Need Help With French Drain

9 years ago

Hi All,

I just purchased my first house. After all of the snow melting and few rainy days, i noticed my home has a drainage issue in the backyard. My house seems to collect all the water from the 7 houses next to me and the neighbors behind us.

My questions is, can you install a french drain within a swale/channel drain. The idea is to force the water in the swale/channel drain...while the french drain underneath the soil can lead the water to the street?

Or is it more typical just to have the swale or french drain by itself and if so, which is the better option? I was not sure if the french drain needs to be level with the rest of the grass, or if it can be under the channel.

Any and all feedback would be great!

Featured Answer

User

9 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

French drains (and the modified French drain) can be buried as deep as is necessary. I have worked on construction excavations where French drains were 50 feet under the surface. A 'modified' French drain has landscape fabric or some other way of preventing the gravel from filling in with silt. I have also seen perforated pipe buried in the gravel of a French drain. (The original French drain was simply a course of gravel buried under the ground.) The pictures of French drains that I see in Google search often show French drains with clay soil around them. I'd suggest putting a layer of sand over the landscape fabric and under the top layer of soil to help with the draining.

Edit: you might want to put a surface drain that feeds into the pipe in your French drain. Something with a grate to filter out leaves and the errant softball.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (7)

toxcrusadr
9 years ago
It sounds fine to me. If I understand you correctly you would install it as a kind of sump in the bottom of the swale to drain the water off into a pipe and run it out to the street. It should work if the elevations are right (i.e. everything does have to have a downhill slope to it).

Sorry for your troubles. It sounds like poor construction. Is the house/neighborhood fairly new or has this been going on for a long time?
dennislove3
Original Author
9 years ago
Clay, thanks for the quick response. It is an older home, street, the previous owners added a channel drain on the other side of the house, but it is just taking the water a long time to flow and drain there and causes the ground to be very wet and is some place form small pools of water.

The water flows from the houses to the right( facing backyard) and to the channel on the right. however since there is so much water coming intot he yard, it very slow process.

The idea would be to stop the water from reaching the backyard by building a channel drain on the property line (right side of house) with a french drain under the channel. My thinking is that the water will be contained by the channel, and the water can drain through the actual pipe under the ground so there is not much standing water in the channel.
Related Discussions
Catch Basin, French Drain or Dry Well??? HELP!
Q
Comments (1)
It's too hard to figure out your explanation without pictures. Please add some so we can see what's happening. Show where water stands (though it doesn't need to be in the picture; you can describe it,) where it should go and the path it should take. So far, the only soil I've seen in is Florida is well-draining sand; is yours different?
...See More
Need assistance with XPS and floor flange from french drain, Pics
Q
Comments (1)
I'd just notch out the sheet on the backside with a utility knife so the sheet sits flat on the wall but also sits on the foam on the floor. Then tape the joint between the wall and the floor.
...See More
Help with a french drain
Q
Comments (1)
Why duplicate posts with different titles?
...See More
Need contractor for French Drain in Syracuse
Q
Comments (0)
We need a French Drain installed to divert water around our pool. Can anyone recommend a contractor to do this in the Syracuse, NY area. Thanks.
...See More
toxcrusadr
9 years ago
Sounds pretty good. I'm no expert on these but as long as you construct it right so the water can get into it and it doesn't clog up with sediment, it should help!
Lisa_H OK
9 years ago
You could do a dry stream bed or a dry well.
Dry well

Dry stream bed
Nil13 usda:10a sunset:21 LA,CA (Mount Wash.)
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
a surface channel drain that doesn't drain quickly tells me that the slope isn't steep enough. How much higher is the back yard from the curb out front?
dennislove3
Original Author
9 years ago
The issue is the grading of the yard to get the water to the channel drain already in place on the opposite side of the house. My goal is to prevent as much water flow to the channel drain already in place on the left side of the house by installing a french drain with a channel drain on the right side of the house. The water flows from the right to left. Any water that the new drain can not handle disperse, will be fine going to the older channel drain on left side of house.