Your Is seeing your yard and basement damp, soggy, and clogged with water when it rains heavily made you wonder that you might have not invested rightly in your drainage system or what measures you should take to re-route groundwater from your basement and foundation?

Well! The most appropriate solution to this problem is the installation of a French Drainage system.

The basic concept of a French Drain is a sloppy trench filled with gravel and a pipe that reroute water away from your foundation.

Let’s discuss What, When, Why, and How the French Drainage system works.

What is the French Drainage System?

The French drain is a trench that includes perforated pipe and filter fabric and covered with construction aggregates. It directs subsoil and water away from the area where it is clogged to the area where drainage water usually gets its way. Basically, it redirects the surface level water to the sloping side and enables it to leak through the drain system.

Unlike a regular drain system, the French drain system accumulates water over the whole length of the drain rather than one particular location.  

Installation of a French drain is quite easy and does not require any specific tool kit thus, makes it the most cost-effective drainage system. The most ideal location of the French drain is close to the periphery of the building. 

Undoubtedly, installation is simple but still taking expert advice is recommended to avoid any kind of a mess while installing the whole system.

When should you Need a French Drain?

Basically, it depends on the kind of issue you are facing due to clogged water.

If you have noticed standing water that makes the ground damp, and usually found near your driveways then a shallow French drain or curtain drain may be an ideal choice. It is normally 2 feet deep and 1.5 feet across which makes this drain system easy to install. The cost involved to install this system varies from $12 to $ 16 per linear foot.

If you have a wet basement then a deep drain trench or footing drain can be useful. Installing footing drain at the time of construction can be easier, if installed later it would be difficult to install. The cost involved to install this type of drainage would be around $12,000 for a 1,500 sq. ft. basement and 6 feet deeper and for crawl space with footings of

2 ft deep costs around $4,000.

If it is difficult to drain off water from the basement, installing an interior French drain can be the best choice. It stops the water where it actually comes from and by cutting a channel around the basement floor and adding perforated pipe its installation actually takes place. With the help of a solid pipe, water sunk from the floor is collected into the water tank. 

What Do You Need to Know About French Drain in Advance? 

Now you must have understood that the slight slope is an essential thing in French drain because it enables water to move down to the destined location which is the basic idea of it. Just locate the area of excess water to drain out the water from your property. Just make sure the route should be free from obstacles like trees or posts.

Our professional will help you locate every possible requirement and obstruction before the installation of a French drain for your property. Call Green Garden Landscaping expert for inspection. We will help you out in selecting the best route for the drain.

Other key factors to consider include:

-  Depth of the French Drain

From 8 inches to 2 feet deep is considered to be sufficient enough for most of the water-diverting projects, whereas, related systems, like the ones which are built around foundations and sub-ground living spaces, and the bases of retaining walls, may need to be deeper.

-  Type of Aggregate for French Drain 

Generally, round gravels are mostly used in French drains however, they can vary from small gravel to large pieces of river rock. According to the size, larger gravel is placed on the surface and smaller ones are placed close ad over the pipe. .

-  Length of the pipe for French Drain

As mentioned earlier also, the sufficient amount of length of the pipe maybe 8 inches to 2 feet deep but still specification of projects tells the actual requirement of the pipe.

- Fulfilling the legal formalities beforehand

Lastly, arranging approval from the city’s building authority to run the process smoothly by avoiding any sort of legal implications at a later stage. Always make sure this should not affect the public areas or anyone else’s property. Calling the national hotline for safe digging on 811 is recommended.