How to Build a Simple Dry Well | Ask This Old House
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- Ask This Old House mason Mark McCullough installs a dry well for a homeowner with drainage issues in his backyard
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Time: 5-6 hours
Cost: $200
Skill Level: Moderate
Tools List for Building a Simple Dry Well: [YT]
Shovel [amzn.to/2nlsNoF]
Tarp [amzn.to/2p2pkM4]
Utility knife [amzn.to/2ok2jnh]
Wheelbarrow [amzn.to/2nlKrsn]
Hand tamper [amzn.to/2nva7mf]
Shopping List: [YT]
4 inch PVC pipe [amzn.to/2njvVRT]
4 inch PVC perforated pipe [amzn.to/2nxwqYn]
4 inch PVC couplings [amzn.to/2p2gfmu]
4 inch PVC elbow [amzn.to/2mDiiMQ]
PVC glue [amzn.to/2p2EMb2]
Landscape fabric [amzn.to/2nlXoCw]
Crushed stone [amzn.to/2nlI5tz]
Steps:
1. Before starting the project, call the local utility locating service and have them mark out any potential underground utilities that could get in the way of the dry well.
2. Lay out the PVC pipe and determine the location for the dry well. The solid pipe will go closest to the house, and the perforated pipe will go closest to the dry well.
3. Use the shovel to cut into the soil just underneath the grass and move the top layer to a tarp. That way, the grass can be put back in place once the trench is dug.
4. Next, dig a trench to accommodate the PVC pipe that’s roughly 8-10 inch deep. As the trench gets closer to the dry well, make the trench slightly deeper and slightly wider to ensure no water leeches back towards the house.
5. Now start digging the hole for the dry well. It should be about 4 foot in diameter and 3 foot deep.
6. Cover the bottom of the dry well with a few layers of landscape fabric until the hole is completely covered.
7. Use the remaining landscape fabric to line the trench. It only needs to go as far as the perforated pipe.
8. Pour the crushed stone into the hole one wheelbarrow-full at a time. Between each pour, tamp down the crushed stone with a hand tamper. Repeat this process until the hole is filled to the level of the trench.
9. Put a thin layer of crushed stone in the trench.
10. Connect the PVC pipes using the couplings and the PVC glue. Use the elbow to connect a vertical piece to catch the rainwater from the gutter. Once it dries, place the pipe in the trench.
11. Fill the rest of the trench and the hole with the remaining crushed stone, leaving just enough room at the top for the layer of grass.
12. Fold over the landscape fabric to cover the crushed stone.
13. Backfill the hole and the trench with the grass.
Resources:
Installing a simple dry well requires few tools and materials. Mark lined the trench with landscape fabric, which can be found at any home center. He then filled the trench and the hole with crushed stone, which can be found at masonry supply stores and some home centers. The pipe he installed was two sections of solid PVC pipe and one section of 4 inch perforated PVC pipe. The pipe and the PVC glue required to secure the connections, are found at home centers.
When installing a dry well in a small yard with little space for leeching, Mark also suggests installing a plastic basin [amzn.to/2p2KU32] in the hole to allow for more controlled drainage. The yard in the video was massive and slightly sloped downhill away from the house, so the plastic basin wasn’t necessary.
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How to Install a Simple Dry Well
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Having done this more than once I highly recommend that you install a catch basin about 1 foot before the dry well. This will allow you to flush water down the pipes to clear any clogs along the pipe. If you stay in the house for 20 years you will have a clog. Some plumbing services will even come by and flush the pipe for you. With the catch basin, you can cover the pipe going into the dry well and leave the pipe entering the catch basin open so when you flush the line you get a mini geyser. Otherwise, you will have to dig up the pipe, clean it and reinstall. I also like the "Flo Well" that the guys showed at the end. The empty 50-55 gallon Flo wells really increase the capacity of the dry well. They can be daisy-chained to increase capacity.
I completely agree on both accounts. For all this work, a clean out and more capacity would hardly been more time and money.
The Flo Well seems like a much better idea. Just packing a bunch of stone, the stone takes up a lot of the capacity (volume) that could be going to hold water.
@@nofurtherwest3474 Yeah the Flo well is the way to go.
They should add a Y connection at the house as a clean out with a cap. Simple add to help if it get clogged.
@K05 T4R where i live in Toronto Canada, they no longer want storm water going into the sewer line. They are treated differently, storm goes out to eventually drain into the ground. It costs extra to treat the sewer water and storm water. They only want to treat sewer water. Storm water either drains into a swale on your lot or it's pumped out to a storm drain, if you street has one.
@@thebutlerdid well, also, if your sewer backs up you’ll have poo in your yard
Good job... my neighbor was the King of French Drains.
Brought back memories of doing this around my old house.
Getting the water away from your foundation is the best thing you can do.....
This works....
I like adding soil if you can to increase the grade along with extending downspout away from the house. It worked great for my 1890 home.
That dirt is so beautiful. Lol. It's nearly impossible to dig where I live without getting your shovel caught on some root.
Oh man same. Can’t dig anywhere in Virginia!
My dirt is basically like concrete. So difficult to dig
i just removed 14 25ft tail cedar hedges from my mothers place built in a flood plain. 5inchs down its clay. with hand tools. Lol
Here in Chicagoland with all the fast built housing tracts you'll hit gravel after about 8 inches. 😏
Lots of rocks where I live.
I think they should have used the plastic dry well. It's $80, but doubles the water capacity of the well. Plus, you don't have to haul as much gravel any more. He could have connected that downspout from the gutter as well.
There should be an air gap between the discharge pipe & 4” pipe for overflow. The 4” could get backed up in real heavy storms.
My house sump runs so much this drywall wouldn’t even have a hope of being sufficient. I agree the idea of some overflow while minimizing leaf debris is the way to go. Could have a flap valve or similar by the house that only fires if the drywall is at full capacity.
Wow, they made the homeowner really work on this one!
I can't figure out why they didn't fix the downspout too.
Can you simply join the two?
@@TeddyWalla Y pipe.
If they only have a 1.25 or 1.5 inch pipe coming out of the pump, then don't need a larger one going to the well except for possibly the perforated section. If they connected to down spout for the roof, then they'd need the wider diameter pipe.
A string and line level are needed for longer distances and lesser grades.
Hope they fixed the downspouts as well. All that rain water right next to the foundation.
Why are you using 4” pipe for a 1-1/2” pvc pipe as an inlet? Sump pumps have 1-1/2” piping that means that 1-1/2” pipe will be fine. 3” pipe was already more than enough for an extra pump to be tied into it before it would even be close to overloading the pipe w water
Because now days everything is so over killed. Usually a sign they don't know what they're doing.
@@maryglasser404 YUP! But I'm a Mainer, what the hell do I know?
Maybe it takes the pressure off the pump so the pump doesn't have to push the whole distance and gravity can do the work
@@maryglasser404 Like guys running 4" exhaust on their cars or 6" on their trucks...
This might work for the sump pump only, but you need to deal with all the water being deposited in the ground around the house perimeter.
The ground around the house is saturated and draining back to overwork the sump pump.
The roof water should be taken away from the building as far as possible, preferably to a ditch, storm drain or the lowest possible point where it won't leech back to the basement area.
You need to remedy the cause of the problem or you will get expensive damage.
True, seems like they need to also take care of roof drainage by doing something similar on all the downspouts.
"You see that quarter bubble right there!" ... yup.
Gutter downspout should be corrected as well
John P Lol yeah that is a glaring issue. They could have routed that into the dry well
Was thinking that as well, why didn’t they connect that to the drywell
To much water at one time, goal here is to get it out of the basement and if there’s a down pour you’re diverting the entire square footage of the roof to that one small drywell. Now if he dug it deeper (wider wouldn’t help much) that would allow a much bigger capacity of water to be dispersed. But I agree they need to get that water away from the house, should have dug this another 2’-3’ at least and ran the gutters to that location since it was already started.
Could have just gone another 10', tied in the downspout and put in a bubbler. Would have been a lot less work and cost.
Looks like enough pitch after that point that that would suffice.
Yep. Mine is joined with the downspout and the whole is run to the street, for sewer. But what they did will help alot.
Call before you dig! Didn't see any markers out.
Maybe that's because there is nothing underground on the back of the house...
Don’t need to when using hand tools.
Bradley Weingartner but all the young kids buying in old parts of the cities.
@@geissler7457what the f*ck does that mean?
Says landscape fabric only has to go as far as the perforated pipe, ends up taking it all the way to the house.
Right, wasn’t that solid pipe? 😁
@@mike81399 It indeed was unless they did a quick change off camera, but being as the whole point is to bring water away from the house I don't think they put the perforated pipe all the way from the house. Probably didn't want to deal with the leftovers so buried them all in the ground :D
I'd bet money they just had extra fabric in a partially used role that wasn't targeted for another project. Might as well lay it in the entire trench instead of throwing it away or letting it sit in your garage/attic collecting dust. Definitely not necessary, but didn't hurt either.
@@beardjuice9959 Well done.
If you've got it, flaunt it.
i hae no experionce with welling but thank you for teaching people like me, loed learning this kinda stuff! keep up the great work
My sump pump was originally plumbed into my septic system. I rarely have any groundwater coming in, but still, it wasn't good. I started making plans to put in a big dry well with two 55-gal plastic drums, but the property line is only about ten feet away on that side - I would have been pumping water in a circle. Then I found out the township would allow me to tie my sump pump into the storm drains. They put in a plastic mini drain box in front of my house; my 2" sump pump line now goes up to the basement ceiling, then angles downhill from there, downhill all the way into the mini box at the street, switching over to 4" at the corner of the house where it picks up the water from half of my downspouts. Problem solved. :-)
“Let me break it up a little with this pick.” (Brings in a giant pick and goes to town). Literally LOL-ed.
yeah he went ham every time he started working lol
Looks like those homes were built on good old farmlands!! Looks like plenty of topsoil.
I’m here screaming at my phone…….”he forgot to add the dry well” 😂😂😂
What about the 1,000 sqft roof displacing water right into the problem area? What about diverting the thousands of gallon of water from the downspout?
Oh, never mind THAT, ha ha!
I did much the same for a customer 18 years ago. Good job.
This is about the only thing I miss about living in Arizona.
Mark thanks for filling in doing landscaping from the great masonry work you do & refer to when people ask me for what qualities to look for in a high quality mason. I'd guess you often have to deal with water issues around foundations so may have to essentially do & have knowledge of such landscaping projects. Still, cant deny we miss Roger's tutelage and super persona & work ethic. Wishing all of the TOH team well.
This is great, I just was looking into hiring someone to do a bunch of work to fix my problem. Now I can do it myself!
Make sure to have them check your service lines... Dont want to bust a water line or something
Have fun :)
Bob Bob If your water line is that shallow, you’re already in trouble.
I dont miss this. I used to do basement waterproofing till i had enough of getting screwed by everdry grand rapids mi. Now i work in a warehouse and dont get soaked when dealing with failed pumps. Some houses i went to had 4 pumps all seriously active. No thanks
Landscape fabric doesn't drain well, I think the best type to use is nonwoven geotextile. Because you do want to keep dirt out but you want to let the water in and out.
What about the gutter draining on to the cement pad that has a grade slope toward the deck?
I need this old house to visit me… they can do another video doing this to my awful yard. I have a slope 1/2 way down my yard that tons of water sits all the time.. everyone I’ve had out suggest putting pump underground all the way past the slope. That may help the huge wet area close to my house ( pump drops 2 ft from house right now & I walk into my yard in mud daily ) but if they put the pump where they all suggest then I’m dumping water where it’s already wet all the time. I can’t even walk to back of my yard. It’s awful HELP
Dave Wojo, If the sump pump is running all the time, did anyone check to see if there is a check valve installed and if it is working !
Great job. Looks like you never Disturbed anyting. Simple yet effective
Take a drink every time you hear "sounds good "
sounds good
Perfect
Sounds good
Alright
Let's do it
No matter how much you tamp that stone or don't, it will be the same. You cannot compact that stone.
I believe it would be a good idea to install one of those transitions at the home that will allow the water to flow out in the event that the buried pipe gets clogged or frozen. It's basically an adapter that is open on the sides, normally water won't overflow but it has the ability to if needed. With this current setup in the video, the water being pumped behind the backup will not flow outside at all!
Does roger know ur mowing his lawn?
I heard roger taking time off to take care of himself ? I hope he is well!!
Yeah we really miss Roger
Was easy digging. Good dirt all the way down.
Used to be a farm, til they raised property taxes so high the old man had to sell to a developer who built crap houses and they sold for $800,000 on a 3/4 acre lot. Thank a Democrat - they built this.
@Mike Parker Those greedy developers... not
I would of hit for rocks and one would be at least 3 foot diameter.
I live in another region of the country where this isn't a thing. Is there some reason you can't just have the water pump to a drain and go into the city sewer system?
I don’t think anywhere once you send a sump pump or rain gutters into the sewer. Storm drain maybe because it’s not treated.
I wonder if they expect any problems with winter freezing?
Shouldn't because it's not a full pipe and is constantly draining.
chris the homeowner is jacked!!
Cat meat is one of the highest sources of lean protein you can get.
Not "landscape fabric"...geotextile non-woven fabric. There can be a very big difference.
Surprised they didn't take advantage of running the downspout to the same area underground.
Read the title of the video.
Is it needed to add a bug screen at the end of the PVC pipe?
Use some staartah on that yaaard
If i am doing this to bring gutter water away, any hint on how to prevent debris and leaves to clog the pipes etc?
Yes. Excellent point..it would get clogged...would it have to be dug up all the time???
Hi, any chance that it would or could freeze in the winter causing back up?
Yes I wonder about that! 2 different contractors offering 2 different ways to take water away from my basement wall
Very smart tricks... thank you .
Damm! That looks great👌🏻
Why would you build a dry well instead of a cistern that you could use to hold the water for use watering the lawn?
There's probably unlimited well water anyway.
And after all that, you're going to have a long narrow patch of brown grass and dirt and a big square patch of that in the middle of the yard due to no grass being able to grow well above that. Great solution for the water problem, not so great if you actually enjoy a nice lawn.
I didn’t realize Bill Burr moonlighted as a dry well installer.
Never mentioned to call blue stake, but good job love it
Love this video! Very inspiration for projects
Won't the gravel clog up the pipe exit from draining into the well since it is covering the entire pipe?
It would! He should’ve used the dry well.
But the end of the pipe will run right into a wall of stones in the catch basin. Any (inevitable) debris from the downspout will cause a clog at this junction, won't it? Seems like there would need to be drop to keep the end of the pipe clear.
Good information for my drainage issue. Thanks.
Screw digging the trench.
Use a sod cutter and trencher.
Be done in no time.
How far do u dig down. They didn’t specify.
You don't want to tamp it though-don't you want to use loose mixed aggregate? What about just leaving the perforated and dry well part just open on top so it doesn't plug up???
That is sort of what I did. I ran the French drain (perforated pipe surrounded by gravel wrapped in nonwoven geotextile) until about 10 feet from the house where the property begins grading down to the sidewalk/street. Instead of sinking a large drywall I just added a catch basin with 4 holes drilled into the bottom on top of the gravel AND added a pop off as it is sunk about 30 inches down. In cases of torrential rain the pop-off is located at the grass level where the grade starts. In fact we added 4 catch basins for a 25 foot trench which began at 8 inches deep and ended at 32 inches deep. And we never tamped. I am not covering the French drain area with grass but in fact leaving it gravel, edging it with cortex steel edging and using it as a landscape edge. With the multiple catch basins one could easily clean out the perforated in the case of clogging later on. You could even do it every other year or two as maintenance before problems start.
@@laurabrenton7537 wth is a pop off?
@@isveryrill1234567 Pop up I meant to write
@@laurabrenton7537Lol, I still don't know what it (a pop up) is.
@@isveryrill1234567 pop up valve - google it. common drain system piece.
Did you get a permit for that?
Sounds good.
I wonder if Mark was confused why they wanted a mason to go out and dig a dry well.
Chris is going to blow his knees out jamming his foot down onto the shovel like that.....
the wheel barrow has a stunt double
Will the grass grow well on top of all of that stone, especially the dry well area?
Good question 🤔 I hope someone will address this. Looking to have this done at my condo and I don't have a sup pump..
It would be interesting to know how much they spent on materials.
$300.
TXMEDRGR $10,000
$1, Bob.
Looks like the homeowner has more than just drainage problems if the sump is running every time it rains.
Yeah his downspouts should be carried out farther
@@Techmatt167Official Yep, You can see that right in the video horrible downspout runs . Also the grade by that house is god awful.
Depends what his house is built on. Mine is on an old marsh area, my sump runs often. I just set it to run longer to space out how many times it runs. All my spouts have buried runs to move water well away from the house.
DarkRaptor99 can I ask what makes the grade bad? Is it the wrong angle or something? What does a good grade look like?
Whose pump doesn't run every time it rains??
let's extend the sump pump drain, but let's not fix the downspout dumping into the foundation at 1:36 lol wow
Yeah it should really all be connected to that dry well
Techmatt167 It is. Lol
All this info, you guys are amazing.
I need this!
What about freezing during the winter for us northeastern homeowners? Is that a concern with the depth + schedule 40 pvc?
I’m in New York and my sump drain is no deeper. It’s sending “warm” water regularly enough that it doesn’t freeze if the pitch is good.
I like the new format. Keep the good work
Should have reworked how the pipe came out of the house. Looks like amateur hour with it crooked. Also, why not tie in the downspout? Only needed another 10 ft of pipe and a tee.
Why did you not take the other drain from the roof and tie it into this drain?
The pipe didn't seem deep wouldn't this freez during the winter?
La Marc No
Normally it would not freeze because the slope of the pipe drains the water. So there is no standing water in the pipe to freeze. The pipe itself may freeze in the winter but if there's no water in the pipe there is nothing to expand and cause damage. There is only air in the pipe since the water drains away. Hope this helps.
where i live it is illegal to but the downspout underground
Probably is there, too.
John Doe You should move
The old guy digging. A young buck would just say "Alexa dig ".😂
Dry wells can be more of a problem....they have a finite life..get filled up with all sorts of stuff....adds water to the area around the house....he already has saturated ground.......best to direct the water far away from the house......maybe regrade the property
Does pvc bend at all? I want to redirect roof runoff from the downspout about 30 degrees to a drywell. Also, why don’t you recommend using a drywell barrel?
Not sure if you still need this information, but there are 22 1/2 degree fittings for PVC.
You can expect about 5 degrees of bend over a 6m length. 30 degree bends are available.
I'm guessing Roger was on another assignment. It's possible Mark is skilled in multiple trades.
I think Roger retired per the last magazine. Wikipedia page also confirms.
Hello what is the name of the compartment that they showed at the end of the clip that he said he didn’t need and would only use for tighter spots? Thanks
Where’s Rahjah?
No BUD call ?
He said”why don’t we get some digging pools, tools” 🤣🤣
Is this an adequate solution for the northeast? There is water in the sump pit, 24/7 for 30+ years. The pumps run almost daily.
Check your gutters first and see if they're not leaking and moving the water away at least 7 Ft. from your foundation.
Next check your slope of the land so if any water is running towards your foundation, build a french drain or something of that nature to move the water away from it.
If you live in a high water table area, you maybe to either have your drainage tile outside redone, water proof the foundation or on the cheaper end, have a interior drain in your basement build and sloped to your sump hole, this will move the water below the footers into the drain before it leaks into the basement.
As far as sump pump's go, Liberty pumps are supposed some of the best. If your sump hole is large enough, add another pump and set it for higher to go off if the first pump can't keep up. Also make sure you have some backup option for when the power WILL go out. Most people have a battery backup but since I have solar, I have a 12 volt that runs in that case.
social kruption You sir, are an expert. I respect your knowledge on this subject! Awesome info here, I’m doing a carpentry apprentice but always love to get more information wherever and whenever possible. thanks!
@@timhanby5662 I am no expert, I've just watched enough videos and reading to have a small understanding.
social kruption nice to get some knowledge like that in concise form though, thanks :)
No matter how BIG the dry well it will fill up with water take the pipe as FAR as possible .
I had a job digging deep holes in the ground and then filling them with water..... it was well boring.
Dry wells do not work unless it is higher than the surrounding grade especially in the spring time when the lawned is saturated with water
That yard needs some proper grading away from the house. Having a grade away from the house solves 90% of the problem. They also need to address the downspout that is directing rainwater too close to the house.
My neighbor did this 2 years ago and I hate it. All of their water runs into my yard. They should have run a pipe around their house to the street like how I did to my house. My sump pump started to run non-stop.
As a stoner, I got a kick out of you mentioning if the well "percolates"
Are all these homeowners prompted to answer "Sounds Good" Its on all videos
i remember my first time using a shovel
So what's the point of stone over the section of solid pipe?
Yeah they clearly said it was only needed over the perforated pipe before they did it.
I thought the same thing. 🤔
I thought the same thing. Maybe they had extra stone?
Potentially to keep it from collapsing under load (if someone drove over it).
And you just created a path way back to the foundation of the house.
He says to fill the dry well with 3/4" stone. My stone is 13/16" Will that work?
Do you really need to ask? YES
Don't worry, there's a tolerance; they actually sell the same stone relabeled in metric overseas.
@@FlyNAA Oh thank you!!!!
I've been waiting 3 years for an answer to this post.
Now I can FINALLY finish my dry well without having to grind off 1/16" of _every_ gravel.
Of course I sold the property last year but that shouldn't make a difference.
If you live in a cold climate don't have that pipe coming out of the house exposed to the weather...will freeze...might have to use a heat tape in low temps.
Bob Bosler No water in the pipe unless the pump runs. Pipe doesn’t hold water, it wont freeze.
U can let downspout drain on the other level it’s not gonna hurt the shingles and let it drain out to the left side of the video and turn the other with drain pipe to the opposite side of home and the cost on that should be less then 100 and al that digging is just part of the show and there pros or due they just take the money
That discharge is not from the downspout but from the sump pump. Really, ALL the downspouts should be routed far far away from the foundation if you have a sump pump working that hard anyway. So either way, sometimes you just have to dig.
Why not go another 10 ft? or 20 ft?
Why not go another 30 ft? or 40 ft?
Because then it would be in his neighbor's yard. Notice the camera angle doesn't show it's a cookie cutter subdivision carved out of rich American farmland
Why did they put gravel all the way to the house? Don't you only need it to the end of the perforated pipe?
Bruce Wayne this will help more with heavy rains. Takes all the moisture near that area directly to the dry well. What’s odd is that they didn’t take time to add the downspout to the dry well, while they were at it.
@@6butterflywings6 … if they added the downspout then the drywell would need to be MUCH bigger. A roof catches a LOT more water than people realize.
rupe53 instead it’s going to dump back into the system and keep the problem going. Better to do it right the first time.
@@6butterflywings6 … You raise a good point but the flip side is gutters are usually sent elsewhere because of the volume, which they should have considered in the first place. IOW, all of the water (sump and gutters) should have been sent farther away, but we didn't get to see the rest of the yard so have no idea of the options. At my house I sent the sump to a drywell but my gutters and a French drain are sent to a storm drain in the street. (which eventually goes into a river)
@Crotch Banister Alfred keeps some dehumidifiers going.