A more detailed explanation of the drainage is necessary. My assumption is that you have a full basement and that the drainage is perforated pipe at the base of the footing. That would put the pipe 5-6' below the finished grade which would be no problem at all.

Having said that, I have seen so many things described as a French drain that I'm not even sure if I know what one is anymore.

Thank you Andrew, I was really hoping you would respond.

This drain is not 5 or 6 feet below grade! I wish it was. I posted a related (but different) question on the soil forum (linked below) that has turned into a french drain conversation, but here are the details so you don't have to follow both threads.

Yes, it is a full basement. The house is a hip roof colonial. The drain runs around 3 sides of the house (the 4th side is all driveway). They dug a 2x2 trench around the house with a backhoe, sited under the overhang, which is about 1.5-2 feet out from the side of the house. They graded within the trench so that the drain would be properly sloped. They placed a filter fabric down, clean gravel, and black perforated pipe into it. The whole thing is wrapped in the fabric and then back filled. It's connected to the downspouts with white pvc pipes. This is removable for gutter cleaning. The black perforated pipe is also connected to a white pvc drain pipe that has one row of holes in the top that leads to the street. This pipe is also wrapped.

I had thought the whole thing would be deeper and closer to the house.

The pipe around the house is exactly where my hollies are supposed to grow over them. There isn't a lot of soil depth in one area because in order for the end drain to be flush with the sidewalk, the grade of the pipe near the house had to be higher. Does that make sense?

I think the whole thing is sloped right, but I am very dismayed that it's taking up my planting space. I fear I will have to change the whole foundation scheme in the front.

I am kind of mad at everyone right now. The "sexist stereotypes" thread is very timely for me. None of the men working on this project want to hear what I have to say--my concerns are dismissed. Blech.

Here is a link that might be useful: sister thread

Spunky,
Laag beat me to it. I agree with his thoughts. Suggest that you get a civil engineer in there PDQ to study the situation. If this problem is not handled properly you will begin to see a white, crusty formation forming on cellar interior walls and you may be forced to jack hammer a trench around the inside cellar wall and install a sump pump. I assume this is new construction. Also I have a hunch that the problem was noted when the foundation was built and ignored by the builder. Wouldn't be the first time.

absorbing this.....and kicking myself for not asking for advice here FIRST

it is not new construction....it was built 1928, fieldstone foundation.

The downspouts connect into the solid pipe going out to the street. There are "t" connectors or something like that so that both the downspouts and the perforated drain connect to the out spout. The pipe to the street is definitely sloped down below where the black pipe is (our house is higher than the street).

This is a case of "hey, we're here with the equipment anyway, want a french drain?" all of this said about 2 or 3 weeks after the city was flooded to a state of emergency and the only neighbor who didn't get water that weekend was the one who already had a french drain.

The downspouts have always been inserted into a pvc pipe draining 5 or 6 ft away from the house--now they are further out (about 15 ft).

I will be back. Luckily we are not out too much money (about $1000) but what a mess.....

Here is a link that might be useful: our little flood

PS: there is already a sump pump in the basement, but not in a trench, in a 3x3 "well" dug into the concrete.

If the downspouts are connected by solid pipe and the perf pipe is added to it down the slope, then everything is fine. Your description made it sound as if the downspouts flowed through the perf pipe along the way. That was my concern.

It sounds like they took care of the downspouts and gave you additional protection against other surface water. That is fine.

On the subject of your planting near the gravel trench. As long as the gravel and pipe are not physically in the way of your root balls, I would not worry much about being in close proximity.

Not a good idea to have the downspouts and perfed drain pipe connected to a common outlet pipe. Should the outlet be obstructed, the water will back up in the pipe. As the level of water rises in the downspouts, pressure developes on the water in the perfed pipe causing all of the roof runoff to spew out into the gravel backfill and saturate the soil next to the foundation. Which is exactly what you seek to prevent, a flooded basement.

The outlet pipe may become obstructed from a number of ways. A vehicle driven over it may crush the pipe. A varmit might choose to build a nest in the pipe. Weather fluctuations in the spring might result in ice blockage when a warm spell brings a hard rain. There is probably another dozen things that could go wrong.

Probably too late, but it would have been better to have one outlet pipe for the downspouts and a seperate outlet for the perfed pipe. Both pipes could be in the same ditch. The only extra cost is the pipe. IMO, $20 of plastic pipe is cheap peace of mind.

I spent the evening testing it out....hooked up a hose to fill the downspouts, etc., and all the water ran out the way it was supposed to (toward the street). It works--what a relief.

There are two (minor) downspouts that do empty into the perforated pipe before reaching the solid pipe. They come off of the "entry porch" roof (it's more like a landing with a roof over it than a porch, 6'x10' or so). We don't even have downspouts there yet...had forgotten about them since we had the porch rebuilt last year, and DH noticed them after everything had been dug/placed and asked that they be incorporated. I don't think much water will come through the porch downspouts--I tested it too with the hose and the water also drained to the correct spot by the sidewalk (it made it through the perforated pipe). I am going to watch them and can always pull them out if it's a problem.

Is it better to plant in front of the drain rather than over it? Will anything in this list of shrubs be resentful of being placed there?

ilex crenata compacta
enkianthus red vein
juniperus skyrocket
azalea delware valley white
azalea snowball
taxus greenwave...

that's about it; everything else is sited well in front of the drain or is a perennial.

Pls8xx, you posted while I was writing.

does it make any difference that "the solid" pipe running out to the street has small holes in the top of it to let overflow out? The solid pipe is wrapped in filter fabric. It also has some kind of cap that rises when the water comes out but prevents critters from climbing in. there are 3 outlets on 3 different areas of the house (2 in front, one on the back corner (the remaining corner drains down the driveway). it's a small yard. We do understand we need to maintain and keep everything clean (I was concerned about gutter debris getting into the pipes)

regardless, what you say makes perfect sense to me. We may end up ripping this baby out.

we are kind of exhausted from our little saga.