French drain Puns

FTHB here and we just moved into our new house yesterday.

Woke up to lake views!! 🤩🤩 it’s also going to rain the next 6-8 days.

French drain? Something else possible?

https://imgur.com/gallery/FEW1azG

Hello, I'm going to be installing a french drain almost 30-40 feet long, and need to dig a trench through thick tree roots. What is a good tool/equipment to rent in this case?

I did a french drain myself because I have runoff from the neighbors yard.

My process was to use perforated pipe, line the trench with a high quality non woven textile fabric, and fill with round rock.

Anyway, I am seeing virtually no standing water, but I am noticing two areas of standing water next to the drain. Not sure why that is happening, but they are about the size of my foot.

Everything else seems fine. Any suggestions?

French Drain

Edit: just measured and the drain is 8 inches from the cinder block. Assuming the footer is about 14 inches wide this seems about right

My soil is clay. I am planning to run a french drain to pull water away from my foundation, tie that into gutter run-off, and then run the water into 100 foot of perforated drain pipe in my back yard. I was told by an "expert" that you should not terminate a drain underground. It must have an outlet. Is this true? Why?

I am confused because 100 foot line of 4" pipe can hold over 60 gallons of water. That seems like a sufficient enough buffer.

Hey all, We bought this old 1927 arts and crafts house last year. There wasn't a lot of water issues, most of them were because garden beds adjacent to the house weren't sloped properly. But, there was still some water infiltration in the wall adjacent to the patio and backyard.

The patio sits at a rather low point, and my intent is to provide a means for water to drain away from it. There's a sidewalk that runs the length of the house along the one side, connecting the front walk with the patio. I've measured it with a 6' stud and a level (I lack a large level) and it's almost perfectly level for the full length of the house (around 30'). Going to the front, the sidewalk curves to center, but the lawn going direct to the curb does drop down quite a bit before reaching it, maybe 3' in elevation. There's a short "hump" of maybe 4" caused by a tree just before that dropoff though.

So, what I'd originally thought was just run a perforated corrugated pipe with a sock down from all the gutters and run all their outflow direct to the curb. But I'm finding now that if I want it to absorb much water from the surrounding soil I'll need to have it in a gravel bed, with that gravel wrapped in fabric.

The issue is that adding a gravel bed and fabric wrap is going to drastically increase the amount of work involved and materials. I'll need to dig a channel at least 2" deeper for starters.

So, I'm really not sure I *need* that much drainage from the surrounding soil. The ground there when I was digging it was showing signs that it was saturated for longer than it should be, it was compacted, much of the grass there has drowned at some point or another... but I can't help but think simply rerouting all the drain lines will fix that on their own.

As it is, the yard only has around 400sqft that actually slopes to this area, the remaining 800sqft slope to the other side which doesn't have drainage issues. The gutters I'll be routing through cover around 200sqft of garage roof and around 100sqf of the house's roof, along with around 600sqft of the neighbor's roof. There is an alley that runs behind the house, and it drains down it's median so there's virtually no water inflow from there... it's all direct from the sky, over 400sqft of soil.

Oh, and we're in Northern IL... We get some heavy rains on occasion. Most we've had is 6" in 3 hrs. Soil is heavily laden with clay, bits of gravel and small stones. Very low amounts of sand.

Thoughts?

Hi all,

I need some advice about whether or not this system will actually work. Last year I hired a contractor to install french drains - which they did. However, the crew put all of the clay/mud/rocks back on top of the pipes (no gravel at all) - so water never infiltrated.

After complaining for 3 months, the owner came out and admitted their mistake and said they'd fix it - fix grading issues and replace non-salvageable pipes. He sent a crew out who dug it up, carried away excess dirt, and covered the system with stone - so now water infiltrates to the trench.

I decided to verify that grading issues were corrected - and put the hose on top of the gravel for about 30 minutes at various locations. No water came out of where the exit to the drain is. I figured maybe it was just not getting into the pipe, so I dug down to the pipe - found the hole near the top, and put the hose directly on it for about 30 minutes, but still no water exited.

When the crew came back out to re-gravel my driveway I showed the crew leader the issue - we dug down several spots, each time putting the water directly into the hole in the pipe, but water never exited. What we found was that when his crew re-installed the pipe, the holes are at 12' and 6' o'clock, so all the water that ever enters the pipe simply drains out into the gravel underneath it. The crew leader admitted he would want it fixed if it were his house, and said he'd talk to the owner.

The owner says the system will work fine, that the hole being at the very bottom of the pipe is not a big deal, "the system is the trench too, not just the pipe" - and thinks that the hose isn't enough water. He wants me to wait for a "very heavy rain" - even though we've had lots of rain here over the last month or so. I also put about 500 gallons of water into the trench when testing with the crew leader, and not a single drop came out where it was supposed to.

My thought is that a "holes on bottom" system should have them at 7' and 5' o'clock, not 6' - because now there's no channel for the water to run out as it fills up. So all of the water is just going to sit in the trench and then migrate through the ground towards my foundation (the trench ends at the left edge of my foundation - the pipes are then above ground underneath my deck), and the system doesn't work.

Any advice? I feel like the only way any water will ever leave the trench is if we have a biblical amount of rain that's able to completely fill the entire 75'

My fiance and I have begun digging out a french drain at the edge of our property. It's the lowest point in the property, so it'll collect all water from the rest of the property and drain off into a nearby street gutter.

Thing is, we're having a hard time finding landscaping fabric to use? Reviews are so... conflicting. Some of the products are known to disintegrate within a year. Others are so durable they actually aren't permeable.

What product would you recommend and why? We've researched polypropylene soil fabric but can't seem to find something that is durable and water permeable.

Hi,

My home was built in 1914, and while I never get water in the basement, I do have a moisture problem because a little less than half the basement has very discolored walls and also feels slightly damp upon touch. The walls of the this half of the basement seem to have different wall material than the other half of the basement which is not discolored. I think maybe the discolored half is the original part of the house. One of these walls in the discolored half was painted with Drylok and I've been told that could have been a mistake if I have lime mortar walls. The wall with this Drylok is definitely more discolored than the other walls. I'm interested in going forward with a french drain with sump pump in the discolored half of the basement, plus thermal shield wall protection so the walls look nice (only on half the basement with the discolored walls). My question is: do I need to remove the Drylok on that one wall? Again, not sure if I do have lime mortar where the drylok was painted. Would the french drain just talk care of the moisture problem?

Thanks in advance!

Hi all,

I've learned so much through other people's posts here and now I have a question of my own. The house we just got had a garage that was closed off to make more rooms. This was done in 1995.

When they did these renos, they had the French drain from around the house dump itself in the old garage drain which ends up in the sump. With snow melting and spring rain falling, we've had the pump working about every minute for almost a week.

This brings up 2 questions:

1. Is this a standard procedure or should it dump in the sewer?
2. Is there a flood risk?

Thanks!

Hello everyone. I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that the home we purchased needs a more comprehensive waterproofing solution than just waterproofing paint. Unfortunately, 1/2 of the basement is drywalled and insulated already. I have been scouting several companies offering different solutions.

Option 1: company installs durashield 3-4 feet up the wall but requires drywall removal to do that. They say this is the best and right way to do it and any other option is half-assing it to make the decision more convenient.

Option 2: Another company says they can install a dripedge or durashield by shoving it between the wall and stud but not secure it and just have it between the gap in the wall. no drywall removal in the process.

Both companies would install a french drain around the entire perimeter of the basement and a sump pump. Not busting the drywall will save me approx $1500 in repairs to the walls.

Advice or tips?

Pricing for 1000sq foot basement is $6,114 for full perimeter + sump pump installation. $5776 for three wall+pump. $3840 2 wall+pump, $2310 for one wall and pump.

Drywall, tape mud paint quote was $1000 not including materials.

Hi,

I live in south Barrie. My backyard is almost always a soggy mess and pools of water along the fence line. I've decided I want to have trench drains/French drains installed to solve this.
Has anyone here or is anyone here familiar with a reputable company that does this work?

Thanks

My backyard has a lot of standing water near the house. It seems perfect for a French drain since I have a gradual but steady slope away from the house and at the end of my property there’s a ditch that can take the water out and back to a river.

However, I also have a garden near the back of my property. I was wondering if anyone knew of anything like a cistern / underground rain barrel set up that I could use to capture this ground water for the garden. Capturing the water seems relatively easy but then I’d need a pump of some sort to get the water out. And I’m not sure if it would just get clogged and be a pain to maintain.

Curious if anybody has any suggestion/products I should consider. Seems a shame to not capture the water if I can.

Hi all.

I took on a french drain project, and I believe I did something wrong.

The method I used is as follows:

• Dug trench probably a little more than a shovel head deep.

• Lined with non woven geotextile fabric.

• Placed 4 inch perforated corrugated pipe.

• Placed large round rock and burrito wrapped fabric, backfilled with soil.

There only seems to be one failure point as the water is pooling in one area for some reason.

My thoughts are add a second catch basin in that area.

Any advice?

https://i.imgur.com/cwufubJ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/hTDQKjm.jpg

Well.. referring to the 4 inch perforated drain pipes from Home Depot that are black and sort of look like a hose.

Just bought a big roll of it but now starting to have second thoughts because I'm not sure if it's strong enough be driven over if it's installed under the driveway.

I've been researching for a good 6 months on digging out the exterior of my foundation and I've already began the dig.

But still hearing mixed ideas/beliefs about geofabric in clay soil. I've heard dozens of people use it and just clogs in clay soil and then others who claim it's a must.

My question is has anyone with clay soil successfully used geofabric in conjunction with gravel? I'm getting the impression it does actually work in clay.

I'm opting to not use geofabric currently, but instead leaning towards replacing the soil with non clay soil.

Any advice or thoughts on the project would be much appreciated.

Edit: This is for a french drain at the footer of the houses foundation, it's 4'-5' down.

Does anyone have any advice on installing a French drain? Products to use or to avoid? I have some water pooling near the brick pillars that support my porch and it's causing some excessive settling.

Hello, I purchased my home about a year and a half ago, and we've been having increasing problems with our back yard getting waterlogged. Water pools right at the foot of the hill and doesn't drain much at all through the french drain in the back yard that runs out to the street. Now that the weather was warmer, I decided I needed to tackle the water issue, since an increasing amount has been coming into my basement in the winter and early spring.

My french drain has a section of pipe encased in grave, wrapped in fabric (I dug up a small area to look). As best I can tell, it extends 30 feet to the catch basin in my backyard. What I noticed when using a hose today is that the catch basin, half way between the hill behind me and the road, is higher than the end that water is suppose to come in from. I used my garden hose to spray water in the pipe, and it all flowed away from the catch basin. My concern is that the french drain settled after it was installed so that it does not have the correct slope to drain water. I suspect this for two reasons: 1 based on the water flowing backwards when I used the hose, and 2. my entire yard is heavily compacted clay soil, and when I had the sewer pipe in the front yard replaced last spring, the workers filled in the trench, and it all sunk down significantly, leaving a 6 to 8 inch deep trench in my yard. I *imagine* this happened when the french drain was installed too.

I think I'm going to need to dig up the french drain and raise it up slightly, to get the recommended 1 percent slope, but my question is, how do I account for the compacting of my clay soil?

I may have to grade my yard at some point, as the pipe is about 30 feet long, and it's not more than 2-3 inches below the soil right near the catch basin. I'm not very confident that the grade of the yard is enough that the pipe could be underground at the other end and still have the correct slope.

I have linked to a couple photos that might show the area better. Wind took out a section of fence recently, so please ignore that :-) https://imgur.com/gallery/tqE22S7

We have been getting ground water coming up underneath and over the vapor barrier in the crawlspace when the ground is saturated.

I was planning on putting French/gutter drains outside the house in the yard to keep the yard from getting saturated in the first place.

Contractors I’ve had look at it said that won’t work and suggested have all the drainage in the crawlspace itself with sump pump ($8k) quote.

I can do the French drain outside myself for $500 or less compared to the crawlspace drainage for $8k. Is there truth to what the contractor said that outside drainage won’t work for this? I feel like it’s a money grab for unnecessary work.

First night in our new house and woke up to lake front views! It’s supposed to rain all day and for the next 6 days.

Yay homeownership!

https://imgur.com/gallery/FEW1azG