Waterproofing contractors HATE when you know THIS

Feel like I've been hurting cats all morning. >> But that's rained out cuz it's on the side of a hill that is like this. And when you get any rain on that kind of slope. This woman had negative pitch all the way around her house getting wet in the basement toing to the bottom. [Music] [Applause] [Music] All right. Good day, everybody. I didn't get a chance to do a walk through before we started tearing apart everything, but it it we're bringing the grade up around the house cuz they're having massive water issues in the basement. And this is getting dirt. And then this is getting all trimmed up and getting dirt behind it. bringing the grade up around the house a little bit. It it this was all in mulch. Then we took all that out, but this is also coming up a bit in here. A lot of the water is running through here and washing out around here. So, we're going to try and at least fix it so it's not going to flow towards the house. At least it's blowing away from the house. As you can see, we brought in a lot of dirt already. Yeah. Bringing it up. Our customer had a wet basement. And with every wet basement we come into, we always have three basic solutions. And we always go from the least invasive to the most invasive because those also line up with the expense of the project. Now, if you were my customer and you had a wet basement, the first thing I would say is grading is the least intrusive. Secondary is French drains or surface drain tile. That would be a drain tile buried about 12 in below grade. And a French drain is usually pocketed into a slot surrounded with a drain tile surrounded by rock and a swale. And then of course the most evasive is what I call full-fledged foundation waterproofing. And that's where we go right up to the foundation of the house, dig out all of the soil down to the footing, waterproof the wall, then put a drain tile in at the bottom, and then either gravity feed that or dump that into a sump basket to be pumped out. So, let's wash, rinse, and repeat this. My name is Stan Genetic, the dirt monkey. This is what I do for a living. And your three solutions to a wet basement are grading, least intrusive, French drain, or full-fledged foundation waterproofing. And you can do a combination of one, two, or all three of these combined. So, in some jobs, you'll see us doing just one. Other times, we may just do the other one. But it's never off the table to combine different elements to come up with a hybrid solution. So, let's jump into today's job. [Music] tore out all the the concrete sidewalk that was here around here or look like this, but then we broke it up. That's all getting hauled away. This is all the mulchs that we're putting back. So yeah, that's what we're doing today. Be here for today and tomorrow and then hopefully back out to our other site. But that's rained out cuz it's on the side of a hill that is like this and we're trying to when you get any rain on that kind of slope, it's you're toboging to the bottom. So all right, but we're on lunch. I just thought I'd run through the everything because I didn't do it this morning. So, that's it. Enough of me rambling. You guys don't like it when I ramble. I've read the comments. All right. I'm making this video for both contractors and homeowners alike. So, if you're a newer contractor, maybe haven't gotten into this, great. This video should help you out. But if you're a homeowner and you're going to hire a contractor, I want you to make sure that you're on the same page as the contractor you're hiring. Now, if you're a contractor and you come into a finished basement like this, do not assume that's the sill plate. The sill plate is one of the most critical things that you must never screw up when you're grading or doing a waterproofing job. Ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. It's that important. Okay? So, you may come into a finished space and you see where the sheetrock meets the ceiling. That doesn't mean anything. That means nothing. Let's go back here. This is where you need to see an unfinished part of the house because you have to determine where the sill plate is. And I'm going to show you guys what a sill plate is just for those people that may not be familiar with it. And I'm falling into a hole. I fell into my sump basket hole. So, this is how I waterproof my own basement was with a sump basket. Okay. But this is the sill plate right here. This is where the green treat meets the concrete. It's that important where the green tree meets the concrete. You must never ever ever go that high with your grading. So if this was the outside of the house, I would take this elevation right here and I would hold my grading a minimum of 8 in below the sill plate. We do not want moisture on the sill plate. Yes, it's green treated. Yes, it's meant that to be in a moisture area. Doesn't mean you want it there. So, hold it a minimum of 8 in. And if you can hold it lower, the better. Okay. Now, I'm going to try to get down without breaking my neck. [Music] Now, here's I started with three options and those are the three options that I highly recommend to any and all customers. My job is always to keep the water out because the water staying out keeps the humidity out. It allows you to go into a basement and let it feel like the rest of the living space. Now, in this case, I have a sump basket in here that I've installed just as a backup. That's not my main plan. My main plan is full on this new construction. I full-fledged waterproof it. I regraded everything. I did everything. I even got a French drain in it. And then I installed a backup emergency plan. That should not be your go-to plan because I do not personally like bringing water in just to pump it out. I don't want to bring it in, pump it out. Because what happens is you're going to get water infiltrating into your basement at the absolute worst time of the of the of the day. And that's when you have a storm. And then when does your power go out? When you have a storm. So if you do have an interior drain tile system that relies on a pump, you must have a battery backup system to make sure that it stays operating. Okay. Now, you may have contractors that specialize in interior drain tile because they don't do the exterior stuff and they'll tell you, "Hey, you know, this is the solution." And it is a solution if you as a homeowner are okay with allowing the water to penetrate into your home to then pump it out. My job, my goal is to never allow it to get in in the first place. [Music] Oh, feel like I've been hurting cats all morning. Yeah. Um, we got our little banger job all finished up here. Uh, this woman had negative pitch all the way around her house getting wet in the basement. There was a sidewalk here that we took out, steppers. This is all going to be mulch. Mulch. We cut a swale in. Homeowners doing the mulch. Not a bad little job. I do little ones like this all season. But that's that on this one. And uh we're going to fly on down to our uh big old wall in Burnsville. Super old part of the house. And when I bought it, we had water problems. And let me show you what a water problem will look like when you're first doing your investigations. Okay. Looks good. Looks good. Looks good. Looks good. Boom. Bottom block. You see that? That's an indicator of problems. Now, this is what I am talking about. Now, this is old. This has been fixed and repaired. But you can see where this black mold will grow and what happens is the water comes in and it allows the mold to grow before the interior drain tile can collect it. Here's why you don't want interior drain tile. Interior drain tile is not touching this. Interior drain tile will be down here. It's not touching this. And of course, yeah, the water won't have the ability to sit there and rest as well, but it'll still pass by. That's why I don't like to have the water come in. Now, when I bought the house 20ome years ago, we regraded every square ounce of the outside of the house. That's why this is uh dry as a bone. I just never peeled off all the the crap. But that is the exact reason why you don't want to have interior drain tile because you don't want that inside of your house. You're probably like, "Dr. Monkey, why why is it why do you have it inside of your house, man?" I don't know. I guess I'm lazy and I just haven't got to cleaning it up yet. Always seems to be something else going on.