DIY Crawl Space Guide: Flood Water Management Week 4

Crawl space water issues often seem like an unsolvable mystery, but the solution starts with understanding a crucial distinction: water management versus waterproofing. These approaches tackle the same problem from fundamentally different angles, each with their own strengths and limitations that every homeowner should understand.

Throughout this episode of our Crawl Space Repair Challenge, Michael Church breaks down the essential tools and techniques professional "ninjas" use to address flooded crawl spaces. From specialized equipment like the battery-powered GeoRipper to the superior HydraWay drainage system (with its distinctive salt-and-pepper appearance that separates it from inferior knockoffs), you'll discover the professional-grade solutions that deliver lasting results.

The heart of this discussion explores why most contractors opt for interior water management rather than exterior waterproofing. While exterior approaches aim to prevent water entry completely, they come with significant drawbacks: higher costs, weather delays, landscape disruption, and the lingering question of whether they'll actually solve the problem completely. By contrast, interior systems manage water that's already entered your crawl space, offering more affordable, weather-resistant solutions that can be easily tested and repaired if necessary.

Michael doesn't just explain concepts—he provides specific, actionable guidance on installation best practices. Learn why proper drainage installation requires nine-inch-deep trenches positioned 12-24 inches from foundation walls, why sealing system endpoints prevents failure, and how your vapor barrier actually functions as part of your water management solution. Whether you're tackling this project yourself or hiring professionals, this knowledge ensures you'll make informed decisions about protecting your home's foundation and creating a healthier living environment.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 0 (00:00):
Hey, this is Michael Church, crawl Space Ninja.
We are on week four of theCrawl Space Repair Challenge.
Today, we are going to discusscrawl space water management,
and it's a little different thancrawl space waterproofing.
I'm gonna share with you mythoughts on water management
versus waterproofing, so let'sgo ahead and get started.
What we will be discussingtoday are the tools and the

(00:21):
products that we use to addressa flooded crawl space.
We're also going to touch oninterior water management versus
exterior waterproofing, bestpractices that we use to install
drain tiles and French drainsin crawl spaces, why the vapor
barrier is so crucial to theproject, do you need weep holes,

(00:41):
and is a gravity fed drainagesystem a good idea versus
running it into a sump pump?
I also want to share with you avideo that we released.
What is hydrostatic pressure?
I think this video relates verywell to this topic.
Corey from hydroway talks abouthydrostatic pressure, why your
crawl space in your basement isflooding and what you can do to

(01:02):
minimize hydrostatic pressure.
Make sure you check out thatvideo as well.
There are some really cool toolsthat the Ninjas get to use
whenever they are installing awater management system inside
of a crawl space.
This is just one of them, thegeo Ripper, gives you the
ability to install that draintile inside the crawl space or
the basement.
You can also use it if you gota small project that you're

(01:24):
doing outside.
The geo ripper does come inboth a battery powered or a
gasoline powered.
We use the battery powered whenwe're dealing with the crawl
space because of it beingunderneath the living space, but
the gasoline powered is alsoavailable.
If you get a chance, check outthis product.
It's really good.
If you do a lot of digging youcan even do downspout extensions
.
Some other products that I'mgoing to share with you are the

(01:46):
Hydro system.
We have exclusively gone withthe Hydro system here at Crawl
Space Ninja.
We also make it available onour DIY store If any of you
decide you want to install thisproduct yourself.
It is great for many differentprojects.
It is used in basementwaterproofing, french drains,
retention walls, sports fieldsfields and footer drains.

(02:06):
But I just want you all to knowthat there is a new look to the
hydro way.
They have been copied by somecheaper products out there.
So if you're installinganything that is a solid black
system, as pictured in themiddle, then that would be the
older version of the Hydroway orperhaps a knockoff.
So anything that you're goingto want to install today to make

(02:28):
sure that it stands up to thetest of time and the Hydroway
warranty is going to look likeit does here in this picture.
With the salt and pepper look.
It's kind of a light gray and adark gray or black stripe down
it.
So interior versus exteriorwater management.
We have kind of coined thephrase water management Anytime
you're dealing with addressingflooding on the inside of the

(02:51):
house Now, whether that's thebasement or the crawl space,
because waterproofing a basementfrom the inside is not really a
term that we feel comfortableusing, because the term
waterproofing means that you'reactually keeping the water from
entering, entering the basementor the crawl space.
So we like to call it watermanagement.
As you can see here we've gotthis HydraWaste system installed

(03:11):
inside the crawl space or thebasement.
Tie that French drain or thatHydraWaste system into a sump
pump and then allow that sumppump to push that water outside
of that crawl space or basement.
Versus the picture on the leftthat is showing a redo of an
outside waterproofing system andI'm going to go over some pros
and cons of water managementversus waterproofing, but for

(03:34):
the purpose of this video, we'regoing to talk more about water
management versus waterproofing.
But if you decide that you wantto do waterproofing, just keep
in mind that it is an exteriorfeature, that you're trying to
keep that water from going intothe basement or the crawl space,
versus a water managementsystem where all you're really
doing is capturing andredirecting that water out of

(03:55):
the space.
So let's get into some pros andcons of exterior waterproofing
and please comment down below ifI've missed some of these pros
and cons that I'm going to sharewith you today.
First of all, it's preventative.
If you're going to address thewater on the outside of the
crawl space, you're actuallypreventing the water from
entering the space, which a lotof people will argue is the best

(04:17):
way to go about it.
Some of the cons arewaterproofing on the outside.
According to what we see here inEast Tennessee, it's going to
cost you more up front in orderto do the exterior versus the
interior.
Weather will affect thatexterior work that's going on.
So if they start digging at theyard and right next to the
footer and then a big, hugerainstorm comes, they're not

(04:37):
gonna be able to continue.
You have to redo all of theexterior.
For example, if this house wastaking on water, well, guess
what?
All of that landscaping wouldhave to be redone.
You've got large equipment thatyou're gonna have to use, which
means that you might have tomove that HVAC system.
You might have to crack thatdriveway, crack it up and get it
out of the way.
You might have walkways thatyou've gotta remove and replace.

(05:00):
All of this has to beconsidered to do a full
perimeter exterior waterproofingproject.
If you've got a really tallfoundation wall versus a really
short foundation wall versus areally short foundation wall,
that's going to play into it,because you can't dig 12 feet
down without digging more of theyard, because that yard will
want to fall into that trenchthat you created.
So for safety reasons, you'regoing to have to remove more

(05:23):
earth in order to get thatproject completed.
And then sometimes you got toask yourself will it actually
fix it and I'm going to go overthat here a little later on the
slide but will exterior actuallyfix it once the water has found
the path of least resistance?
And what if the contractormessed up?
What guarantees do you haveonce you re-sawed everything and

(05:43):
you got your landscaping backtogether?
What if they miss somethingThen they're going to have to
tear everything up again andhave to do it all over again.
So you want to make sure thatit's done right before you put
all of that work and effort intoputting your yard back together
.
Versus an interior pros and consof the interior I would say
probably 80 to 90% ofwaterproofing what they call
waterproofing contractorsprobably do it from the interior

(06:06):
and prefer to do it from theinterior.
But let's talk about pros andcons of that as well.
As I mentioned before, it's notreally waterproofing, it's more
water management.
We're just redirecting it,we're not stopping it from
coming in, but it doesn'tdisrupt the outside as an
exterior would.
So that's a pro.
It's less upfront cost.
Typically that's a pro.
Weather does not affect aninterior job most of the time

(06:29):
versus exterior.
It is easier, in my opinion, tomake sure that the system is
working properly.
You can test it.
You can pour it full of waterto check to see if the system is
working properly.
If there is a mess up thatmaybe didn't get caught during
the test, then a lot of timesyou can just tear out that one
little section and correct it.
So sometimes that could be aneasier fix versus having to redo

(06:50):
all the landscaping outside.
And, of course, an interiorwater management system on the
contractor side is easier toinstall, which is partly why
it's less upfront cost to do it.
I want this to be a forum for usto communicate.
I'm not picking which youshould go with, whether it's
interior or exterior.
I want this to be informationthat you as a homeowner can

(07:10):
research to figure out which isbest for you, because, to be
quite honest with you, myopinion doesn't really matter.
So please let us know downbelow If you waterproofed on the
outside or the inside.
Let us know why you chose thatmethod.
Will the exterior fix it?
This is one of the things Imentioned a couple of slides ago
.
The reason why you have to becareful is if you've got someone
only waterproofing from wherethe grass is down to the top of

(07:34):
the footer or even beside thefooter.
Let's say that they excavatedall that dirt from the top of
the grass to beside the footer.
There's still the bottom of thefooter that didn't get
addressed.
There is the interior part ofthe footer that didn't get
waterproofed.
So water can still make its wayinto this space, either through
hydrostatic pressure, orperhaps there's a well

(07:57):
underground.
So just because you do thatexterior foundation wall doesn't
necessarily mean that it'sgoing to stop all the water from
going into the crawl space orthe basement.
So I just want to let you allknow that, because if you spend
all that money to do theexterior and then you find out
it did not work or did not takecare of 100% of the problem,
you're going to be real upset.

(08:17):
So just make sure you considerthere are other parts of the
foundation wall and the footerthat water can get inside the
basement and the crawl space.
Let's talk about some bestpractices for an interior water
management system.
As I mentioned before, we'vepretty much gone exclusively
with the Hydrowaste system.
We feel like it is the bestsystem out there because it
moves more water.
It gets rid of the water morerapidly, so that way it starts

(08:39):
to dry that soil more rapidly.
In the crawl space Some bestpractices are you want to dig
down at least nine inches andthen put some of the earth back
on the Hydraway, so that wayit's getting deeper into the
soil and can move more water.
To get the soil dry as quicklyas possible, you want to double
up that Hydraway.
I don't know if you can tell inthis picture, but that's
actually two vertical pieces ofHydraway put together.

(09:01):
You want to seal up those ends,but that's actually two
vertical pieces of hydro way puttogether.
You want to seal up those ends.
You don't want to leave it openlike it's showing here at the
end, because once earth getsinto that system it's going to
damage it.
So you want to make sure youcap it off at the ends in order
to keep it clean, so that it'llmove more water and doesn't get
clogged.
Once it's sealed at both ends,you're going to see virtually a
zero clog rate with the hydroway system of the amount of open

(09:22):
area that it uses.
Always install a basin.
I'm not a big fan and Imentioned this down below where
it says not recommended.
I'm not a big fan ofgravity-fed discharge systems.
I would rather you install yourFrench drain, whether it's
Hydraway or NDS EasyFlow.
Stub it right into the basin sothat way the basin can take on
more water more rapidly.

(09:43):
You want to come out about 12 to24 inches from the foundation
wall.
This is not a good example ofwhere to install it.
This is actually a basementinstall.
You want to kind of get awayfrom the foundation wall.
You don't necessarily have togo down to the footer in a crawl
space, but in a basement wewant to put the Hydrowave beside
the footer, just like it'sshown here.
In a crawl space you want to be12 to 24 inches away from the

(10:05):
wall, nine inches deep.
You don't have to go all theway to the foot.
If you could use a trencher,that'll make your life a lot
quicker and happier to get thattrenching done.
But those trenchers do move alot of earth.
So make sure you use proper PPEif you're going to use
something like the GeoRipper.
And of course you always wantto cover up the water management
system with a vapor barrier.
Attach that vapor barrier tothe walls using mechanical

(10:26):
fasteners so that that plasticwill not move.
Consider the vapor barrier partof the water management system.
Make sure you overlap and tapethose seams as well.
In a crawl space you don'tnecessarily have to install weep
holes like you would in abasement if you're doing an
interior water management system.
Not to say that you can'tinstall weep holes in a crawl
space, but we don't really feellike that's necessary.

(10:47):
So, as I mentioned, this isweek four of our crawl space
repair challenge.
We hope you'll check out therest of the series.
I'm Michael Church with CrawlSpace Ninja.
We hope you make it a happy andblessed day and we'll see you
later.