bre bed and
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breakfast gentleman uh here in Franklin
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New Hampshire about gosh I guess it's
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been 12 years ago he he had an old house
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uh and um there was a big big Hillside
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above him
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and he had so much water coming into the
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basement of his house this this bed and
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breakfast this is I saw it I actually
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was there they had to put wood pallets
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in the basement so you know how high a
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wood pallet is about 4 and 1 12 in and
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there would be 3 in of water flowing
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through the pallets in the basement most
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of the
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year it's like a river coming through
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this guy's basement so he did what I
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said but we actually dug a bigger trench
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we brought in a bigger excavator he had
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enough fall across his property that he
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could take the trench down below his
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basement floor so his he he only had to
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go down about 6 and 1/2 ft but we took
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the trench down 6 and 1/2 ft went all
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the way through his backyard it sloped
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we put in two of the perforated pipes
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filled the trench around his house with
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the
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gravel and the water stopped immediately
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his basement has been bone dry ever
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since the day we installed it so these
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systems work it's really pretty simple
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that's how to fix a wet basement is you
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stop the water water before it gets to
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the house it's that simple
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um uh let's see I'm gonna give it a shot
15:09
because you know what my aunt you don't
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know who my aunt was my aunt was one of
15:14
the top experts in
15:16
phonetics uh back in the United States
15:19
back in the 1960s you can actually still
15:22
see her book on Amazon the name of the
15:24
book is Professor phonic gives Sound
15:27
Advice pretty cool title right sound all
15:30
right when you talk you make a sound all
15:32
right so let's give it a try
15:35
Sayed it
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be tabat let's see I would pronounce
15:41
that she would tell me to say tabitabi
15:45
tabitabi so that's gonna I'm G give it
15:47
my best shot s IBI tabitabi so that's
15:51
the best I can do might not have it
15:53
perfect gave it a good shot though all
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right so that's really all I want to
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talk about I'm trying to keep these live
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uh a broadcast to about 15 minutes or so
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uh if you have questions if you need
16:04
help about a web basement just go to my
16:07
ask the builder website I'm the ask the
16:09
Builder guy if you haven't figured that
16:11
out um go to the ask Tim Page um I've
16:14
got I can actually draw a plan for you
16:18
uh I can I can actually draw a plan of
16:20
how I would put in the pipe around your
16:22
home I provide that service so um anyway
16:26
I can help you let me know and while
16:27
you're there make sure you subscribe to
16:29
my free ask the voter newsletter and if
16:31
you've got any ideas for future uh live
16:35
broadcasts like this I'd love to hear
16:36
them um go ahead and um leave a comment
16:40
after we upload the video or leave a
16:42
comment at the stim page I'd love to
16:44
help you any way I can that's my job
16:46
that's why I'm asked the Builder right
16:48
so thanks very much for watching more
16:51
live broadcasts coming soon appreciate
16:53
it
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