Kylie your tenacity and determination is an absolute blessing to this project. You guys work so well together. I find your videos informative and motivating- thank you
At least you half expected your issues. I moved into a property in Brittany which looked substantial with Machined Granite stones around the windows the rest of the walls were rendered. The property was a ex restaurant perched on a hill with good sea views idyllic. . This was in September. Then the winter storms started. The rain was being blown through the walls running down the inside of the walls which were built on concrete floors where the rain then ran into the property. Had a surveyor in who informed us the different coefficient of expansion between the concrete walls and Machined Granite stones around the window just let the rain in. We had to then employ a specialist company to remove the cement from around these Granite stones and replace it with a flexible filler. Then paint the entire outside of the property. It was only the paint and the flexible filler which kept the property dry. The was no damp proof course. To say the property was big was and understatement sitting room 30 foot by 35 foot. I could fit 6 cars nose to tail in the cellar which ran the length of the property.
Perhaps I'm A month too late! You needed to use more angular rocks rather than round pebble stones. as the water cant peculate effectively. especially if you have large volumes flowing water. Crushed rock is the best for french drains. Because the angular rocks allow for the water to flow into the Slotted pipe. Great work Guys!
All the sources we read recommended river rocks ... apparently they compress less due to the roundedness and have more space for the water to flow (think of the gaps between balls in a pit)
Yes . Its Your drainage problem and your solution. Consider: pebbles protect the river bed. Removal of them is globally damaging rivers more than rock minning. Using Crushed rocks for drainage goes back to the Romans
You have an abundance of Angular rubble from the broken stonework,tiles & bricks that you could recycle and your outbuilding project. You will need to have a rubble drain/ french drain So you won't flood the house in future. Rather than robbing rivers of there river bed protection. Most Countries have banned river pebble extraction as it kills the riverine corridors ecology, AS for the settlement issue you pointed too. The compression of peddles together actually reduces the drainage effectiveness due to Flat surface on flat surface This leaves little room for Peculation. But many advocate it because it has less subsidence. This Reveals a issue with application of this particular methodology. Unfortunately There are many who blindly hate the mining industry so their arguments for Pebbles, overlook the environmental outcomes of choosing not using crushed rock. Love your Channel.😊
Oh - My - Word!!! 😳 You guys! When this project ever gets finished, you will never ever ever ever want to leave! There is so much sweat, time, muscles, stuff and what not…. involved 😅 Respect!✊🏼
To get the house of your dreams you either pay in money (that you normally earn via many years slogging it out for someone else) or in time, energy and exhaustion. We know which option we’d prefer 😃
@@MAKEDOGROW oh yes! I totally agree! But speaking for me… I would never leave after such an accomplishment! The house and the land is going to be so beautiful! Really like watching your channel and hear your explanations and problem solving! 👌🏼👍🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Wow, huge amount of research and brainwork gone into that, and having watched the 6 months of hard labour, I'm so delighted it's all worked. You two are fantastic problem solvers and grafters.
*WOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YIPEEEEEEE it WORKED. Well done Kylie & Guy... all that hard mahi (work) paid off... and Kylie you sure gained some muscles lugging all them buckets full of dirt out... No more damp. So PROUD of both of you in your achievement in sorting this major issue out.* 🙂
The work that you are doing is absolutely amazing! What a wonderful property you have! You will be totally self-sufficient with a project free, warm and beautiful home. REALLY ENJOY YOUR VIDEOS!!!
Unfortunately not ... just the new water feed into the house. We’re hoping to get to the indoor plumbing in the summer when it’s too hot to work outside 😀
I've always wondered if it would be a good idea to put the water feed pipes inside hard plastic piping--all of a sudden can't remember what it's called - just to protect the hoses. What are your ideas?
Conduit, or sometimes called trunking, is typically only needed if you get ground frosts or aren’t having a hard standing over the trench (for example if you were just putting earth back on top). We don’t get ground frosts and we’ll be installing a paved walkway where the pipe runs, so no risk that someone would come along with a shovel etc 😀 We will use conduit when we lay some electrical cables .... because they won’t have a hard standing laid over the top
This is going to make your home so much more comfortable during the change of seasons. I also think you'll be shocked by the volume of water your down spouts provide, once your tanks are installed. A rain gage and some simple math can give you a very good what you might expect from your roof area. Each millimeter of rain, provides one liter per square meter of coverage. Good luck and thanks for the great content.
So much respect for all the ingenuity and hard work. I'm so stealing the nylon over the filter idea, such a simple solution to a frustrating challenge. Very happy for you that your solutions worked and that you can now move to the next projects.
So impressive! I can only join the rest of the cheering crowd and congratulate you!! Keep the projects rolling and best of luck with all the future adventures!
You must both have a great sense of achievement having almost completed all the pipework for drainage etc. Cleaning those stones looked backbreaking work. Slowly but surely you are both making great headway which is lovely to see and you to share with us. Have a good weekend and week ahead. Xxxx
You never disappoint or cease to amaze, on how much you both can accomplish. Hats off to you and all your hard work. Thanks for bringing us along and giving us a progress update.
"But a house is not a home when there's........". water lying in the rooms where it's not wanted. This finishing off, albeit partly, of the V.I. project is going to be wonderful jumpstart to your continued building pursuits. WELL DONE. Thankyou for sharing. Learnt quite a lot. Experience teaches. Just think, with all that exercise you will now live longer to enjoy the fruits of your labour. Bazingo !
I love all your videos of course but this one had to be the most satisfying. I have been so worried about your damp issues and wanting you to succeed in this endeavor and also worried that you would be too discouraged to continue. Wow, you two amaze me, ingenious solutions and tremendous hard work. I love the anti climactic ending, "yes it was successful" just cracked me up and was so pleasing. Well done you two!!
The south facing 1st floor could have a deck extending with an awning diverting rainfall straight onto the orange groves. All other gutters to a cistern. This outdoor area would provide great views. 👍 😘
That solution would prevent any light from entering the ground floor ... and it’s already quite dark down there. Would also require planning permission which is a bureaucratic nightmare here in Portugal
First of all: you guys are absolutely awesome 😊. You also did a great job washing those river stones as clogging can be a serious issue for drainage systems. A tip for cleaning the river rock: if you have a cement mixer you can clean big batches, although that will require a constant flow of water and thus a lot of water. Looking forward to another video of your journey ❤
The ground is really hard compacted clay, almost like rock. Won’t be any issues, particularly as we’re digging away from the walls (which incidentally are 600mm thick) at 45 degrees which is the angle for lateral force
Wouldn’t the outside paving for example keep the damp away from the house? If you had flagging for say 2m around the perimeter falling away from the property wouldn’t this have eliminated much of the problem?
Bricks laid without a damp-proof film will always absorb moisture, so to allow that moisture to leave, the wall must be able to breathe. This is done by either leaving the brick bare or by covering it using a porous material, like lime. NEVER cement. Congrats on tackling a problem that is so common yet the industry makes it so hard to attack because of available materials and misinformation.
It’s such a shame that knowledge of old solutions seem to have been lost and replaced by unsuitable ones that are cheaper and faster. We’ve removed so much cement it’s not funny .... but finally feels like the house is breathing again 😀
Just a correction from a building materials researcher. Mortar based on (OPC) cement is a very porous material. There is not much difference in terms of water transport properties between cement and lime mortars. Actually, cement composition is about 2/3 lime. The reason for not using cement based mortars in walls with rising damp is the soluble salt content in cement mortar. These salts get dissolved in water and when it evaporates they crystallize again, thus expading and causing damage. But these salts can also come from the ground, especially in places where animals were kept, i.e. due to their urine.
@@MAKEDOGROW I kept wondering what the reasoning was behind using the lime mortar under the bricks, as lime will also absorb and transport the water to the bricks by capillarity.
so pleased that your getting closer to being able to start building a finishing level that you see , but so pleased that you have confidence in what you've achieved then rest you've earned it
Hi Guys, firstly, another fantastic video!!. The french drain has given me an idea on how to stop moisture on my 180 year old cottage in the Algarve. Can i ask where did you get the pipe and fabric?
We got all our materials locally ... you shouldn’t have any problems in the Algave. Just make sure that the geotextile is non-woven, it’ll be the same type of fabric as is around the pipe
You both have worked so hard to get to this stage and you both look happy for it. You’ll look back on all this one day and think how did we do it! I laughed out loud to myself with the anti climatic ‘yes it did fix it.’ Enjoying from Wales 🏴
Be very careful when you make the 45 round the house. The downward pressure will push the wall outwards as the ground is new and has not lateral stench. I know it is against your ethics you might need to to make a ring beam to tie it all in. Good luck. Good to See you back working in the house. Regards Bill
Holey crap batman!.. washing those stones was a task and a half. I think you are right however, cleaning the stone properly will extend the life of that French drain by years. I am sure as each mammoth task is checked off the list, the project will really start to feel like you are making real headway. Congrats, and I loofward to your next challenge. Take care D
LOVE your films, LOVE them. Great storytelling, well-edited, well-shot, excellent use of voice-overs - it's all super-impressive. And having built a French drain by hand many moons ago, I know first-hand that it is a must for keeping water and moisture from your ground level living space (and the rest of your home). Thank you for taking us through the very impressive and compelling construction of this epic project. And CONGRATS on the tangible successes and satisfaction that you have earned through that very, very hard work - SO VERY WELL DONE! Also, just love the playful teasing and kibitzing you guys have together - your affection, respect and love for each other is obvious. Looking forward to your next film!
So enjoy being able to see & follow your progress! I'm a recent subscriber & definitely look forward to seeing more of your progress & interesting videos! :)
Well done, its so cool to see the level of care and thinking you guys put into each of these steps :) Cant wait to see how the ground floor will turn out once Kylie is done with all the other projects like the limecrete floor.
I can't even imagine the degree of satisfaction you both must feel after such committed, hard graft. You must be experiencing the absolute pinnacle of smugly-satisfied. Fantastic work.
I am so pleased for you both at achieving a job well done. By heck it took a lot of time/work/effort to do it but I bet your over the moon as well as damp and under pinning are major jobs that a lot of "proper" builders wont tackle. Well as you have done that, I have no doubt that you can master any job that comes your way. Thanks for posting
Congrats so much work, i bet you both must be so happy to have solved the water issue. Be proud of yourselves you deserve a pat on the back as your bloody hard workers
This was emotional to watch for me! I may be one of the few people watching who knows first hand why you cleaned your rocks! I'm also well-placed to say I think you did the right thing and it was both necessary and a fantastic decision. I had a hempcrete slab subfloor install go awry - the hemp & lime mix didn't set properly due to human error (frustratingly not mine!) and I had chosen not to install a fabric barrier (terrible reasoning presented to me that led to this dumb decision!) which meant loose hemp just fell into the foamglass insulation layer below. Like yours, this layer had to be completely clean with no organic matter in it. The only way to rectify it was to dig out all the hempcrete (went to be composted), and then for me to dig up 9 cubic metres of foamglass, to sieve out the loose hemp. I spent about 3 weeks, 10 hrs a day, sat on a bucket sifting every single piece ... through a mushroom crate! Then I had to re-level the gravel layer, reinstall and level the foamglass, lay a vapour barrier, then reinstall a new hemplime slab mix 😭😭😭 You'll understand now why seeing the rock cleaning brought back so many emotions. 🤪
I'm also womdering if it's possible to order gravel / rocks from your supplier locally in the same types as in the UK - I didn't know when I first started that you can order either 'x mm to dust' (eg. 20 to dust, 40 to dust), or 'xmm clean' (eg. 20mm clean) - the latter means you'll get clean (pre-sieved) gravel with only to +/- 20mm gravel and no smaller pieces or 'dust'. Once I knew, the price difference made sense but it was quite a lesson to learn that there were these two distinct product types, each appropriate for different scenarios. Just another piece of the learning curve 🤪
Oh my goodness, what an ordeal!! We’ve discussed quite a lot not using a geotextile for our limecrete floor, but deduced that there must be a reason it’s needed .... and certainly it does no harm (though I’d prefer a natural material). Your story confirms that we definitely need to use one. 😀
Unfortunately here the range of products is very limited. Struggled finding river rocks let alone anything that has been pre-cleaned. Sourcing (of many things) can be quite a challenge in the interior of Central Portugal
In the video you said that you did half of the thickness of the downstairs wall at a time but, if the lime compound takes a while to 'go off', won't there be an issue of supporting all of the building above it before it is strong enough to hold up the building?
The building above is supported by a large lintel .... the wall was originally open and was later filled with the red air bricks. So the footings aren’t actually supporting anything other than the red bricks which are insanely light and are held together with the existing lime mortar between them
Well done!!! Amazing job. Beating the damp enemy your house will resist for 500 years. Can't wait to see the full completion of your project. It's looking great.
Greatly admire your tenacity, determination & work ethic. There is no doubt in my mind that you will achieve the outcome you desire. However, I strongly suspect you could have achieved a better outcome by demolishing the entire structure, levelling the ground with aid of a dozer & building on a. solid damp proofed foundation. Confession: I'm Australian & we have a tendency toward levelling "knock downs." Well aware that this approach is not for everyone. Will now put on helmet, armoured vest. ... - preparing for incoming. Keep up the great work.
Wow! Great job. We need to put in a french drain system here. Our rainwater runs off the garage roof and into our neighbor's back door. It also erodes our foundation (pier and beam) and we have to have it levelled every couple of years due to the slope our house is on. Some day we will finish. I'm sure you know the feeling.
