How Does a French Drain Work?
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- Опубликовано: 7 июн 2024
- French drains are a common solution to yard drainage problems. But, not all french drains are created equally. How do they work?
Here are some specific details we pay attention to when installing french drains, or trench drains. We'll also explain how they work to solve your drainage problems.
M2 Landscaping
(815) 978-8061
Rockford, IL
m2enterprises.com 
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Thanks so much. Great simple and clear video. Brilliant!
I have a better understanding now - thank you!!
straight to the point and clear, thanks!
1. DON'T USE PVC PIPE! Use 8-slot high-density polyethylene pipe. The only pipe you should ever use for french drain.
2. Place the pipe at the BOTTOM of the trench. There is no need to have several of inches of stone below the pipe. Not placing the pipe at the bottom will cause water to pond at the bottom of the trench and will attract tree roots, which will eventually destroy the entire system.
That’s interesting.
I am trying to prevent water from going under my concrete driveway. My driveway and the side of the driveway acts as a drainage as it’s sloped and has a lot of water collecting.
Wondering if a French drain will help…
@@garrettp.5018from what i understand it should help ya
@@garrettp.5018 Check out channel drains, install one along the side of the driveway where water collects.
I’ve had tree roots get into my sewer before completely destroyed. It had to dig it all up thousands of dollars.
I would say you are correct you don’t want water pooling
Great video, thanks for the info!
I’m glad it was informative.
Great video and informative and never got bored. My neighbor has a leak they won’t fix and the city won’t help. My question is I have a 3” pipe that runs under the area I need fixed and it goes to the street though the curb and is used for pool deck and backyard drainage. How would I tie into it to take the water away from the side of my house? Other than drains in the backyard there are no openings in the pipe but it travels directly under the bad area. Do you have a video on that? Again great job!!!
Very clear. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Great video! I was wondering about frost heave. Shouldn't be an issue if the pipe is pitched properly?
Used the video as a reference for my client.
The pipe needs to ve in the bottom, at the bottom of the trench, on top of the geotextile fabric.
Hey there mate, i have installed a 1000 feet long PVC french drain without geo textile. Everything is working great and the water is coming out clear as well. But inbetween the line the water is pooling for about 80 feet or so! But at the both end it is very much dry. I don't know what to make/think of it. Your input would be of great help
Great video. Thanks
Glad you liked it!
Thanks for sharing your expertise on this topic. Could you please enable the SAVE feature, so I can save your video to my library. Thanks!
Thanks @kolankprof! There shouldn't be anything preventing you from saving the video to a Watch Later list or something similar. Appreciate the comment@!
Good video
Glad you enjoyed it!
Nice
Great illustration!! Does this mean there will always be water in the drain below the level of the PVC pipe?
Not necessarily. Once rain has stopped and the soil has a chance to dry out the water below the pipe will dry out all well.
Yes, if you install it like the diagram he drew, which is wrong. You want the pipe to be at the bottom of the trench. There is no need to have stone below the pipe if you use the correct type of pipe, which is 8-slot high-density polyethylene, the only kind of pipe you should ever use for french drains.
Does french drain had vertical pvc or all in horizontal lay out
horizontal. You can add some vertical risers for cleanout access, but the pipe carrying the water will be horizontal, with a slight slope to it.
Aren't there 2 holes on each sides not directly on the bottom of the pipe but at 5 and 7 o'clock?
depends on the type of pipe. Some have holes on the side of the pipe. Some have holes all around. The best pipe to use is 8-slot hdpe, which has 8 slots around the entire circumference of the pipe.
I'm not an expert but the consensus appears to be: the pipe needs to be at the very bottom, in direct contact with the fabric
What is geotextyle ??? sorry if I am a thiko but never heard of it
It is a spun bound fabric used for filtration, drainage, separation of soil layers, reinforcement or stabilization in geotechnical applications. There are different types of geotextyle fabric. It is important to use a geotextyle fabric that allows the filtration of water when installing a French Drain.
if the water can sip into the French drain? does that mean it can also sip out? if so, then how does it flow down?
The water in drawn to the gravel because of the voids in-between the stones. The water will be taken away once the water level rises up in the gravel and reaches the holes of the pipe and taken away to the exit point. Once the water level drops below the holes in the pipe the water will naturally be soaked up by the surrounding soil.
Why would ground water in the native soil travel horizontally towards the gravel? Wouldnt it go straight down due to gravity?
Unless that area is a low point….
Great question. Once the ground is saturated it is looking for the path of least resistance, thus it will migrate to the gravel because of all the void space in-between the gravel.
Generally speaking, French Drains are put in the lowest point.
Cant hear you.
A traditional european french drain does not have any pipework within it, it is best thought of a ditch/trench filled with stone. The storm water flows along the bottom of the trench to where it is collected and dealt with.
What is shown here acts like a traditional french drain up to the underside of the pipe and only thereafter does it enter a piped drainage system. Although you have wisely used geotextile wrap you could reasonably expect fine silt to flow into the pipe and because the holes are on the underside they will be prone to blockage.
If you have a perforated pipe then why not lay it as a land drain, i.e. with the holes on the top and then it can freely drain and probably self cleanse - this is a typical agricultural solution that works well.
Hubby and I put one in where our yard floods frequently. We did it as shown in the video only with holes in pipe on top. Yard area filled up till it reached the holes on top thus still creating a “pooling” problem. We dug it up, rotated pipe. Holes aren’t on very bottom, downward towards its side. Problem solved. Yard didn’t have to fill up to to top of pipe. Problem solved. Hope this helps!
I repeated myself but you get my drift! Lol, have a great day😀
@@melisb100 The ground water level will have been reduced by installing the perforated pipe and the top level of that ground water would be at the lowest level of the perforations. If you laid the pipe in a stone filled trench then the trench would have acted as the drain until it filled with water up to the perforations. For that to happen the outfall of the trench is blocked and acts as a reservoir, which in the worst case would saturate the subsoil causing boggy conditions. I don't know whether that happened to you or that pooling problem was the result of a low area being below the level of the land drain.
The only time I have specified perforated pipe on/surrounded by stone is where the pipe is part of a soakaway array and i am looking to percolate water INTO the ground. I would never use stone bedding and surround together with a perforated pipe to drain a wet area, its one or the other.
The drainage performance has been shown to not work well when holes are up. Presence and action of fine silt won't be mitigated by direction of holes. The reason the holes are down is to reduce the water levels as much as possible.
@@e4d578 That does not accord with UK manufacturers recommendations.
Ok gotcha but it would do the same thing without the pipe. All u need is the rocks
If you do not have the pipe the water cannot be drained away. If there is not a pipe the water will just sit in the gravel.
@@m2landscaping water will drain thru the rocks since it can't be absorbed as long as the trench is properly sloped