How to Fix a Sinking Driveway Drainage System | Ask This Old House
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ม.ค. 2022
- In this video, Ask This Old House master mason Mark McCullough helps a homeowner handle a sinking drywell forming a major depression in their driveway.
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Mark McCullough helps a homeowner with a driveway repair. The homeowner has a drywell in the middle of their driveway, and while it's still draining well, it's beginning to sink. After checking out the grade around the drain, Mark and the homeowner dig out the well to see what's happening.
Time: 4 Hours
Cost: Under $200
Skill: ⅗
Materials:
Mortar mix [amzn.to/3HQ7izE]
Bricks [thd.co/3345QLx]
Crushed stone [thd.co/3qha4bh]
Asphalt patch [amzn.to/3GlKkQz]
Tools:
Safety glasses [amzn.to/31OVL4r]
Chipping hammer [amzn.to/3teorik]
Masonry chisels [amzn.to/3HNQ1Hm]
Masonry trowel [amzn.to/3JYGKy6]
Mortar tub [amzn.to/3r8wuLd]
String line [amzn.to/3FptuPK]
Garden hose and nozzle [amzn.to/3fl1K3P]
Small mason’s float [amzn.to/33jql6x]
Fixing a Sinking Drywell
1. Start by removing the grate from the drain and removing all of the debris. Be sure to remove leaves, dirt, and other sediment out of the way.
2. Next, remove the grate frame or ring from under the asphalt. Put on a pair of safety glasses and use the hammer and masonry chisel to cut away at the asphalt around the ring, removing approximately 6 inches of asphalt around the drain. Once the lip on the bottom of the frame is exposed, lift it out of the hole.
3. Inspect the grate setting for failure by removing the loose asphalt and dirt with a masonry trowel. Remove any broken or deteriorated bricks, as well as all of the damaged asphalt. Clean the hole out again, giving it a rinse with a garden hose and nozzle.
4. Rebuild the grate setting using new bricks and mortar. Mix the mortar according to the manufacturer’s instructions and lay a bed over the existing bricks. Set the new bricks into the mortar and tap them down with the butt of the masonry trowel. Be sure to stagger the joints between bricks and maintain a consistent height.
5. Coat the bricks on the inside, outside, and top with mortar to add more strength to the setting.
6. Place the grate frame on top of the setting. Stretch a string line from the asphalt on either side of the hole. Ensure that there is approximately 2 inches of space from the top of the frame to the string to allow for proper drainage without creating too much of a depression in the middle of the driveway. Build up with bricks and mortar if needed.
7. Lay a bed of mortar around the outside of the grate frame to anchor it and help the existing asphalt to stay in place.
8. Pour crushed stone around the outside of the ring and tamp it down with a brick.
9. Fill around the grate ring with an asphalt patch, pressing and tamping it into place with the mason’s float. Use the float to smooth the asphalt, taper it toward the drain, and replace the grate. Allow the asphalt to set for around 2 weeks.
Where to find it?
Mark raised a drywell in a driveway that sunk below grade. After using a chipping hammer [amzn.to/3teorik] and chisel [amzn.to/3HNQ1Hm] to break away the sunken asphalt, Mark removed the grate and added gravel. He chose to use EZ Street ready-to-use asphalt [www.ezstreetasphalt.com/] and ProMasonry Type S Mortar mix [www.promasonry.net/] to level out the drywell.
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How to Fix a Sinking Driveway Drainage System | Ask This Old House
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One reason I really like Mark is he always, always, always has the homeowners get involved in meaningful ways. He seems a great teacher.
Was thinking the same thing, too!
Agreed, he seems to work WITH the homeowner more than FOR them.
So much positivity in the comments
Well with a fox like that I would too
That is a job that looked way more intimidating then it was. Nice work.
It’s good to see people learn to fix things. Many things are not as hard as they look.
Thank you editor for showing the before and after
Mark always satisfies his customer
You are really the best Mark, keep up the great masonry work 👍👍👍
Great job. Thank you for the time and effort you took to make this video and share it with us. Greetings from Croatia.
Big thank you for showing the finished product and the before and after!!
Great job 👏🏼
Nice job Mark!
Love these masonry videos
Good work 👏
Great job Mark
Great job.
Great job to both of you
I can tell she grew up watching toh, the flick of mud!
😊seeing and gets through The Entire Life such a craftsman
Beautiful...very easy
I would’ve added some bluestone.
Great, now this guy is old, how long have I been watching this show!
Grate work! :)
So helpful. And coincidental. That looks exactly like my sinking drain, possibly the same manufacturer of the grate as well. Same issue, moved into our house 6 years ago too, slowly sinking... Can't wait to fix it this spring.
How did it go?
@@alexanderzerka8477 coincidentally I’m just finishing up the asphalt patch today. The hole complex than the video. When I dug it out, the original builders used huge boulders and bricks to walk the hole. The concrete mortar (if there had been any) was gone, bricks crumbled, but rocks were solid and immovable. I rebuilt everything leaving the boulders in place and bricking around them with concrete.
@@fernwood Thanks for the insight. Concrete sounds like a better choice than mortar, that's for sure!
Great video and instruction.
It definitely would have been helpful to hear more about where this water goes. Drywells really don't work in our clayey North Carolina soils (at least not this type!). I wish they did.
How does that not get overwhelmed during heavy rain?
I'm sure it does. Doesnt look like it would handle much water. In my years as a contractor. I have seen this many times. Eople think all you need is a hole in the asphalt. The reason it failed is because the drywall wouldn't take the water. Driving over a flooded one repeatedly causes deterioration
@@rickmcphee4206 ... so does freezing / thawing here in the northeast. (where this is)
@@rickmcphee4206 yup makes sense. I’ve never heard of this contraption and I’m involved with construction. Seems like a very lazy approach. A simple pvc pipe moving the water away is a much better way
Where exactly is that there water going?
@@mecheng1977 ... a pipe leading water away is absolutely a better way, but you need a location that's downhill for the water to drain away. He mentions in the video that this is a low spot.
That was a grate job!
no pun intended 🌝
I wish my customers helped me dig out their drains!
TOH is a TV show, showing how to do DIY things so homeowners can do it themselves. Having a homeowner do the job partly themselves in the clip makes it more plausible that anyone can do it.
@@Engineer9736 Thanks for thinking for the rest of us. I don't think anyone would've understood what they just watched was it not for your comment 👍
Everyone seems to be more concerned about Mark's hands and knees, than the job at hand. For you that don't know the trades. Here is some info for you. After working in a trade job all week, every muscle and bone aches in your body. Come Friday, usually pay day, after work the boys usually go to a local tavern to kill the pain in their bodies. Drinking numerous libations with the boys till late in the evening, you tend to not feel the pain for a while. Seeing this project was probably scheduled as a Saturday 9am video side job. I can tell you Mark was not feeling any pain in his hands, nor his knees, let alone his brain! Plus, working with Anna being such a beautiful woman as she is, was just the icing on the cake. It brings this proverb to mind, "Any job worth doing is worth doing right"! Carry on you Tradesmen ~ 😎
This is actually the one thing that I caution people who are really listening to this whole get into a trade instead of college spiel.
Depending on the trade you get into your body can be shot by the time you're 45 at the most. At that point you're either going to be a superintendent or you're going to have to quit because you're not going to tote bricks or shingles up a ladder any longer.
For this reason you want to make sure that you're smart with that money you're making. When you start off young and you're making bank, don't blow it on junk. Put it someplace safe or invest it carefully. If you do that properly when that's 45 hits, you can absolutely have enough foot back to walk away and retire by 50 at the latest. Just be smart about it.
The children won't die now!
Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children??
@@seededsoul lol
Excellent video! Appreciate the repair approach! Some companies would try to replace the whole driveway.
Indiana should hire you guys to patch our potholes
why not channel the runoff into a neighbor's yard like roger did.
Juhhhss dihg ahhh trenhch too dahh nehhbahhhs yaaahhd. Now isss dey're praahhblem
🦞🦞🦞
@@jeffwilson1399 Are you the new Kevin in the comments on all TOH videos?
@@Engineer9736 No. He was legend. I'll never fill those shoes. Unfortunately not all TOH videos are worthy of comment . . Most not worthy of watching.
@@Engineer9736 did the old Kevin get kicked off the channel's page?
@@lc2557
When the Lobstahs were going hot and heavy on the TOH page. . And I was commenting alot with Kevin. .and Brian Glade. . Corat would chime in from time to time. .. . . . TOH would disable my notifications. . . . Faahhkin haaahhd aaahhns.
I have the same issue with my driveway but issue is bigger its not draining as fast now. Previously it was working fine and draining fine. Now all the asphalt around has started to crumble and the drainage gets clogged up with dirt and debris. I had roto router come through with the pressure wash and snake it down the drain and no luck. its still draining very slowly and during heavy rains gets clogged.
Wow, a before and after?! TOH you shouldn’t have!
my boy could not stop with "great" after he acknowledged the pun lol
Anyone know the typical depth dry well is dug?
How would the drainage work on a driveway like that? Is the drain actually connected to a water line or something?
of course not
Can someone tell me if there is any drainage pipe under this kind of sink? or does water just go naturally to the soil underneath it? I have a similar one in my driveway but there are quite some soil there. I dig those soil out but see nothing under there. Not sure if I need to do anything more. It is not really blocking. But feel water sinks a bit slow. Is a fabric filter needed under the lid? if so, where can I buy one?
This is called a dry well, basically a hole with gravel in it. The water will very slowly seep through the dirt under the gravel. They should have dug a much larger hole and filled it with gravel and then the bricks on top, so that it can handle a lot more water.
Is that stuff just like cold patch?
Yes it is
Yeah that drain would not do anything here in houston where we get about an inch a week.
Why not fill in and eliminate that drain and have the driveway leveled so that water runs off to one side ?
I couldn´t help giggling every time the lady was chiselling.....
interesting, i don't think i've ever seen a drain like that in the middle of someones driveway
I know this is unrelated, but I'm very curious about installing shelves on Adobe brick walls. Does TOH have any tips or guides for that?
There's one video about hanging a mirror on masonry from 2018. You may go to this channel's maing page and look it up there.
Unfortunately I'm not sure it applies in the case of Adobe brick. My husband tried drilling some anchor holes for shelves, and it sounds like the bricks are prone to eroding more than expected.
@@VanessaTJ I'm absolutely no expert in the subject at all, but I come from a family of blacksmiths so I've seen a thing or two, but it will definitely depend on a few things so it's hard to give an advice this way.
That being said, if you mean those bricks tend to disintegrate as he drills them, I would make sure I'm using the right speed (maybe faster?) and approach. But if that doesn't help, there are some liquids that might help. I can't remember the name and, since I definitely live on another country, maybe you have different things there, but I'm talking about some liquids that can penetrate the material (it has to be porous) and give it some extra strength. They have it for wood that has been attacked by termites and so, and there's also for brick and other masonry materials.
Maybe that could help, but don't expect miracles.
And, also, even if that helps, you may have to look at other options or designs.
I'm no mason, but I would look at fastening some simple 90 degree brackets to the Adobe brick with some masonry Tapco screws. You predrill for the screws at a slightly smaller diameter than the screw. Then send the screws home. You could paint the brackets any color you want. I would also recommend drilling into the mortar of the bricks and not the bricks themselves if possible. Another possible way to go is use construction adhesive to affix the brackets to the walls, then attached the selves after the adhesive sets up. If you weren't putting a lot of weight on the selves, this fix work too. You might have to support each bracket while the adhesive set up with a piece of tape or prop rod.
Go send them a letter or an e-mail if you live in the U.S.
So where is the water supposed to go once in the hole? There needs to be a pipe in the catch basin to take the water away.
It just flows down through the gravel into the soil
👍👍
1:47 he says "no pun intended", and says "grate" two more time. I see what you did, Mark
WOW that was way more work than I expected!
Why wasn't the final asphalt heated at all? Doesn't it need to be hot to meld together?
because it is special!!
It's a cold patch so no need... best I recommend is Aquaphalt
@@DavidLucBelanger How's that supposed to work? It just looked like sticky gravel to me.
At work we're told to never put our hands into drains without heavy gloves as there may be junkie's needles down there.
I cringed when Mark reached in without gloves! Yuck and dangerous!
marks hands are tough as leather from years of masonry work
On a private driveway, I don't think it's much to worry about.
in your personnel drain in your own driveway???
@@electricalron stop cringing, start working
don't you need to apply high heat to the black asphalt to make it stick or settle ? thanks
Ana was there providing the heat.
No that’s cold mix it’s a different mix then what you see them use on driveways, parking lots, and highways. Cold mix is for pot holes or repairs it would be too expensive to use normal hot mix in a job like that as you order it by the ton with many plants require a minimum of 2-5 tons.
That is the No-Bake version of asphalt.
Whay about the Easy Bake option. 🎂lol. I think the Patch filler I used said to drive over it to compact it. But you have fresh concrete that needs to set up, so no weight.
@@mortensonaaron Heeeeeeyyyyy----ooooooooooo
🦞🦞🦞🦞
1:49 “oh great. No pun intended”.
YET FAILS TO acknowledge use of the word great the two times immediately after.
Seriously Mark. What kind of dad are you!
Where does it drain to? Just seeps into the ground?
basicly yes. I think he said dry sump. so there i 'hole' that the water would fill immediatly and drain off slowly before the next storm.
yup, so anything more than a light rain will cause it to back up and flood the driveway. horrible design
ok. so plug the hole and leave all the water on drive way. hmm.
@@Alex.AL_26 dry sumps work fine don't be so sensitive
so this is simply letting water sink into the soil underground?
Yes, usually for a drywell you'd want a lot of gravel so the water would be inbetween the gravel then it would seep through the soil. The more gravel you have the more water storage capacity for it to slowly seep into the ground. That drywell looked inadequate for the space draining into it. Heavy rains that driveway is probably a big puddle as that small drywell lets the water seep into the soil.
@@fizzpop6543 I don't see that draining anything lol
@@skutsenkow yeah that's what I said in my reply? It will eventually drain very very slowly.
really like the video... music not neccessary... the methodical step by step getting the job done is great
I know one thing, if I were to get TOH/ATOH to visit and help with my home, I would be like, "no, you do it. I'll watch. Please!"
If you diy this wear gloves when removing the old asphalt and debris.
Looks like there both cementing the hole in
"This is in grate shape. It'll be grate to reuse"
Interesting that they didn’t clean out the drain to the pipe below. They even threw more stuff in it. Or is it just a reservior which drains directly into the ground below or something? You would think it would still work better without that gravel thrown into it, so here is more space for water.
I believe it is just a filter basin that drains into the ground, hence the gravel.
No pipe since it's a drywell
So that drain drains water into the earth?
Where does the water go?
Supposed to soak into the ground.
in the ground, like 99% of water
@@Fattony6666 Obviously. Try this - dig a hole as big as this one in your background right where one of your gutters/downspouts dumps and find out how fast it fills up and gets overwhelmed. Now imagine water runoff from a large asphalt driveway dumping into the same hole. You need to have a catch basin buried in the driveway here with a drainage pipe buried underground leading to the street where the water can flow along the kerb and into the storm sewers for proper evacuation of the water runoff. Commonly known as a "french drain."
Where is the water supposed to go?
ever heard of a soak away?
@@paulp1008 Those are called dry wells.
@@kalijasin same thing..
At 2:42 you can see the hole that the water drains through...goes to clay pipes he mentioned earlier
in the ground, like all the water that falls on your grass
So, where does the water go? It looks like it's just a water-collection site. Shouldn't it have some piping directing the water elsewhere?
It’s more a space of gravel that allows water to go into it and be stored until it can drain further down.
It's a drywell, so no. It's amazing they didn't explain that. Just look at all the comments asking about it.
Avrage salary for palmer in usa sorry for my english
Anna is gorgeous
Yes, she is very easy on the eyes!
Where does the water go tho? Over time water is gonna wash out the base and will sink
it already did sink, and they will be doing it again in 5-10 years. OTOH, by then they will need to do the driveway over and they can make the drywell bigger.
no it won't
1:47 hahaha
did he use bricks as knee pads?
buddy look like freddy!!!!
Shouldn’t ya have unclogged that drain first?
Dude is so tough he uses bricks for kneepads.
My tip... put some pads down on the driveway to kneel on.
For a snowflake or an office worker maybe
She reminds me of Jodi Arias, but with out the criminal past; very pleasing to look at :)
EZ
TOH is usually better about explaining the background of the project: what is this well, how does it work, what's under that brick, etc. I was surprised that they didn't set up their viewers for knowledge that they usually do
I agree. This felt sloppy and didn't answer many of my questions. I wonder if the new guy is just missing that TOH gene.
Didn't look like that drain was gonna hold much water.
Can you please get Mark a pair of gloves? 😄
Men don't need gloves
yea that dry well gona fill up in the smallest of rains.
Evidently hasn’t so far (according to home owner).
@@robertbamford8266 link?
@@jeepxj check about 1:10 in video. “Drainage not a problem,” says Anna, homeowner.
@@robertbamford8266 Ahh well there we have it.
She prob lives on a hill
O know don't give that tiny skinny lady a hammer she will not be able to break anything
That's a drain? Huh. Interesting.
It's a dry well
one of the worst designed drains I have seen.
@@Alex.AL_26 how many have you seen, 3?
Must be a big city thing. I’ve never seen one.
Her husband is actually a mason. He didn’t have time for this bs
So call a pro is what your telling me?
Very good video showing each step. Lose the goofy irritating music at 4:35
They rarely have beautiful homeowners on these clips lol
Anyone got her number. 🥰
What's up with the music in this one?
It was a bit odd!
Yes!!!! Suddenly appears and had no benefit or relation to the video. Thought it was coming from somewhere else in my house.
MARK USE A FOAM PAD FOR YOU KNEES!! DONT RUIN EM
hes not dunking basketballs
oh please he's not a snowflake
Leak once that happens everything collapse unless level and fix
2:54 "cut out all these badass' fault"
that sure did not sound right...😅😅🤣🤣
dude where's your gloves...
I remember when parents let their children play without constant supervision. She's really worried about her kids tripping? Seriously? Parents today are completely soft...
she's cute
ATOH rule #1…..homeowner must be an attractive woman.
This your first time here?? ‘Cause that’s obviously _not_ a rule.
where are all the men at? husbands, boyfriends?? they shy to be on camera?
Bad asphalt, indeed!
That was a wasted repair to a dry well that is so old it is probably silted up and of little use. I remember when TOH did proper repairs.
Good video, ridiculous music.
ToH has become garbage.
It's suppose to sink
She's such a crybaby
Ah typical yuppie, worried about the car, or the kids might trip. No the possibility of flooding nooooo why worry about that.
I wish they would actually show the entire job from beginning to end, every single step that is involved plus any kind of roadblock that is common and might see. These videos are fun to watch but they are in no way tutorials on how to do anything at all. It is irresponsible of this old house to list these as how to videos because they do not show how to do what they are doing.
He would get the job done much faster if he did it alone 🤷🏻♂️