March 29, 2025 • 36 mins
Discover the remarkable transformation of a North Carolina homeowner who took matters into his own hands to solve serious foundation moisture issues after discovering a shocking truth: the previous "waterproofing" system was actually directing water INTO his crawl space!
When Ian purchased his Durham home, he knew there were issues with the partial basement and crawl space. What he didn't anticipate was discovering that someone had installed drainage pipes that terminated inside the house, effectively creating a water delivery system rather than an escape route. Even more surprising was finding that his professional home inspector had failed to identify these critical moisture problems or perform basic humidity testing in the below-grade spaces.
Taking a comprehensive approach to exterior waterproofing, Ian demonstrates the proper techniques that have transformed his previously wet, musty space into a comfortable home office. His meticulous work included excavating around the foundation, applying a thick rubberized membrane, installing foam board insulation, and creating a proper drainage envelope with quality materials. The results speak for themselves – nearly six years later, the space remains dry and comfortable with minimal dehumidification needed.
This episode offers invaluable guidance for homeowners facing similar challenges, highlighting the importance of quality materials over cheap alternatives, proper slope for drainage pipes, and verification of pipe termination points. Whether you're considering a DIY approach or hiring professionals, these lessons will help you achieve lasting results and avoid costly mistakes. For those with older homes, mature vegetation, or complex water management needs, exterior waterproofing provides a durable solution worth the initial investment.
Have you experienced water issues in your crawl space or basement? Share your challenges or questions in the comments below to join our community of problem-solvers tackling these common homeowner headaches.
Check out Michael's book, "Crawl Space Repair Myths-Busted" now available on Amazon!
Schedule a consultation: https://buymeacoffee.com/csninja/extras
Need help: https://crawlspaceninja.com or https://diy.crawlspaceninja.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Michael Church (00:03):
Hey, michael Church, crawl Space Ninja.
I am here with Ian and Ian.
I asked you to come on ourchannel because you reached out
to us, decided to take on yourown crawl space and you've done
a lot of great work and Ithought some of the things that
you've done should be sharedwith our viewers.
If you want to tell us a littlebit about the overview of the
project, where you're from allthat kind of stuff and let's
(00:25):
dive in, we're going to coversome outside foundation
waterproofing that you did, butyou also are obviously you're in
your crawl space.
You're going to start workingon that.
I think you said this weekend.
Tell us a little bit about thisproject that you're working on.
Ian (00:38):
Again, thank you for having me.
It's been really great to workwith you.
I know I did the consultationwith you.
That was incredibly helpful,but yeah, this has been a big
project.
We bought this house knowingthat it had some issues and then
also found out that it had moreissues as we were going along.
Michael Church (00:57):
That always happens doesn't it, it does.
Ian (01:00):
We're in Durham, north Carolina.
The house is located it's kindof on top of a hill, it's not?
You know it does I feel likeyou know everybody around here
always talks about, you know,flooding basements, flooding
crawl spaces.
It's a lot of clay, it's just,you know, kind of wet and humid
(01:21):
and swampy.
Michael Church (01:22):
Well, interestingly, north Carolina,
at least statistically,according to YouTube, is our top
watched YouTube state, so theremust be a lot of issues in
North Carolina, because we getmore of our views from North
Carolina than any other state.
So, yeah, I appreciate youtelling us where you're at,
because it gives people an ideaof the kind of soil and the clay
(01:45):
that you're having to deal with, and you know you're in an
older home, a lot of maturetrees, you know things like that
.
So that's another thing that alot of people don't realize is
that if you're trying to do anoutside waterproofing project
because people always ask me,should I do it from the outside
or the inside Well, if it's abrand new neighborhood, you
(02:09):
don't have any trees, you mightget away with the inside, but
I'm looking at a picture of yourhouse and, man, you got a lot
of mature vegetation anddifferent things like that.
So one of the things I wantedyou to share, number one what
led you to discovering it?
Was it during the buyingprocess that you found out all
this, or was it after you movedin?
Ian (02:25):
It was.
It was a little bit of both.
We did.
I mean, part of what drew us tothe house was the fact that it
did have a basement and a andthen it's like a partial
basement, part crawl space andit.
You know, it's kind of your, itwas your typical.
Like you go down there, it'svery musty, a lot of flora and
(02:47):
fauna inside, and yeah, it was.
We knew it was going to be alot of work.
We definitely.
I don't know if we saw water inthe basement during the buying
process, but there was so muchefflorescence on the inside of
the foundation and you coulddefinitely see evidence of water
(03:09):
being in there, right, and wedid actually see.
I think I actually sent you somepictures of what looked like
somebody had done some work toput in a foundation drain and so
we thought, oh, it looks likesomebody knew what they were
doing.
There was some foam board,there was some gravel foundation
drain, and so we thought, oh,it looks like somebody knew what
they were doing.
You know that there was somefoam board, there was some
gravel and and, yeah, this, uh,this is the sharing here, this
(03:32):
is the, this is a port, this isa slab that was poured kind of
back in the crawl space area, Ithink.
Whoever was, what we have heardis that the person living in
the house in the 70s turned thisinto kind of a DIY bomb shelter
Right and so toward this slab.
Obviously you can see wherethere's a lot of water that's
(03:54):
been coming in and we would geta lot like we'd have rain that
would be standing or rainwaterthat would be standing in this
area.
Even in storms that weren'tparticularly like, not even it
wouldn't even take a heavydownpour to get water in this
area.
Even in storms that weren'tparticularly like, not even it
wouldn't even take a heavydownpour to get water in this
area, and so we knew, you know,we wanted to use this space and
(04:15):
obviously, you know, for indoorair quality issues we didn't
want all that moisture downthere.
So I knew that we needed tokeep the water.
It was like, well, we need to.
Ideally we'd like to keep thewater from getting in, and so
that's kind of what led to thedeciding to do the foundation
drain.
We decided to wait until wewere doing the bigger remodel
(04:39):
and I did.
It did the foundation drainkind of in two phases, because I
had thought that it I did theside first and then the front.
Doing the side because we knewthe grade it came straight from
our neighbors straight into thefoundation and then it did slope
(05:00):
away so it would drain down theside of the house but it was
coming in on that side.
Michael Church (05:08):
Let's talk about that just for a second Before
we get to your neighbors.
When you were purchasing thehome, I assume you hired a home
inspector.
We did, yes, okay.
So in your opinion, howbeneficial was the home
inspector when it came to thecrawl space in the basement?
Because it's kind of hit ormiss with home inspectors, right
(05:29):
?
So did you have one that youfelt did a good job of preparing
you for what could have been orwhat needed to be done in the
crawl space?
No, okay, that's most of the,and I'm not here to beat up on
home inspectors, but you knowthere are some that really take
the time to learn about thecrawl space in the basement, and
then there are some that wantto go in.
So I always recommend try tofind one that you know is
(05:53):
working for you not the realestate company or not, you know,
not the agent, right?
So because this could be a bigdeal.
So did they even go in?
Did they test for humidity ormoisture of the walls or any of
that sort of stuff at all?
Ian (06:11):
Well, I don't remember them doing any testing.
I mean I have some experiencein construction so I was able.
I mean I felt like I felt likeI had greater expertise than
what, like the home inspectordid not tell us anything that I
did not already know fromlooking at the house.
Michael Church (06:28):
We did.
He should have at leastconfirmed in some way.
And I used the word testing.
I apologize, I didn't mean touse that word.
I check humidity, checkmoisture, because that was using
meters.
Right, they should have pulledout a you know humidistat and
moisture meter and all that, butit didn't sound like any of
that was in your report that youreceived.
Ian (06:47):
I not not that I remember, I think we were.
We were also more focused onsome of the.
We knew there were somestructural issues with the house
and we did end up getting astructural engineer out to give
us a report, because there wassome.
There was like a con, anelevated concrete slab that had
been a deck, and then there wasan addition that the house was
(07:09):
built on top of, and so we knewthat was going to be an issue.
So I think that was really moreof our focus in terms of buying
it.
Michael Church (07:16):
Well, that's completely legitimate, because
you don't expect a homeinspector to be a foundation
engineer expert.
So I just want to be clear.
I'm not saying that the homeinspector should be a mold
expert or a foundation expert,but they could at least whip out
their meters and check humidityand moisture levels, right?
(07:39):
I mean, that's something withintheir purview that you would
think they would all do, youknow.
So if there's any homeinspectors watching this, please
let us know.
You know again, I'm not tryingto beat up on you, but you know,
is there some training that youall went through?
Those of you that do focus oncrawl spaces, please comment
(08:04):
down below and let us know whatyou did to bring yourself up on
this training, because I reallyfeel like it's a disservice
whenever they don't check thesemoisture levels Right.
You can't go by how you feel,you know.
I know you mentioned mustiness.
You smelled mustiness and allthat.
Well, unfortunately, noteverybody has a good sense of
smell, so they can't go by that.
You know some people do, somepeople don't, but you should
trust the meters Right.
(08:24):
Go by that.
You know some people do, somepeople don't, but you should
trust the meters, right.
I mean, that's one of thethings that I would like to see
more of in our process of buyingand selling homes is that these
home inspectors kind of focuson that moisture because it's
all about humidity, right?
I mean, you know you got amajor water problem and that
foundation problem that you'retalking about was probably from
the water problem, right?
Well, I think the foundationproblem that you're talking
about was probably from thewater problem right?
Ian (08:46):
Well, I think the foundation problem was from the
way it was built problem.
Michael Church (08:50):
It was the way it was built, okay, well, good.
Well, thanks for clarifyingthat.
And you have a brick wall andbrick pillars and all that sort
of stuff, right?
So did the engineer do a goodjob for you.
Ian (09:01):
Yes, I thought the engineer was great.
The report was really helpful.
It helped us, you know, get amuch better price on the house.
Sure, I think actually you cansee in that photo it is.
This is in the original part ofthe house.
It is a brick foundation withthe piers over there.
Kind of on the right in the fardistance, you see some block.
(09:25):
Yep, I see that and that thatis.
That is a, some reinforcementthat was put in as a result of
the structural engineer and thenthe the new part of the house
that we added onto is all aconcrete block good, good.
Michael Church (09:39):
Well, do you mind if we switch gears to the
outside real quick, because, uh,I love this, this picture in
this video that you got going onhere, tell me a little bit
about.
Is this the way the downspoutslooked when you purchased it, or
is this something you did righthere?
What's going on there on theright?
Ian (09:56):
Yes, that is how it looked when we purchased it.
So you see the one on the leftsorry, not the video, but of the
two downspouts oh, I'm sorryright here.
The one on the left isunderneath the downspout from
the gutter, but there's a gap ofabout five or ten feet, so it's
(10:19):
just kind of a suggestion thatthe water comes through the
townspout into the drain, notactually connected so on a
windstorm it might blow it intothe pipe.
Michael Church (10:30):
Is that?
Is that the way it works, okay?
Ian (10:31):
I think you would.
You would get a few drops intothe pipe and uh, and then, and
yeah, and then the other, thepipe on the right is.
See, I did a little explorationdigging there and you see
there's some gravel in there,there was some filter fabric and
there's that foam board.
So I thought, oh, there must be.
(10:52):
That looks kind of like what afoundation drain should be.
I guess somebody has done thisin the past, but I didn't know
where either one of those pipeswent.
They were not daylit and youknow, I couldn't really figure
it out from raining.
And so there you see, I justput a hose down there one day to
(11:13):
see.
Like you know, maybe if I justrun a hose on full blast and see
what happens, maybe I'll findout where the water is going.
And yeah, as you're pointing to, the water just came straight
back up, right, just came rightback out.
Michael Church (11:26):
So is this that section of the house right here?
Is that right?
Ian (11:30):
Yeah, so that middle picture, you see the two drains,
you see the downspout kind ofin the top of that picture.
Oh, right, there, yeah, up here, not not connected.
Michael Church (11:41):
Well, even if it was it would have done you good
.
Ian (11:44):
You know, we, you know, maybe we might've dodged some
more.
I don't know how, how well, ifit had they had sealed it to
that pipe, I don't know how muchit would have backed up you
know.
Michael Church (11:53):
Well, maybe they were trying, you know, to force
the water to to, you know, digout the dirt at the end to make
daylight.
Maybe that was their plan, wasto do that.
So let me see if I can findanother one.
Now, this is you digging allthat out, right?
So tell us about thisexperience, how many weekends,
(12:17):
or how many hours did this takeyou to take care of?
Ian (12:19):
So this was, this was like uh, this was less than a week of
work.
Um, this, I did this during the, during the renovation.
Okay, um, and I, we knew ourHVAC units were going to be
sitting there along that walland I I realized, oh, I need to
go ahead and do this now becauseI don't want to have to be
(12:41):
moving those later.
Michael Church (12:43):
Well, and that's a good point.
So in this picture is that youhad to move the HVAC unit.
Ian (12:48):
Is that correct?
Yes, that's the old one out.
Michael Church (12:52):
And then this is .
This is so.
This is that pipe that youstubbed, and I assume the
downspout was on this wall.
So you dug all that out andmoved the engine.
There's the gas meter, so yeah.
I didn't mean to interrupt you.
I just want to make sureeverybody saw what we were
looking at.
So go right ahead, right yeah,thanks for clarifying so that
was.
Ian (13:12):
It was not really, I wasn't really planning to do it that
week.
But then, you know, in talkingwith all the tradesmen, our
mechanical guy who we wereworking with said, hey, I'm
going to put this in next week.
I know you said you wanted todo some work and I said, well, I
guess I'm doing it now.
Michael Church (13:33):
Well, not everybody else has the luxury of
doing this during a remodel.
I mean, you may have to removeyour HVAC and be without HVAC
for a little bit.
Were you all living in the homewhen you were doing this?
No, okay, so a little bit moreconvenient for you not being
there, but just another reasonwhy outside waterproofing can be
difficult or more difficult.
(13:53):
Different problems you got toaddress, because a lot of times
there's obstacles in the way youdon't really think about, and
HVAC and a gas meter certainlyis an obstacle.
So it looks like you did agreat job.
So did you tar that?
What did you put the blackunderneath the gas meter?
Is that that stuff you go toHome Depot and buy and paint on?
Or is that something differentthat you put on there?
Ian (14:15):
It is a paint on it.
Is it's much?
I went to a different.
I went to like a is it's much I?
I went to a different.
I went to like a specialtysupply store to get it.
It is I can.
I don't remember the exact nameof it, but you'll share that
with me.
Michael Church (14:28):
Later I'll put it in the description of the
video, so that way everybodyknows okay, yeah it is.
Ian (14:32):
It is much thicker than I mean.
I think the the stuff that youwould get at like a big box
store.
I feel like it's closer to apaint right.
This stuff was much more likeit.
Michael Church (14:43):
It was very thick like a rubberized, roll it
on, brush it on kind of stuff.
Ian (14:49):
Yes, it was a yes, a rubberized membrane.
Uh, I did, I used one of thoseuh like very large, like masonry
brushes, about five or sixinches, and it, I mean, you do
have to basically toss the brushout afterwards, I don't.
You know, I think I did thiswork in 2019.
I mean, if I was trying toclean that brush afterwards, I
would probably still be cleaningit.
Michael Church (15:11):
Well compared to a builder.
So if a builder was doing thisor you called possibly some
waterproofing contractors,exterior waterproofing
contractors they would get thatreally thin stuff that goes
through a paint sprayer.
Most likely because they'refocused on price, not on quality
.
And I'm not saying all exteriorwaterproofers would do that,
but certainly the ones that I'veseen here in Tennessee that are
(15:35):
these spec home builders.
They just go and they justspray something on.
It almost looks like the stuffthat they, that they spray on
the patch asphalt.
You know it's like a to to makeasphalt pretty again.
It's, it's just sprayed on anduh it's not even as good as the
stuff they use on asphalt, in myopinion, uh, but so as soon as
(15:57):
if you get any shifting oranything like that, it it
destroys the seal.
You know this stuff.
If I'm guessing, as thick asyou probably put it on, if it
shifts it's going to.
It's rubberized, so it's goingto shift a little bit with the
block Right, yes, yeah, yeah, sogood job Did you, did you?
It looks like you insulatedover it too, is that right?
Ian (16:19):
I did.
Yes, I put some foam board up,which I at the time I I only
knew to put the foam board upbecause as a way to protect the
membrane from when you'redumping then, because then
obviously when you dump thegravel in, you don't want that
gravel to then be puncturingthat membrane.
I think if I were to do itagain, I probably would have
(16:42):
used a thicker foam board, justgiven, given the fact that I do
actually, you know, want to beable to use the, the basement
and crawl space inside.
It would have just added alittle more r value, right, but
I think it's.
I mean, this is doing great asit is.
And then, yeah, so you put the,do the rubberized membrane, put
(17:04):
the foam board on the foam boardup, after the membrane cures,
and then lay the filter fabricinside.
You're starting a burrito andthat's the.
You see it, that's the blackthere.
I just used kind of the likestandard on that side.
I just kind of used thestandard landscape fabric that
(17:28):
you get at the big box.
I and I did then find, when Iwas ended up doing the front, I
did something called a I thinkit's like a non-woven geotextile
fabric, right which is uh, ithas a hang on, hang on, and you
cut out on me just for a minute.
Michael Church (17:47):
You said it was incredibly what oh it's.
Ian (17:51):
It's incredibly thick.
It's like uh, I mean, I think Icould probably make a winter
coat out of the leftovers, butit does have a very high flow
rate and I think I think itwould.
It seems like that's just asturdier fabric.
It also came in a lot.
You could order it in widerdimensions as well, which just
(18:12):
make it ended up being easier,instead of having to double up,
uh, layers of fabric do you getthat from?
Michael Church (18:19):
like a pond distribution company or one of
those kind of places, maybe agolf course people that service
your water industry, or thelandscapers?
Ian (18:30):
I think it was actually from a company that does French
drains Right, and then they sellthe products that they use.
Michael Church (18:40):
We call it a pond felt.
A lot of times when you installa pond, they use it.
It's super thick and it'sreally, really good stuff, Good
job and real quick.
For those of you that don'tknow, when you're insulating a
basement or a crawl space, inmany states you can either
insulate the outside or theinside, and it still counts
inside and it still count Inyour scenario.
If you would have put an R10 onthe outside, that would have
(19:08):
counted.
You wouldn't have had toinsulate the inside.
I just wanted to point that out.
If you all are thinking aboutdoing an exterior project, it's
a good idea, and I'm not sayingI wouldn't do both, but you
certainly don't need to do both.
If you do the outside, Well, itlooks great and then you got
that white pipe sticking up.
Is that your clean out so youcan get in there and clean that
out if you need to?
Or is that going to be what theuh, what the downspout goes
into this cap piece right here?
Ian (19:30):
yes, that one.
I I think that that is theclean out.
Yes, uh, and then there is.
It might be blocked, but thereare two.
I do have two separate pipes inthere One, the perforated pipe
that's at the very bottom, andthen, and with that, has a clean
out.
And then there's the separatepipe that you see there close to
(19:51):
the top, right next to thehouse, that is for the
downspouts.
Michael Church (19:57):
Well, that's a great point too.
So this picture on my left thisis the old perforated pipe that
got clogged, and I'm glad youbrought that up.
You don't want downspouts to gointo this pipe, you want that
pipe to capture groundwater, andthen your downspouts need to be
in a solid either sewer ordrain, sewer and drain pipe,
(20:19):
wall sewer and drain pipe or afour-inch.
If you want to spend the money,it's a lot more expensive for
the four-inch sewer pipe.
So do you go with the sewer anddrain pipe or do you go with
the four-inch, the thicker pipe,pvc?
I think it was sick almost fiveyears ago, so I'm asking you to
remember a lot.
Ian (20:38):
I yes, I, I, I don't, I don't think I'm, I don't think
it was the sewer and drain pipe.
Okay, it was a thicker stuff.
It was.
I, I know, going with the pvc.
In general, it was moreexpensive than the, than like
the black corrugated, right, butwhat, what I had been told was
(20:58):
it's like the corrugated isgoing to slow down the water and
in this application, because itdoes that, right, right.
And in this application, you'retrying to get the water away
from the house as fast aspossible, right, that's right.
Michael Church (21:13):
One of the things that you could use also
with this is the Hydraway.
Obviously, I didn't know aboutHydraway in 2019.
We didn't have a relationshipwith them, but Hydraway could
also be put up against thefoundation or replace the
perforated pipe that you used,and, since it's a cavity system,
it will remove water from thefoundation really quickly.
You just can't use it as adownspout pipe, so it's got to
(21:33):
be a closed system.
Anyway, it looks like you did afantastic job.
That was how long ago.
That was 2019.
And I can take your child offof there if you want me to.
I apologize for showing thatpicture.
How long has it been and iseverything working smoothly?
Ian (21:49):
Yes, that's right.
So I did that work in 2019.
And then obviously a lot ofthings happened in 2020,
including the birth of our child, so things kind of slowed down
a little bit.
But the and I also had not donethe work on the front because I
(22:10):
thought that there was afoundation drain, but then we
continued to learn.
The water issues in thebasement got better, but they
were not definitely not fixedthis wall right here.
Michael Church (22:23):
This is this front part that's got the green
board on it.
Is that correct?
That's correct.
That's this view.
Your downspout that youcorrected was at the far end of
that corner because you thoughtthis wall was done properly
because of that pipe, that newerpipe that was sticking out.
Is that right?
Ian (22:41):
that's correct, yes, and I and I didn't.
And when I had put a hose inthere and put let water go down
it, the water did not come backup and I still didn't know where
exactly it daylit.
But I was like, well, I, I hopeit's working, um, but anyways,
we found out it wasn't.
Michael Church (23:00):
Uh, because, as pictured on this side, all that
felt and is that the pipe did it?
Did it make a?
I don't know what that is.
Ian (23:09):
But no, that is just uh, that is the, that's the felt.
Um, okay, that is just uh.
Just, it's so wet, it's justkind of bulging out.
But yeah, you can see they didnot.
They didn't continue itanywhere.
Michael Church (23:24):
And then it just dubbed it in right here.
That was it that was it andthen there's your board that
they put to make it look likethey did something right, To
give you that false sense ofsecurity that they waterproofed
it properly.
Ian (23:37):
Right.
Well, they had dug it out allthe way down to the footing.
They filled the entire thingwith gravel and it was wrapped
in the felt.
They had the board on there,but then, as you see, on the
right, the piece of pipe that isleft there, that is where it
stopped.
(23:58):
And then you see the concretethat's poured on top of the
footing like a dam, and thenthat pipe goes into the crawl
space and then it slopes uphill.
So that's where all the waterwas going.
It was draining into the crawlspace.
Michael Church (24:17):
All right.
So just real quick, you getwhat you pay for.
Probably I'm I'm guessing thatwas probably the cheapest bid,
but not always We've.
We've replaced some jobs thatwere very expensive.
Word of advice Don't let themcover the pipe until you see
(24:38):
where it's going.
Right, would you?
Would you agree, ian?
Ian (24:42):
I absolutely.
Michael Church (24:43):
Yes, you just, you just never know what they're
gonna do.
I bought a house and they had adownspout and then they had a
great drain and it was the samething.
The downspout and the grapedrain were that far from each
other so the downspout was justdraining into stubbed soil and
the grape drain was literallysix inches.
(25:04):
They could have very easilyjust attached it.
I don't know if they justdidn't want to drive the Home
Depot and buy the fitting orwhat, but it's nuts, you know.
And when people are like I can'tbelieve y'all are more
expensive.
This is, you know, if you'repaying cheap for something, I
(25:24):
guarantee you that contractor isgoing to find some way to cut a
corner somewhere and you maynot notice it for years, but
it's you.
You gotta make sure you'repaying for quality labor,
because there's a lot of crazy,crazy things that I've seen over
the years and it's hard for meto justify, you know, when I'm
three or four thousand dollarsmore expensive than my
(25:46):
competitor, you know.
I've literally seen like moldtreatments where where they only
treated the mold facing thedoor because they didn't think
the homeowner would crawl in andlook behind the joist.
I mean, I've seen stuff likethat.
It's crazy.
Just do the job, right.
I mean I don't understand,right.
(26:08):
Anyway, I'm sorry.
Ian (26:09):
Yeah, it's like I mean, you know, it's like this is a seven
process and it's like they got.
They got six of the steps.
It's like why just?
Michael Church (26:21):
they were so close and then they took it in
the crawl space and went uphill.
Is that what you said?
Is that this one?
Yes, all right, so they stepped.
So this is that wall on theinside.
They stubbed it into the crawlspace and now the pipe starts
going uphill, is that?
Ian (26:36):
correct.
And then it just kind of theyjust they ran it, you know,
maybe 10 feet inside the crawlspace and then just buried the
whole thing.
Michael Church (26:44):
So they're dumping your outside water in to
the crawl space.
Ian (26:50):
Yes, which explains a lot of the moisture issues that we
were having.
Michael Church (26:57):
Holy mackerel, that's, that's just man, that's
criminal.
I mean, I don't even know howelse to say it.
That's not neglect or stupidity, that's just outright malice.
That's all, that is.
Yeah, so anyway, it's probablyhis brother-in-law.
Ian (27:17):
Maybe it was.
Maybe it was part of the designof the bomb shelter that they
need a water source.
Yeah, it was like fallout.
Michael Church (27:25):
We're going to get rainwater into the bomb
shelter through this muddy,nasty perc pipe and then we're
going to filter the mud out.
Yeah, maybe.
Ian (27:35):
Oh man, filter the mud out.
Yeah, maybe, oh yeah, yeah,that's I mean I don't you know
what.
Uh, you, we were talking aboutthe structural engineer earlier,
uh, who was very helpful, butuh, his, he did have a great
joke.
He said I, he was like I, I'mhappy to lend my expertise, but
I think you probably need eitheran anthropologist or an
exorcist to explain some ofthese things oh, oh, and I'm
(27:56):
sorry, I'm laughing.
Michael Church (27:57):
This isn't funny , I apologize, it's funny now.
I bet it wasn't funny.
When you found this out, I betyou were pretty hot.
Ian (28:05):
It was.
No, actually it was kind of arelief.
No, Because it just kind of,you know, it was like oh, all
this makes sense now.
A lot of questions wereanswered.
Michael Church (28:14):
I bet it was.
That's a lot of gravel.
Is that what it took to do this?
Ian (28:19):
This is the front of the house right, that is the front,
yes, and that is actually thesecond load of gravel.
Oh wow, it was.
You know I did have to dig outa lot and it is kind of tough.
You know it's tough to put itback.
I think I have a couplepictures somewhere showing I
(28:40):
kind of used some.
Michael Church (28:42):
uh, yeah, you see that that's where that the
the one on the right, thatentire area was filled with
gravel same membrane as you usedon the other side same
rubberized membrane and all that, and then you put foam board up
against it and then you put afelt over the foam board.
Is that what I'm looking at?
Ian (28:58):
here.
That is right, yes, and then,kind of, you know, taped up the,
just taped the felt to the foamboard to try to keep it up
while filling it in.
Sure, and that's not the finaldesign that I went with.
There for the.
In that the picture with theblock.
There for the in that, thepicture with the the block.
(29:22):
I was just trying to givemyself a visual indicator of
where the, the drain, the sewerdrain and the water line came
into the house, just just incase we ever had to dig it out
sure again, it makes sense.
Michael Church (29:36):
That way, you know exactly where it's located
at right.
So, yes, and this is the.
Is this the final product?
Ian (29:42):
this is the before and the after yes, or and almost almost
after.
I guess I hadn't been totallyfinished cleaning up and filling
everything in there looks likeyou had to take your deck out.
We did yes it, well.
It took it.
A.
We did yes, well, a lot of ithad been built with non-pressure
treated wood.
Michael Church (30:02):
I'm guessing that was the lowest bid.
Probably too lot of.
Ian (30:22):
Seemed like there was a lot of DIY solutions and probably
things that were not inspected.
Michael Church (30:24):
I got you and this is the other side before
and after with your new HVAC andall that sort of stuff.
Is that right?
Ian (30:30):
Yes, correct Yep, and so that I brought the gravel all
the way up to.
I just didn't want to take anychances.
I wanted to make sure that anysurface water and then any
groundwater was going to getinto that gravel and then get
into the drain.
Michael Church (30:48):
Did you cover the gravel with anything
decorative or did you leave itlike this?
Ian (30:53):
It's been like this.
We may cover it at some point.
Michael Church (30:57):
It looks great.
I'm not complaining, I justdidn't know if this was the
final picture as it stands today.
Ian (31:04):
Got it.
No, there's grass growing nowthat we're not running heavy
equipment over it.
Sure, it's about 18 inches wide, I think.
Well, you know, we have a fewplantings, have some bushes and
stuff that we may just let thatbe around the house.
(31:29):
But yeah, I think they didn'twant to put anything right up on
the foundation either.
Michael Church (31:33):
Well, and I like this picture because it shows
you mentioned it when we firststarted this conversation about
how close your neighbor was, andthis is a good indication of
all of their water dumping onyou and your water dumping on
them, and it's just kind of hardwhenever your houses are that
close together to do itcorrectly, so I bet you're
(31:54):
probably still getting a lot ofwater from them that you're
having to redirect.
Ian (31:59):
Oh, yes, definitely Lots of water.
Michael Church (32:02):
Yeah, well, it looks great.
Ian, good job.
And this weekend you're goingto tackle your crawl space, is
that correct?
So you bought some productsfrom our DIY store and you
decided to spend your three dayweekend working.
And you decided to to spendyour three day weekend working.
Ian (32:18):
That's right.
Yes, I know I was.
I was trying to get I get moreof it.
We filmed this.
(32:40):
But I yeah, I mean honestly, Imean why it's been so long since
that I haven't done the crawlspace is because doing doing
this work on the foundationdrain on the outside.
It solved.
Michael Church (32:44):
So many of the issues that I can.
I mean I this, this is myoffice now, right?
Yeah, I remember you telling methat when we first talked right
, that's your office.
Ian (32:47):
I mean it's comfortable.
I have I mean I leave mycomputer down here, I run a.
I have one, just one of thosekind of like small dehumidifiers
that runs in the summertime andI don't, I mean I don't even
have it hooked up to drain itbecause it.
I mean I only have to empty thecontainer, maybe once every
(33:09):
couple of days or so.
Michael Church (33:11):
Well, if you don't mind, we'll end on that.
You did a lot of work on theoutside.
You did it great and all that,but you still needed a dehu in
the crawl space, and I assumethere's still something going on
down there.
Or maybe you're just finishingthe crawl space just to, just
because you want to make it looknice, so, uh, so did the
(33:33):
outside 100% fix everything andcontrol all the moisture in the
crawl space, or are you stilldoing the crawl space because
there's just a little bit thatneeds to be addressed on the
inside?
Ian (33:45):
Yeah, there is just a little bit that needs to be
addressed.
I mean, the crawl space is justthe dirt floor and I'm sure I
mean you know where it's aconcrete slab.
I'm sure it was not.
I'm sure there's no vaporbarrier under it.
So there you know.
And also I mean I do leave thisdoor next to me.
(34:08):
I mean I leave it open mostlywhen I'm working, just because
it's pleasant.
So we're in North Carolina,it's humid, so there's a lot of
humidity coming in here.
But I mean I do want to just beable to use a space, uh, create
, keep it more like, um, morelike, you know, uh, a regular
living space, uh.
(34:29):
And so that's why, that's whyI'm doing sealing up the rest of
the crawl space and, um, yeah,using using the dehumidifier to
just keep it a little morecomfortable.
Michael Church (34:40):
Now, are you using that space in the winter
too, or are you comfortableenough down there in the
wintertime?
Ian (34:47):
It is.
Yeah, it's a I do.
I mean I have a little spaceheater that sometimes I use, but
it's, it is also.
I mean it's I, I, but it isalso.
I mean I've removed theinsulation in the joists and our
first floor HVAC is down here,so I'm sure there's a little bit
of leakage that we're gettingto keep it more like the
(35:10):
conditioned space.
Michael Church (35:11):
And you're going to insulate the interior walls?
Yes, so it should even be morecomfortable once you get that
done.
I would guess.
Ian (35:30):
Right, yeah, because the wall behind me is not, it
doesn't have it's all aboveground and it doesn't have
there's no vapor barrier on it.
So yeah, I mean whatever,there's definitely moisture
coming through it.
Michael Church (35:35):
Sure, sure, absolutely Well, ian, this is
great, thank you.
Thank you for taking this timeto walk us through your exterior
project, and I love the factthat it was almost six years ago
, because it just shows when youdo it right, it'll last for a
long time.
So good job and kudos to youfor doing that.
(35:55):
That's fantastic and, if youdon't mind, send me some
pictures.
Uh, after you get done with thecrawlspace this weekend, I'd
like to see it yeah, absolutely,I will definitely send them
okay, great.
Well, I'm michael church withcrawlspace ninja here with ian
from durham, north carolina, andwe hope you make it a happy and
blessed day and we'll see youlater.
Hey, michael Church, crawl Space Ninja.
I am here with Ian and Ian.
I asked you to come on ourchannel because you reached out
to us, decided to take on yourown crawl space and you've done
a lot of great work and Ithought some of the things that
you've done should be sharedwith our viewers.
If you want to tell us a littlebit about the overview of the
project, where you're from allthat kind of stuff and let's
(00:25):
dive in, we're going to coversome outside foundation
waterproofing that you did, butyou also are obviously you're in
your crawl space.
You're going to start workingon that.
I think you said this weekend.
Tell us a little bit about thisproject that you're working on.
Ian (00:38):
Again, thank you for having me.
It's been really great to workwith you.
I know I did the consultationwith you.
That was incredibly helpful,but yeah, this has been a big
project.
We bought this house knowingthat it had some issues and then
also found out that it had moreissues as we were going along.
Michael Church (00:57):
That always happens doesn't it, it does.
Ian (01:00):
We're in Durham, north Carolina.
The house is located it's kindof on top of a hill, it's not?
You know it does I feel likeyou know everybody around here
always talks about, you know,flooding basements, flooding
crawl spaces.
It's a lot of clay, it's just,you know, kind of wet and humid
(01:21):
and swampy.
Michael Church (01:22):
Well, interestingly, north Carolina,
at least statistically,according to YouTube, is our top
watched YouTube state, so theremust be a lot of issues in
North Carolina, because we getmore of our views from North
Carolina than any other state.
So, yeah, I appreciate youtelling us where you're at,
because it gives people an ideaof the kind of soil and the clay
(01:45):
that you're having to deal with, and you know you're in an
older home, a lot of maturetrees, you know things like that
.
So that's another thing that alot of people don't realize is
that if you're trying to do anoutside waterproofing project
because people always ask me,should I do it from the outside
or the inside Well, if it's abrand new neighborhood, you
(02:09):
don't have any trees, you mightget away with the inside, but
I'm looking at a picture of yourhouse and, man, you got a lot
of mature vegetation anddifferent things like that.
So one of the things I wantedyou to share, number one what
led you to discovering it?
Was it during the buyingprocess that you found out all
this, or was it after you movedin?
Ian (02:25):
It was.
It was a little bit of both.
We did.
I mean, part of what drew us tothe house was the fact that it
did have a basement and a andthen it's like a partial
basement, part crawl space andit.
You know, it's kind of your, itwas your typical.
Like you go down there, it'svery musty, a lot of flora and
(02:47):
fauna inside, and yeah, it was.
We knew it was going to be alot of work.
We definitely.
I don't know if we saw water inthe basement during the buying
process, but there was so muchefflorescence on the inside of
the foundation and you coulddefinitely see evidence of water
(03:09):
being in there, right, and wedid actually see.
I think I actually sent you somepictures of what looked like
somebody had done some work toput in a foundation drain and so
we thought, oh, it looks likesomebody knew what they were
doing.
There was some foam board,there was some gravel foundation
drain, and so we thought, oh,it looks like somebody knew what
they were doing.
You know that there was somefoam board, there was some
gravel and and, yeah, this, uh,this is the sharing here, this
(03:32):
is the, this is a port, this isa slab that was poured kind of
back in the crawl space area, Ithink.
Whoever was, what we have heardis that the person living in
the house in the 70s turned thisinto kind of a DIY bomb shelter
Right and so toward this slab.
Obviously you can see wherethere's a lot of water that's
(03:54):
been coming in and we would geta lot like we'd have rain that
would be standing or rainwaterthat would be standing in this
area.
Even in storms that weren'tparticularly like, not even it
wouldn't even take a heavydownpour to get water in this
area.
Even in storms that weren'tparticularly like, not even it
wouldn't even take a heavydownpour to get water in this
area, and so we knew, you know,we wanted to use this space and
(04:15):
obviously, you know, for indoorair quality issues we didn't
want all that moisture downthere.
So I knew that we needed tokeep the water.
It was like, well, we need to.
Ideally we'd like to keep thewater from getting in, and so
that's kind of what led to thedeciding to do the foundation
drain.
We decided to wait until wewere doing the bigger remodel
(04:39):
and I did.
It did the foundation drainkind of in two phases, because I
had thought that it I did theside first and then the front.
Doing the side because we knewthe grade it came straight from
our neighbors straight into thefoundation and then it did slope
(05:00):
away so it would drain down theside of the house but it was
coming in on that side.
Michael Church (05:08):
Let's talk about that just for a second Before
we get to your neighbors.
When you were purchasing thehome, I assume you hired a home
inspector.
We did, yes, okay.
So in your opinion, howbeneficial was the home
inspector when it came to thecrawl space in the basement?
Because it's kind of hit ormiss with home inspectors, right
(05:29):
?
So did you have one that youfelt did a good job of preparing
you for what could have been orwhat needed to be done in the
crawl space?
No, okay, that's most of the,and I'm not here to beat up on
home inspectors, but you knowthere are some that really take
the time to learn about thecrawl space in the basement, and
then there are some that wantto go in.
So I always recommend try tofind one that you know is
(05:53):
working for you not the realestate company or not, you know,
not the agent, right?
So because this could be a bigdeal.
So did they even go in?
Did they test for humidity ormoisture of the walls or any of
that sort of stuff at all?
Ian (06:11):
Well, I don't remember them doing any testing.
I mean I have some experiencein construction so I was able.
I mean I felt like I felt likeI had greater expertise than
what, like the home inspectordid not tell us anything that I
did not already know fromlooking at the house.
Michael Church (06:28):
We did.
He should have at leastconfirmed in some way.
And I used the word testing.
I apologize, I didn't mean touse that word.
I check humidity, checkmoisture, because that was using
meters.
Right, they should have pulledout a you know humidistat and
moisture meter and all that, butit didn't sound like any of
that was in your report that youreceived.
Ian (06:47):
I not not that I remember, I think we were.
We were also more focused onsome of the.
We knew there were somestructural issues with the house
and we did end up getting astructural engineer out to give
us a report, because there wassome.
There was like a con, anelevated concrete slab that had
been a deck, and then there wasan addition that the house was
(07:09):
built on top of, and so we knewthat was going to be an issue.
So I think that was really moreof our focus in terms of buying
it.
Michael Church (07:16):
Well, that's completely legitimate, because
you don't expect a homeinspector to be a foundation
engineer expert.
So I just want to be clear.
I'm not saying that the homeinspector should be a mold
expert or a foundation expert,but they could at least whip out
their meters and check humidityand moisture levels, right?
(07:39):
I mean, that's something withintheir purview that you would
think they would all do, youknow.
So if there's any homeinspectors watching this, please
let us know.
You know again, I'm not tryingto beat up on you, but you know,
is there some training that youall went through?
Those of you that do focus oncrawl spaces, please comment
(08:04):
down below and let us know whatyou did to bring yourself up on
this training, because I reallyfeel like it's a disservice
whenever they don't check thesemoisture levels Right.
You can't go by how you feel,you know.
I know you mentioned mustiness.
You smelled mustiness and allthat.
Well, unfortunately, noteverybody has a good sense of
smell, so they can't go by that.
You know some people do, somepeople don't, but you should
trust the meters Right.
(08:24):
Go by that.
You know some people do, somepeople don't, but you should
trust the meters, right.
I mean, that's one of thethings that I would like to see
more of in our process of buyingand selling homes is that these
home inspectors kind of focuson that moisture because it's
all about humidity, right?
I mean, you know you got amajor water problem and that
foundation problem that you'retalking about was probably from
the water problem, right?
Well, I think the foundationproblem that you're talking
about was probably from thewater problem right?
Ian (08:46):
Well, I think the foundation problem was from the
way it was built problem.
Michael Church (08:50):
It was the way it was built, okay, well, good.
Well, thanks for clarifyingthat.
And you have a brick wall andbrick pillars and all that sort
of stuff, right?
So did the engineer do a goodjob for you.
Ian (09:01):
Yes, I thought the engineer was great.
The report was really helpful.
It helped us, you know, get amuch better price on the house.
Sure, I think actually you cansee in that photo it is.
This is in the original part ofthe house.
It is a brick foundation withthe piers over there.
Kind of on the right in the fardistance, you see some block.
(09:25):
Yep, I see that and that thatis.
That is a, some reinforcementthat was put in as a result of
the structural engineer and thenthe the new part of the house
that we added onto is all aconcrete block good, good.
Michael Church (09:39):
Well, do you mind if we switch gears to the
outside real quick, because, uh,I love this, this picture in
this video that you got going onhere, tell me a little bit
about.
Is this the way the downspoutslooked when you purchased it, or
is this something you did righthere?
What's going on there on theright?
Ian (09:56):
Yes, that is how it looked when we purchased it.
So you see the one on the leftsorry, not the video, but of the
two downspouts oh, I'm sorryright here.
The one on the left isunderneath the downspout from
the gutter, but there's a gap ofabout five or ten feet, so it's
(10:19):
just kind of a suggestion thatthe water comes through the
townspout into the drain, notactually connected so on a
windstorm it might blow it intothe pipe.
Michael Church (10:30):
Is that?
Is that the way it works, okay?
Ian (10:31):
I think you would.
You would get a few drops intothe pipe and uh, and then, and
yeah, and then the other, thepipe on the right is.
See, I did a little explorationdigging there and you see
there's some gravel in there,there was some filter fabric and
there's that foam board.
So I thought, oh, there must be.
(10:52):
That looks kind of like what afoundation drain should be.
I guess somebody has done thisin the past, but I didn't know
where either one of those pipeswent.
They were not daylit and youknow, I couldn't really figure
it out from raining.
And so there you see, I justput a hose down there one day to
(11:13):
see.
Like you know, maybe if I justrun a hose on full blast and see
what happens, maybe I'll findout where the water is going.
And yeah, as you're pointing to, the water just came straight
back up, right, just came rightback out.
Michael Church (11:26):
So is this that section of the house right here?
Is that right?
Ian (11:30):
Yeah, so that middle picture, you see the two drains,
you see the downspout kind ofin the top of that picture.
Oh, right, there, yeah, up here, not not connected.
Michael Church (11:41):
Well, even if it was it would have done you good
.
Ian (11:44):
You know, we, you know, maybe we might've dodged some
more.
I don't know how, how well, ifit had they had sealed it to
that pipe, I don't know how muchit would have backed up you
know.
Michael Church (11:53):
Well, maybe they were trying, you know, to force
the water to to, you know, digout the dirt at the end to make
daylight.
Maybe that was their plan, wasto do that.
So let me see if I can findanother one.
Now, this is you digging allthat out, right?
So tell us about thisexperience, how many weekends,
(12:17):
or how many hours did this takeyou to take care of?
Ian (12:19):
So this was, this was like uh, this was less than a week of
work.
Um, this, I did this during the, during the renovation.
Okay, um, and I, we knew ourHVAC units were going to be
sitting there along that walland I I realized, oh, I need to
go ahead and do this now becauseI don't want to have to be
(12:41):
moving those later.
Michael Church (12:43):
Well, and that's a good point.
So in this picture is that youhad to move the HVAC unit.
Ian (12:48):
Is that correct?
Yes, that's the old one out.
Michael Church (12:52):
And then this is .
This is so.
This is that pipe that youstubbed, and I assume the
downspout was on this wall.
So you dug all that out andmoved the engine.
There's the gas meter, so yeah.
I didn't mean to interrupt you.
I just want to make sureeverybody saw what we were
looking at.
So go right ahead, right yeah,thanks for clarifying so that
was.
Ian (13:12):
It was not really, I wasn't really planning to do it that
week.
But then, you know, in talkingwith all the tradesmen, our
mechanical guy who we wereworking with said, hey, I'm
going to put this in next week.
I know you said you wanted todo some work and I said, well, I
guess I'm doing it now.
Michael Church (13:33):
Well, not everybody else has the luxury of
doing this during a remodel.
I mean, you may have to removeyour HVAC and be without HVAC
for a little bit.
Were you all living in the homewhen you were doing this?
No, okay, so a little bit moreconvenient for you not being
there, but just another reasonwhy outside waterproofing can be
difficult or more difficult.
(13:53):
Different problems you got toaddress, because a lot of times
there's obstacles in the way youdon't really think about, and
HVAC and a gas meter certainlyis an obstacle.
So it looks like you did agreat job.
So did you tar that?
What did you put the blackunderneath the gas meter?
Is that that stuff you go toHome Depot and buy and paint on?
Or is that something differentthat you put on there?
Ian (14:15):
It is a paint on it.
Is it's much?
I went to a different.
I went to like a is it's much I?
I went to a different.
I went to like a specialtysupply store to get it.
It is I can.
I don't remember the exact nameof it, but you'll share that
with me.
Michael Church (14:28):
Later I'll put it in the description of the
video, so that way everybodyknows okay, yeah it is.
Ian (14:32):
It is much thicker than I mean.
I think the the stuff that youwould get at like a big box
store.
I feel like it's closer to apaint right.
This stuff was much more likeit.
Michael Church (14:43):
It was very thick like a rubberized, roll it
on, brush it on kind of stuff.
Ian (14:49):
Yes, it was a yes, a rubberized membrane.
Uh, I did, I used one of thoseuh like very large, like masonry
brushes, about five or sixinches, and it, I mean, you do
have to basically toss the brushout afterwards, I don't.
You know, I think I did thiswork in 2019.
I mean, if I was trying toclean that brush afterwards, I
would probably still be cleaningit.
Michael Church (15:11):
Well compared to a builder.
So if a builder was doing thisor you called possibly some
waterproofing contractors,exterior waterproofing
contractors they would get thatreally thin stuff that goes
through a paint sprayer.
Most likely because they'refocused on price, not on quality
.
And I'm not saying all exteriorwaterproofers would do that,
but certainly the ones that I'veseen here in Tennessee that are
(15:35):
these spec home builders.
They just go and they justspray something on.
It almost looks like the stuffthat they, that they spray on
the patch asphalt.
You know it's like a to to makeasphalt pretty again.
It's, it's just sprayed on anduh it's not even as good as the
stuff they use on asphalt, in myopinion, uh, but so as soon as
(15:57):
if you get any shifting oranything like that, it it
destroys the seal.
You know this stuff.
If I'm guessing, as thick asyou probably put it on, if it
shifts it's going to.
It's rubberized, so it's goingto shift a little bit with the
block Right, yes, yeah, yeah, sogood job Did you, did you?
It looks like you insulatedover it too, is that right?
Ian (16:19):
I did.
Yes, I put some foam board up,which I at the time I I only
knew to put the foam board upbecause as a way to protect the
membrane from when you'redumping then, because then
obviously when you dump thegravel in, you don't want that
gravel to then be puncturingthat membrane.
I think if I were to do itagain, I probably would have
(16:42):
used a thicker foam board, justgiven, given the fact that I do
actually, you know, want to beable to use the, the basement
and crawl space inside.
It would have just added alittle more r value, right, but
I think it's.
I mean, this is doing great asit is.
And then, yeah, so you put the,do the rubberized membrane, put
(17:04):
the foam board on the foam boardup, after the membrane cures,
and then lay the filter fabricinside.
You're starting a burrito andthat's the.
You see it, that's the blackthere.
I just used kind of the likestandard on that side.
I just kind of used thestandard landscape fabric that
(17:28):
you get at the big box.
I and I did then find, when Iwas ended up doing the front, I
did something called a I thinkit's like a non-woven geotextile
fabric, right which is uh, ithas a hang on, hang on, and you
cut out on me just for a minute.
Michael Church (17:47):
You said it was incredibly what oh it's.
Ian (17:51):
It's incredibly thick.
It's like uh, I mean, I think Icould probably make a winter
coat out of the leftovers, butit does have a very high flow
rate and I think I think itwould.
It seems like that's just asturdier fabric.
It also came in a lot.
You could order it in widerdimensions as well, which just
(18:12):
make it ended up being easier,instead of having to double up,
uh, layers of fabric do you getthat from?
Michael Church (18:19):
like a pond distribution company or one of
those kind of places, maybe agolf course people that service
your water industry, or thelandscapers?
Ian (18:30):
I think it was actually from a company that does French
drains Right, and then they sellthe products that they use.
Michael Church (18:40):
We call it a pond felt.
A lot of times when you installa pond, they use it.
It's super thick and it'sreally, really good stuff, Good
job and real quick.
For those of you that don'tknow, when you're insulating a
basement or a crawl space, inmany states you can either
insulate the outside or theinside, and it still counts
inside and it still count Inyour scenario.
If you would have put an R10 onthe outside, that would have
(19:08):
counted.
You wouldn't have had toinsulate the inside.
I just wanted to point that out.
If you all are thinking aboutdoing an exterior project, it's
a good idea, and I'm not sayingI wouldn't do both, but you
certainly don't need to do both.
If you do the outside, Well, itlooks great and then you got
that white pipe sticking up.
Is that your clean out so youcan get in there and clean that
out if you need to?
Or is that going to be what theuh, what the downspout goes
into this cap piece right here?
Ian (19:30):
yes, that one.
I I think that that is theclean out.
Yes, uh, and then there is.
It might be blocked, but thereare two.
I do have two separate pipes inthere One, the perforated pipe
that's at the very bottom, andthen, and with that, has a clean
out.
And then there's the separatepipe that you see there close to
(19:51):
the top, right next to thehouse, that is for the
downspouts.
Michael Church (19:57):
Well, that's a great point too.
So this picture on my left thisis the old perforated pipe that
got clogged, and I'm glad youbrought that up.
You don't want downspouts to gointo this pipe, you want that
pipe to capture groundwater, andthen your downspouts need to be
in a solid either sewer ordrain, sewer and drain pipe,
(20:19):
wall sewer and drain pipe or afour-inch.
If you want to spend the money,it's a lot more expensive for
the four-inch sewer pipe.
So do you go with the sewer anddrain pipe or do you go with
the four-inch, the thicker pipe,pvc?
I think it was sick almost fiveyears ago, so I'm asking you to
remember a lot.
Ian (20:38):
I yes, I, I, I don't, I don't think I'm, I don't think
it was the sewer and drain pipe.
Okay, it was a thicker stuff.
It was.
I, I know, going with the pvc.
In general, it was moreexpensive than the, than like
the black corrugated, right, butwhat, what I had been told was
(20:58):
it's like the corrugated isgoing to slow down the water and
in this application, because itdoes that, right, right.
And in this application, you'retrying to get the water away
from the house as fast aspossible, right, that's right.
Michael Church (21:13):
One of the things that you could use also
with this is the Hydraway.
Obviously, I didn't know aboutHydraway in 2019.
We didn't have a relationshipwith them, but Hydraway could
also be put up against thefoundation or replace the
perforated pipe that you used,and, since it's a cavity system,
it will remove water from thefoundation really quickly.
You just can't use it as adownspout pipe, so it's got to
(21:33):
be a closed system.
Anyway, it looks like you did afantastic job.
That was how long ago.
That was 2019.
And I can take your child offof there if you want me to.
I apologize for showing thatpicture.
How long has it been and iseverything working smoothly?
Ian (21:49):
Yes, that's right.
So I did that work in 2019.
And then obviously a lot ofthings happened in 2020,
including the birth of our child, so things kind of slowed down
a little bit.
But the and I also had not donethe work on the front because I
(22:10):
thought that there was afoundation drain, but then we
continued to learn.
The water issues in thebasement got better, but they
were not definitely not fixedthis wall right here.
Michael Church (22:23):
This is this front part that's got the green
board on it.
Is that correct?
That's correct.
That's this view.
Your downspout that youcorrected was at the far end of
that corner because you thoughtthis wall was done properly
because of that pipe, that newerpipe that was sticking out.
Is that right?
Ian (22:41):
that's correct, yes, and I and I didn't.
And when I had put a hose inthere and put let water go down
it, the water did not come backup and I still didn't know where
exactly it daylit.
But I was like, well, I, I hopeit's working, um, but anyways,
we found out it wasn't.
Michael Church (23:00):
Uh, because, as pictured on this side, all that
felt and is that the pipe did it?
Did it make a?
I don't know what that is.
Ian (23:09):
But no, that is just uh, that is the, that's the felt.
Um, okay, that is just uh.
Just, it's so wet, it's justkind of bulging out.
But yeah, you can see they didnot.
They didn't continue itanywhere.
Michael Church (23:24):
And then it just dubbed it in right here.
That was it that was it andthen there's your board that
they put to make it look likethey did something right, To
give you that false sense ofsecurity that they waterproofed
it properly.
Ian (23:37):
Right.
Well, they had dug it out allthe way down to the footing.
They filled the entire thingwith gravel and it was wrapped
in the felt.
They had the board on there,but then, as you see, on the
right, the piece of pipe that isleft there, that is where it
stopped.
(23:58):
And then you see the concretethat's poured on top of the
footing like a dam, and thenthat pipe goes into the crawl
space and then it slopes uphill.
So that's where all the waterwas going.
It was draining into the crawlspace.
Michael Church (24:17):
All right.
So just real quick, you getwhat you pay for.
Probably I'm I'm guessing thatwas probably the cheapest bid,
but not always We've.
We've replaced some jobs thatwere very expensive.
Word of advice Don't let themcover the pipe until you see
(24:38):
where it's going.
Right, would you?
Would you agree, ian?
Ian (24:42):
I absolutely.
Michael Church (24:43):
Yes, you just, you just never know what they're
gonna do.
I bought a house and they had adownspout and then they had a
great drain and it was the samething.
The downspout and the grapedrain were that far from each
other so the downspout was justdraining into stubbed soil and
the grape drain was literallysix inches.
(25:04):
They could have very easilyjust attached it.
I don't know if they justdidn't want to drive the Home
Depot and buy the fitting orwhat, but it's nuts, you know.
And when people are like I can'tbelieve y'all are more
expensive.
This is, you know, if you'repaying cheap for something, I
(25:24):
guarantee you that contractor isgoing to find some way to cut a
corner somewhere and you maynot notice it for years, but
it's you.
You gotta make sure you'repaying for quality labor,
because there's a lot of crazy,crazy things that I've seen over
the years and it's hard for meto justify, you know, when I'm
three or four thousand dollarsmore expensive than my
(25:46):
competitor, you know.
I've literally seen like moldtreatments where where they only
treated the mold facing thedoor because they didn't think
the homeowner would crawl in andlook behind the joist.
I mean, I've seen stuff likethat.
It's crazy.
Just do the job, right.
I mean I don't understand,right.
(26:08):
Anyway, I'm sorry.
Ian (26:09):
Yeah, it's like I mean, you know, it's like this is a seven
process and it's like they got.
They got six of the steps.
It's like why just?
Michael Church (26:21):
they were so close and then they took it in
the crawl space and went uphill.
Is that what you said?
Is that this one?
Yes, all right, so they stepped.
So this is that wall on theinside.
They stubbed it into the crawlspace and now the pipe starts
going uphill, is that?
Ian (26:36):
correct.
And then it just kind of theyjust they ran it, you know,
maybe 10 feet inside the crawlspace and then just buried the
whole thing.
Michael Church (26:44):
So they're dumping your outside water in to
the crawl space.
Ian (26:50):
Yes, which explains a lot of the moisture issues that we
were having.
Michael Church (26:57):
Holy mackerel, that's, that's just man, that's
criminal.
I mean, I don't even know howelse to say it.
That's not neglect or stupidity, that's just outright malice.
That's all, that is.
Yeah, so anyway, it's probablyhis brother-in-law.
Ian (27:17):
Maybe it was.
Maybe it was part of the designof the bomb shelter that they
need a water source.
Yeah, it was like fallout.
Michael Church (27:25):
We're going to get rainwater into the bomb
shelter through this muddy,nasty perc pipe and then we're
going to filter the mud out.
Yeah, maybe.
Ian (27:35):
Oh man, filter the mud out.
Yeah, maybe, oh yeah, yeah,that's I mean I don't you know
what.
Uh, you, we were talking aboutthe structural engineer earlier,
uh, who was very helpful, butuh, his, he did have a great
joke.
He said I, he was like I, I'mhappy to lend my expertise, but
I think you probably need eitheran anthropologist or an
exorcist to explain some ofthese things oh, oh, and I'm
(27:56):
sorry, I'm laughing.
Michael Church (27:57):
This isn't funny , I apologize, it's funny now.
I bet it wasn't funny.
When you found this out, I betyou were pretty hot.
Ian (28:05):
It was.
No, actually it was kind of arelief.
No, Because it just kind of,you know, it was like oh, all
this makes sense now.
A lot of questions wereanswered.
Michael Church (28:14):
I bet it was.
That's a lot of gravel.
Is that what it took to do this?
Ian (28:19):
This is the front of the house right, that is the front,
yes, and that is actually thesecond load of gravel.
Oh wow, it was.
You know I did have to dig outa lot and it is kind of tough.
You know it's tough to put itback.
I think I have a couplepictures somewhere showing I
(28:40):
kind of used some.
Michael Church (28:42):
uh, yeah, you see that that's where that the
the one on the right, thatentire area was filled with
gravel same membrane as you usedon the other side same
rubberized membrane and all that, and then you put foam board up
against it and then you put afelt over the foam board.
Is that what I'm looking at?
Ian (28:58):
here.
That is right, yes, and then,kind of, you know, taped up the,
just taped the felt to the foamboard to try to keep it up
while filling it in.
Sure, and that's not the finaldesign that I went with.
There for the.
In that the picture with theblock.
There for the in that, thepicture with the the block.
(29:22):
I was just trying to givemyself a visual indicator of
where the, the drain, the sewerdrain and the water line came
into the house, just just incase we ever had to dig it out
sure again, it makes sense.
Michael Church (29:36):
That way, you know exactly where it's located
at right.
So, yes, and this is the.
Is this the final product?
Ian (29:42):
this is the before and the after yes, or and almost almost
after.
I guess I hadn't been totallyfinished cleaning up and filling
everything in there looks likeyou had to take your deck out.
We did yes it, well.
It took it.
A.
We did yes, well, a lot of ithad been built with non-pressure
treated wood.
Michael Church (30:02):
I'm guessing that was the lowest bid.
Probably too lot of.
Ian (30:22):
Seemed like there was a lot of DIY solutions and probably
things that were not inspected.
Michael Church (30:24):
I got you and this is the other side before
and after with your new HVAC andall that sort of stuff.
Is that right?
Ian (30:30):
Yes, correct Yep, and so that I brought the gravel all
the way up to.
I just didn't want to take anychances.
I wanted to make sure that anysurface water and then any
groundwater was going to getinto that gravel and then get
into the drain.
Michael Church (30:48):
Did you cover the gravel with anything
decorative or did you leave itlike this?
Ian (30:53):
It's been like this.
We may cover it at some point.
Michael Church (30:57):
It looks great.
I'm not complaining, I justdidn't know if this was the
final picture as it stands today.
Ian (31:04):
Got it.
No, there's grass growing nowthat we're not running heavy
equipment over it.
Sure, it's about 18 inches wide, I think.
Well, you know, we have a fewplantings, have some bushes and
stuff that we may just let thatbe around the house.
(31:29):
But yeah, I think they didn'twant to put anything right up on
the foundation either.
Michael Church (31:33):
Well, and I like this picture because it shows
you mentioned it when we firststarted this conversation about
how close your neighbor was, andthis is a good indication of
all of their water dumping onyou and your water dumping on
them, and it's just kind of hardwhenever your houses are that
close together to do itcorrectly, so I bet you're
(31:54):
probably still getting a lot ofwater from them that you're
having to redirect.
Ian (31:59):
Oh, yes, definitely Lots of water.
Michael Church (32:02):
Yeah, well, it looks great.
Ian, good job.
And this weekend you're goingto tackle your crawl space, is
that correct?
So you bought some productsfrom our DIY store and you
decided to spend your three dayweekend working.
And you decided to to spendyour three day weekend working.
Ian (32:18):
That's right.
Yes, I know I was.
I was trying to get I get moreof it.
We filmed this.
(32:40):
But I yeah, I mean honestly, Imean why it's been so long since
that I haven't done the crawlspace is because doing doing
this work on the foundationdrain on the outside.
It solved.
Michael Church (32:44):
So many of the issues that I can.
I mean I this, this is myoffice now, right?
Yeah, I remember you telling methat when we first talked right
, that's your office.
Ian (32:47):
I mean it's comfortable.
I have I mean I leave mycomputer down here, I run a.
I have one, just one of thosekind of like small dehumidifiers
that runs in the summertime andI don't, I mean I don't even
have it hooked up to drain itbecause it.
I mean I only have to empty thecontainer, maybe once every
(33:09):
couple of days or so.
Michael Church (33:11):
Well, if you don't mind, we'll end on that.
You did a lot of work on theoutside.
You did it great and all that,but you still needed a dehu in
the crawl space, and I assumethere's still something going on
down there.
Or maybe you're just finishingthe crawl space just to, just
because you want to make it looknice, so, uh, so did the
(33:33):
outside 100% fix everything andcontrol all the moisture in the
crawl space, or are you stilldoing the crawl space because
there's just a little bit thatneeds to be addressed on the
inside?
Ian (33:45):
Yeah, there is just a little bit that needs to be
addressed.
I mean, the crawl space is justthe dirt floor and I'm sure I
mean you know where it's aconcrete slab.
I'm sure it was not.
I'm sure there's no vaporbarrier under it.
So there you know.
And also I mean I do leave thisdoor next to me.
(34:08):
I mean I leave it open mostlywhen I'm working, just because
it's pleasant.
So we're in North Carolina,it's humid, so there's a lot of
humidity coming in here.
But I mean I do want to just beable to use a space, uh, create
, keep it more like, um, morelike, you know, uh, a regular
living space, uh.
(34:29):
And so that's why, that's whyI'm doing sealing up the rest of
the crawl space and, um, yeah,using using the dehumidifier to
just keep it a little morecomfortable.
Michael Church (34:40):
Now, are you using that space in the winter
too, or are you comfortableenough down there in the
wintertime?
Ian (34:47):
It is.
Yeah, it's a I do.
I mean I have a little spaceheater that sometimes I use, but
it's, it is also.
I mean it's I, I, but it isalso.
I mean I've removed theinsulation in the joists and our
first floor HVAC is down here,so I'm sure there's a little bit
of leakage that we're gettingto keep it more like the
(35:10):
conditioned space.
Michael Church (35:11):
And you're going to insulate the interior walls?
Yes, so it should even be morecomfortable once you get that
done.
I would guess.
Ian (35:30):
Right, yeah, because the wall behind me is not, it
doesn't have it's all aboveground and it doesn't have
there's no vapor barrier on it.
So yeah, I mean whatever,there's definitely moisture
coming through it.
Michael Church (35:35):
Sure, sure, absolutely Well, ian, this is
great, thank you.
Thank you for taking this timeto walk us through your exterior
project, and I love the factthat it was almost six years ago
, because it just shows when youdo it right, it'll last for a
long time.
So good job and kudos to youfor doing that.
(35:55):
That's fantastic and, if youdon't mind, send me some
pictures.
Uh, after you get done with thecrawlspace this weekend, I'd
like to see it yeah, absolutely,I will definitely send them
okay, great.
Well, I'm michael church withcrawlspace ninja here with ian
from durham, north carolina, andwe hope you make it a happy and
blessed day and we'll see youlater.
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