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Oliver (Drain Addict @ YouTube; Drain Go) is working at a house that has an exterior stairwell leading to a basement storage area below a building. The drain at the landing at the base of the stairs is clogged, causing rainwater to collect and back up on the landing and also into the nearby basement area. The situation is complicated by how there’s a sump pit and sump pump in the basement that happens to have a hose that empties into the drain that is clogged and causing the water to back up in the first place. The same water ends up going in a cycle, where it collects at the bottom of the stairs, then eventually overflows into the basement storage area, then gets pumped back up to the bottom of the stairs where it can’t drain away, and the cycle repeats.

The high-pressure water jetter is used to try to clear the drain pipe. As Oliver jets it, it becomes difficult to see what’s going on due to there being a few inches of murky water at the bottom of the stairs above the drain’s opening. The hose from the sump pump in the basement is still emptying into that area, too, which makes it harder to tell if the drain might have been unclogged and is draining away the water. To help avoid this, Oliver temporarily moves the hose to empty into the basement area instead.

It takes several minutes of jetting, but eventually the blockage is popped, and the pooled water begins to drain away. The sump pump hose that was redirected toward the basement earlier is returned to the bottom stairway landing, so that the significant amount of water that has collected in the basement storage area can finally be drained away.

Due to the volume of water involved, it takes a little while for the sump pump to remove all of it. Oliver monitors its progress, and ensures that the grate over the sump pit doesn’t get obstructed by any debris or other items that are carried over by the water in the basement. Eventually, enough of the water that was in the basement storage area gets pumped out, and the sump pump shuts itself off.

Gavin (Penetrator Blocked Drains @ YouTube; Turbo Plumbing Solutions) is at a home with a blocked sewage drain. The drain system is located on the exterior wall of the house, but the vertical section of piping runs through an enclosed canopy-covered shed structure with a workbench, tools, and other items inside of it.

In order to avoid getting sewage on the items, Gavin decides to jet from on top of the canopy. He uses a ladder to climb up there, and then removes a segment of what appears to be a vent pipe. This releases some of the backed-up water, and it also gives an opening into the system that he can insert the jetting nozzle and hose through.

It doesn’t take very long to clear the blockage using the jetter. Once that’s done, he rinses down the roof he is working on top of, and manually removes some leaves and other debris that were clogging up the gutter along the edge of the canopy. Jetting on the roof did help avoid getting sewage on the various items in the shed-like structure.

Oliver (Drain Addict @ YouTube; Drain Go) is at a house with a backed-up sewage system.

In the yard, right next to the boundary trap inspection opening, is the stump of a large tree that has been cut down at some point. This suggests that there might be roots in the pipe.

Once the inspection opening lid is removed, there are a large number of flies inside the riser pipe, and roots are visible deeper within the pipe.

The hand lance is used to do some initial clearing of the roots that are visible in the shaft. That’s enough to pop the blockage, and the backed-up sewage begins to drain. The lance is then used to cut some of the roots that still remain. Eventually, Oliver puts his arm down into the shaft through the inspection opening, and manually pulls out a number of the root fragments.

After a brief inspection with the drain camera, a nozzle replaces the lance on the jetting hose, and it’s used to start clearing away the roots that are deeper within the system. While using the camera to check on the progress, some damage to the pipes is noted. More clumps of roots are also noticed throughout the drain.

Using the pipe locator, the point where the pipe leading back to the house switches between plastic and clay piping is found, and it’s marked above-ground using spray paint.

Some more jetting is done to clean up the remaining roots. Once they’re gone, Oliver rinses off some splatters on a wall near the inspection opening, and then has somebody inside the house flush the toilets. The water and some toilet paper pass through the system, indicating it’s flowing again.

Oliver (Drain Addict @ YouTube; Drain Go) is working in an apartment suite in a multi-unit building with an amazing view of the Sydney, Australia skyline. One of the suite’s bathroom sinks is not draining properly. He notices that a chemical, likely acidic, has apparently been used by somebody else earlier to try to clear the drain.

While trying to get access to the drain by removing a section of the pipe in the cabinet underneath the sink, he accidentally gets splashed with some of the potent chemical. After washing it off in the bathroom’s other sink, he manages to remove the pipe.

A drill-powered drain snake is used to pop the blockage, but some of the chemical remains in the pipe. A bucket is then used to pour some water from the shower down the sink’s drain to flush away the chemical.

The drain camera is used to inspect the pipe, and the blockage appears to be scale, concrete, or something similar. Using the drain snake again, Oliver manages to break up most of the obstruction.

After putting the previously-removed drain pipe back in place, he wipes up some water that splashed around while he was cleaning the drain. The sink is then partially filled with water with the drain plug in, and the plug is then removed to show that the sink is able to drain.

While inspecting the pipe beneath the sink, Oliver notices some water on the floor, near the drain pipe. He wipes it up with a towel, and then partially fills the sink with water once more. After the water is released, there doesn’t appear to be any more water ending up on the floor.

At the very end of the video, he shows how the chemical that he’d encountered during the job had caused some significant damage to his work pants.

Oliver (Drain Addict @ YouTube; Drain Go) starts by jetting though an inspection opening, which seems to be for a sewage system’s boundary trap, that he had to dig through some grassy soil to access.

He then moves to a different location to access the drain pipe, via a small external hatchway that leads to a very short crawlspace under a building. To the left of the small door is a drain pipe that was apparently patched at some point with another fragment of pipe. After the patch is removed, an existing drilled circular hole is revealed in the wall of the pipe. The jetter is used through this access point to pop the blockage.

After the jetting, the camera is used to inspect the state of the pipe, and some remaining traces of root infiltration is observed. Some more jetting is done to clear away the remaining roots. The drilled access hole in the pipe is then patched over once again with a fragment of pipe.

A toilet paper flush test is performed and observed at the original inspection opening, which demonstrates that the blockage was cleared and the system is draining once again.

In the first video of a two-part series, Shawn (Gate City Foundation Drainage @ YouTube; Gate City Foundation Drainage) is helping to install a French drain and catch basin system at his friend’s rural property. Rainwater coming down off of some sloped ground at a neighboring property has been causing flooding around a garage structure.

Some dirt behind the garage is excavated to create an area for the French drain to be laid, and some more excavation is performed under a canopy along one side of the structure to allow a square plastic catch basin to be placed in the ground.

A layer of gravel is laid in the French drain pit, and two runs of drainage pipe are then placed on top of that. The two runs are then joined into one pipe that will lead to the catch basin at the side of the garage, near the canopy.

To drain the catch basin, some eight-inch-diameter piping is used. The pipe is laid out on the ground next to the garage to figure out the eventual path, and spray-painted lines along the edges of the pipe segments are used to mark on the ground where to dig. When the alignment is finalized, a trench is excavated for the pipes.

A hole is drilled into the corner of the plastic catch basin to allow the pipe from the French drain to be connected. The first segment of the larger-diameter pipe draining the catch basin is also connected to the catch basin.

Another layer of gravel is placed on top of the pipes of the French drain.

Shawn mentions a number of times throughout the video that this drainage system is being designed by his friend, and the approach being taken differs from what Shawn would typically do.

Shawn returns in the second part to complete the drain system installation.

A small trench is dug by hand to add a pipe that will be used to connect an eventual downspout for the canopy over to the catch basin that was installed earlier. A hole is drilled into the side of the catch basin to accept this pipe, and the pipe is laid within the trench. The ninety-degree fitting used to accept the downspout is then spray-painted black.

More trenching is done for the pipes that will run from the catch basin, across and down a gravel driveway that leads to the garage structure, and then eventually through to a lower-lying area some distance away. During this trenching, some underground rocks are discovered that would interfere with the pipe, so a jackhammer is used to break them up.

Eight-inch-diameter drain pipe segments are laid within the newly-dug trench. The larger size of the pipe makes the gluing and connecting process seem more challenging that it typically would be for the smaller-diameter pipe segments that Shawn uses in his other videos. It takes both Shawn and his friend some effort to get the work done, especially when connecting a forty-five-degree fitting used to alter the direction of the pipe system toward its final destination.

The pipe laid earlier to catch the canopy gutter’s downspout is covered over with dirt, and a portion of the pipe inserted through the side of the catch basin is trimmed down to its final size.

Near another post at the other corner of the canopy, another trench is dug leading to the main drain. Instead of using an expensive fitting to connect this smaller-diameter pipe with the larger-diameter pipe leading away from the catch basin, a hole is drilled in the top of the larger-diameter pipe. A ninety-degree fitting is then used to connect the two pipes, with the smaller pipe draining into the primary drain pipe.

Some more pipe is laid along the side of the garage opposite the canopy, to catch some eventual drainspouts on that side of the structure. More trenching is done for another separate run of pipe that will also be used to help drain the French drain that was installed behind the garage, and the pipe is laid for that.

Trenching continues for the large-diameter drain pipes running below the garage’s gravel driveway. Several segments of pipe are then installed in the trench, to bring it to the point where the drain pipes coming from the other side of the garage will connect to it. It again takes some effort to get the larger pipes glued and connected, with the small excavator’s bucket being used to help push the one pipe into the other pipe’s connector.

Two more trenches are dug to connect the pipes coming from the far side of the garage to the main drain pipe. Expensive Y-fittings are used for these connections.

A trench is dug below a fence, and then in the direction of a lower-lying area where the entire system will eventually drain to. The final segments of eight-inch-diameter pipe are laid, with the excavator once again being used to help push them together. With the pipe installation now complete, the trenches that remain open are filled in with soil.

Shawn returns a couple of times later on to check on the state of the system. It’s raining during the second visit, allowing him to show water coming out of the system’s outlet. Behind the garage structure, the water coming down from sloped ground is draining into the catch basin, although it appears to be going around the corner of the French drain to get there.

Subsequently, some natural debris ends up obstructing the catch basin, which results in flooding at the garage. Shawn’s friend’s wife is able to clear it, which allows some of the collected water to drain away.

At a later date, Shawn returns to show some modifications that were made to the system to help avoid such flooding, including a small berm and swale that were constructed along the edge of a neighboring property to help direct away the water before it even reaches the drainage system that was installed around the garage. Some of the holes in the catch basin’s grate had been enlarged, to allow at least some debris to pass through and out of the system, rather than clogging the grate and causing the sort of flooding that had happened earlier.

Shawn discusses some of the challenges encountered with this system, and he mentions that the lessons learned are being used by his friend when designing the drainage system for other building projects. He also briefly shows the initial work being done for the very early stages of a home build.

Oliver (Drain Addict @ YouTube; Drain Go) uses his jetter to clear a blocked sewage pipe that is obstructed by roots. The pipe’s inspection openings are in a rocky, jungle-like embankment, and create an environment that appears to be somewhat awkward and challenging to work in.

Carsten (Kempinger Rohrreinigung Berlin @ YouTube; Kempinger GmbH) is in a bathroom with a toilet that isn’t flushing well. He takes the toilet off of the wall to inspect its drain, as well as the drain pipe it connects to. An inspection with a camera shows that there don’t appear to be any blockages in the toilet or the pipe, but there is some scale buildup in both. A chain attachment on a drain snake is used to try to dislodge some of the buildup from the pipe and the toilet, and what appears to be a bent screwdriver is used to manually help scrape some remaining buildup from the toilet’s drain in order to get it flushing properly.

Oliver (Drain Addict @ YouTube; Drain Go) is at a site on the edge of a waterfront cliff with a blocked stormwater drain, but isn’t sure where the drain leads. After some investigation, it’s determined that the drain pipe emerges on the side of the cliff.

Shawn (Gate City Foundation Drainage @ YouTube; Gate City Foundation Drainage) digs a trench and places a new culvert to take water from an existing catch basin in a different direction and toward a more convenient destination.