I want to show you how to put in a french drain, which will help keep water out of your basement and away from your house.
A french drain is what i call a surface drain, or a drain just below the soil level. For this one, the gravel is exposed, sometimes the french drain is covered with dirt or sand. I prefer to keep the gravel exposed.
What you need to put in a french drain
- Perforated pipe – either PVC or corrugated
- Filter sleeve for the pipe Avail Here
- Silt fabric – don’t cheap out on this Avail Here
- Clean 1/2″ or 3/4″ stone (aka gravel)
I was fortunate to have my neighbor bring his backhoe over and he dug a trench along the wall of the house where I have a water issue. You can also dig this by hand, its not hard unless there are a lot of rocks. I would dig down a minimum of 8″.
You want the trench to pitch toward where ever the water is exiting, aka going to ‘daylight’. The pitch can be very gradual, 1/4″ per foot is fine.
The first thing to go in the trench is the silt fabric. Run it all the way to the drain exit. Be sure there is enough on each side of the trench so it can fold over on itself after adding half the gravel.
Then lay in the perforated pipe. If you are using the PVC pipe, the holes along the pipe face DOWN, OK? Slide the filter sleeve over the perf pipe. Close off the filter sleeve at the top end of the trench and tuck the other end into the pipe itself when it connects to the solid drain pipe.
Shovel more stone over the top of the perf pipe about 2″ and then fold the silt fabric over itself on top of this gravel. Then add more gravel to bring it level with the ground. You can also bury a french drain, and grow grass on top of it. Be sure to put a grate over the daylight end of the pipe to keep animals from nesting in the pipe.
One more thing when you put in a french drain, do not connect any roof gutter downspouts to the drain pipe. The rain water can overwhelm the drain and fill the pipe and gravel with more water, when you are actually trying to drain the water.
Bernard
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Eric
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JIMMY
HENRY is awesome–what is the other guy/girls name..do you build dog homes..Also…we are trying to build an outside (enclosed with a drain to the street already in place) toilet and sink..it will be temporary maybe one yr so we want to use pvc pipes and cheap hookups and we have a sink and a toilet already. I watched (first time) when you did the FRENCH DRAIN…you explained every step VERY well and…no stupid freekin music in the back ground…WHY do so many do that…cheeze…Im hooked — your the man…please give more info on the doggies and the things you may build for them…I can’t wait !!!
RKR21
For starters, great video. You answered a lot of questions, but I have two more: 1) Why is it a bad idea to tie the French drain into the downspout? My downspouts go to a storm sewer and they are the best option for me to move the excess water from the French drain. I can’t move run the water to the street because of a city ordinance. Also, my water problem is stagnant water collecting in a true low spot at the bottom of a hill and I have no other efficient way to channel the water away. 2) I plan to put stone on top of the drain as you suggest, but I’d also like to add landscape rock on top of the gravel, effectively extending an existing flower bed over the drain (rocks only, of course!). Do you foresee any issues with this approach?
Thanks again for an excellent video.
RKR21