A Simple Trench Drain

Drainage | Outdoor text: Tim Carter ! ! ! See Author's Notes at Bottom of Column ! ! ! DEAR TIM: Every spring, soggy soil in my yard prohibits me from getting a start on my spring yard chores. During periods of heavy rain, water flows toward my house causing periodic flooding. Can this water be stopped? Is there a way to remove the water and dry out the soil? If so, do you think an average homeowner can complete the project successfully? Betsy, Wyoming, PA DEAR BETSY: I have got some great news for you. If you can enlist the help of a friend for just one weekend, you will be able to prevent basement or crawlspace flooding and dry out the soil. Your early spring fever problems and flooding concerns can be cured permanently with some simple linear French drains. Normal soil makeup consists of small pieces of rock, organic debris, water and air. In many soils (especially clay soils), the air content is highest in the upper 24 inches. As you go deeper into a soil, the weight of the overlying material compresses the soil and squeezes out the air. When it rains, water enters soil and pushes the air to the surface. Gravity then takes over. If your yard slopes, the water within the soil actually begins to flow downhill. Level yards suffer as the movement of the water through the soil is minimal. You can accelerate the movement of water or intercept and re-direct sub-surface water by installing gravel covered perforated drainage pipes in narrow trenches. Water, just like most things, takes the path of least resistance. Subsurface water would much rather travel through gravel and open drain pipes than force its way through soil. A linear French drain is simply a "moat" that protects your yard or house from subsurface or surface water. You construct it by digging a 6 inch wide trench approximately 24 inches deep. If you want to intercept sub-surface water to dry out your yard, you install the trench along the highest part of your property. Extend the trench to the lowest part of your yard. If your intent is to protect your house from water, you construct the trench approximately 4-6 feet away from the foundation. In many cases the trench system is U shaped as it passes around your house. If your yard is nearly level and you wish to drain it, you will probably have to dig a series of trenches and inter-connect them. Consider renting a builder's level at a tool rental store to help you determine how deep to dig the trenches. Lots that appear flat often have sufficient slope that allows you to install the pipes so that they will extend to daylight at the lowest portion of your yard. You can use the optical or laser builder's level to tell you the high and low portions of your lot. The bottom of the trench can be level or it can follow the contour of your yard much like a fence. If you can expose the end of the pipe to daylight at the edge of your property, you will obtain the best drainage results.

Once you have the trench completed, compact any loose soil in the bottom of the trench. A 6-foot tall 4x4 works well for this purpose. Wear gloves to avoid getting splinters. Install a 1 or 2-inch layer of washed gravel on top of the compacted soil before you install the perforated piping. Do NOT lay the piping directly on the soil. You want the drainage holes through which water will enter to be up above the soil. If you choose to use rigid plastic pipe that has two rows of holes along each length, be sure to install it correctly. The holes are supposed to point down, not up towards the sky. The reasons the holes should point down are many. Remember that the water table in the soil builds from the bottom to the top of the soil profile. If the holes point down, the water enters the pipe sooner than if the holes pointed up. Also, water droplets or flow is not intelligent. It can't "see" the holes in the pipe and aim for them as it flows down through the gravel. Some water may find its way into a hole pointing up, but most of the water will flow around the pipe and then build up until it can flow into the holes. Furthermore, holes that point up are perfect targets to get clogged with the rounded gravel. Always keep in mind the pipe is acting as a conduit for the water and the water table in wet periods is already up to the bottom of the holes. If the water table rises higher than the holes, then water squirts vigorously into the holes and is carried away by the pipe just as water charges down a stream bed in nature.

Remember, the holes in the perforated pipe point down. If they point up, they get clogged by pieces of gravel. After the pipe is installed in the trench, cover it with 1 inch or larger washed, rounded gravel. Fill the trench with gravel to within 1 inch of the surface. Place a piece of sod over the gravel to disguise the trench. If you wish to control surface water that flows over your lot, allow the gravel to extend completely to the surface. If you widen the trench in the upper few inches of the soil, you can disguise the drainage system. Use colored stones, gravel or large stepping stones to create a walkway. To further enhance the illusion, install the trench with gentle curves as it traverses your lot.

October, 1999 Do you wonder if linear French drains really work? Read an e-mail I received from Pat Jones in Vienna, Virginia: A year ago last spring, I called your radio show from my home in Vienna, VA. I described my problem with water in my basement. It was very predictable, every time it rained 2" or more in 24 hours I would get water in my basement. Anyway, you advised me that a French drain would solve my problem. So I rented the ditch witch and got a bunch of friends, following your on-line tips we installed the drain. Your tip about the plywood to have the dirt flow onto was a great labor saver. We did have a lot of trouble with rocks and tree roots stalling the machine but in the end it was a job well done. Of course our work and your advice caused the drought in the Washington, DC area. We waited almost a year and a half before we got to really test the French drain. However when hurricane Floyd came through and gave us 4" in less than a day and the basement was high and dry I figured it was worth the drought. Now the neighbors are asking my advice, and I point them to your web page. When we talked you said to let you know how it worked out. It worked out great!! Thank you very much, Patrick Jones November, 2003 The straw layer mentioned in the column above is not necessary if you fill the entire trench with gravel to within one inch of the top. The reason is simple: Silt does not pass sideways through topsoil. The silt that turns stormwater runoff brown is eroded soil particles that are running in overland flow. Silt particles get trapped and filtered in the upper layers of top soil. The vast amount of water captured by a linear French drain is water traveling sideways through soil. It is generally clear and free of silt. To prove this point, spring water and water taken from underground wells is almost always crystal clear. The silt was left behind at the surface as the water was entering the ground. Tim Carter

September, 2007 I received this email recently: Tim,

We have a block and beam foundation, clay soil, no gutters and we end up with pools of water right next to the house and sometimes covering most of the back and side yard. In some places the water goes under the house. Because the soil is already about 6" or less from the wood siding and we need to maintain ventilation we can't build up with additional soil. It seems that if the trench is 4-6' from the house that a lot of water will still be pooling and going under the house. Mr. Gardner from Houston, Texas. Here is the answer: It is important that you put the drain that far out because if placed close to the house, the French drain acts like a vacuum and pulls the water through capillary attraction. You would be pulling the water to the house. You need to create a slope from where the soil hits against the house to a spot about 6 feet out. Since you cannot do this by adding soil.....remove some. Create a slope and install the linear French drain.

June 2008 You may wonder if my advice is worth anything. Well, read what Jim Sanders wrote to me when he was at the end of his rope: "Hi, I just wanted to write to give you the results of my "Trench Drain". I have had a wet crawlspace for 15 years. Water would fill the crawlspace at times, so we actually had to drill weepholes at the base so that it would enter the basement and eventually, the sump pump. I have tried everything. Several contractors said that the only thing we could do was to bring the water into the house via drainage tile and let it enter the sump pump. That would work, but because I live on a 6' elevation, there is no reason that I should have water problems. It became like clockwork...when it rained, we would rush home from the lake or wherever we were vacationing so that we could be prepared to start the backup generator, in case the power failed. We even had our alarm company put a sump alarm on our system, so they could notify us if we had a power failure. Battery backup was not an option, because sometimes we loose power for days and during any rain, our sump would run every 7 minutes...just like clockwork. I found your site and read the article on the trench or French drain. At first, it sounded a bit like "holistic healing" to me. I failed to understand why a 2 ft. deep trench, 4 ft. away from the house would do any good. How could this simple thing correct an extreme water problem that has plagued me for years, cracked my foundation, settled my garage floor and ruined almost every vacation?

I decided "what the heck". I had to dig by hand using a trenching spade and a pick-axe, because the builder back-filled our property with brick and blacktop. It took quite a bit of time. Because the ground level varies so much on that side of the house, I was not able to achieve exactly 2 ft. The Linear French Drain trench running from the house. PHOTO deep. It varied from 18" to 30" in CREDIT: Jim Sanders spots, but the slope was downhill. The trench is about 80 ft. long. At times, I thought about filling it all in, because I just didnt believe that it would work. I stoned it, put tile in, and filled it with #1 round stone. I socked the pipe just for safety measure and I also used geotext fabric on top, so I could cover with dirt and grass. I also ordered some clay and pitched from the house to the drain. Result? For the last month, we have had 7 or 8 torrential rains, the worst of which was last night. It rained so hard, that our lawn washed out in spots because of the high clay content. Our sump pump, that normally ran every 7 minutes during and after rain, has not turned on for 4 weeks. The silt at the bottom of the sump well is now dry and cracking. Our crawlspace has not shown a trace of water or even moisture.
After a short rain, water is running away from the house. PHOTO CREDIT: Jim Sanders

Since I couldnt see correcting the foundation cracks or the garage floor

settling and tilting until I corrected the problem's source, I waited to see if the trench drain worked first. This week, I had a company come in and perform sort of a "mud-jacking" technique on the garage floor, which worked perfectly. Also, during the past few weeks, I parged the cracks in the foundation. I just wanted you to know how this worked. I stressed for many years over this issue and the solution was nowhere near as difficult as I thought it would be.

A dry sump pump. PHOTO CREDIT: Jim Sanders

As a side note, I went to the end of the drain tile during a hard rain to see what was happening. Water was running out of the drain tile in about the same exact volume that it previously ran out of the weepholes in my crawlspace. This winter will be interesting, because last year, the ground next to the house was so saturated that during a thaw, my sump would run constantly. I'm guessing that the ground between the trench and the house will probably be drier now going into this winter." - Jim Sanders, Upstate area - New York

French drain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search It has been suggested that weeping tile be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since July 2012.

A diagram of a French drain A French drain[1] or weeping tile (also blind drain,[1] rubble drain,[1] rock drain,[1] drain tile, perimeter drain, land drain or French ditch) is a trench covered with gravel or rock or containing a perforated pipe that redirects surface and groundwater away from an area. A French drain can have perforated hollow pipes along the bottom (see images) to quickly vent water that seeps down through the upper gravel or rock. French drains are common drainage systems, primarily used to prevent ground and surface water from penetrating or damaging building foundations. Alternatively, the French drain technique may be used to distribute water, such as a septic drain field at the outlet of a typical septic tank sewage treatment system. French drains are also used behind retaining walls to relieve ground water pressure.

Contents
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[edit] History and construction

The earliest forms of French drains were simple ditches, pitched from a high area to a lower one and filled with gravel. These were described and popularised by Henry F. French (18131885) a lawyer and Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary from Concord, Massachusetts[2] in his book Farm drainage.[3] French's own drains were made of sections of ordinary roofing tile laid with a 18 in (0.32 cm) gap left in between the sections to admit water. Later, specialised drain tiles were designed with perforations. To prevent clogging, the gravel size varied from coarse at the center to fine at the outside and was designed based on the gradation of the soil surrounding the drain. The particle sizing was critical to keep the surrounding soil from washing into the voids in the gravel and clogging the drain. The development of geotextiles greatly simplified this procedure. Ditches may be dug by hand or with a trencher. An inclination of 1 in 100 to 1 in 200 is typical.[4] Lining the bottom of the ditch with clay or plastic pipe increases the volume of water that can flow through the drain. Modern French drain systems can be made with perforated pipe (weeping tile) surrounded by sand or gravel and geotextile or landscaping textile. Landscaping textiles are used to prevent migration of the drainage material as well as preventing dirt and roots from entering and clogging the drainage pipe. The perforated pipe provides a minor underground storage volume but the prime purpose is for the perforations to drain the area along the full length of the pipe and to discharge any surplus water at its end. The direction of percolation will depend on the relative conditions inside and outside the pipe.

[edit] Variations in structure

Variations on the French drain model include: Name filter drain collector drain interceptor drain dispersal drain fin drain Description drains the ground water combines groundwater drainage with the interception of surface water or run-off and can connect directly into the underground pipes (to rapidly divert surface water); however, it should have a cleanable filter to avoid sending surface debris, to the underground area, to clog the buried pipes. distributes the waste water from a septic tank uses a perforated pipe with a thin vertical section (the fin) of drainage composite above. The length is 200 mm (7.9 in) and is cheaper to build than a traditional French drain.

French drains can lead to a downhill slope or to dry wells or rain gardens where the extra water is held and absorbed by plants. This is useful when city water systems or other wastewater areas cannot be used.

[edit] Sizing considerations

Cross-section view showing French drain with two underground pipes. Depending on the expected level and volume of rain water or runoff, French drains can be widened or also founded on 2 or 3 underground drain pipes. Multiple pipes also provide for redundancy, in case one pipe becomes overfilled or clogged by a rupture or defect in the piping. A pipe might become overfilled if it is on a side of the drain which receives a much larger volume of water, such as one pipe being closer to an uphill slope, or closer to a roofline that drips near the French drain. When a pipe becomes overfilled, water can seep, sideways, into a parallel pipe, as a form of loadbalancing, so that neither pipe becomes slowed by air bubbles, as might happen in a full-pipe with no upper air space.

[edit] Foundation
French drains are often installed around a home foundation in two different ways:

Buried around the foundation wall on the external side of the foundation Installed underneath the basement floor on the inside perimeter of the basement

In most homes, an external French drain or drain tile is installed around the foundation walls before the foundation soil is backfilled. It's laid on the bottom of the excavated area, and a layer of stone is laid on top. In many cases, a filter fabric is then laid on top of the stone to keep fine sediments and particles from entering. Once the drain is installed, the area is backfilled and the system is left alone unless it clogs. While an external French drain can operate for ten years or more without the need for maintenance, it's prone to clogging without any warning and can eventually lead to a flooded basement. When there is no filter fiber, sediments can make their way through the stone as years pass and clog the drain, and when the filter fabric is present, that can instead clog with sediments. It may be wise to provide cleanouts, much as is done with sanitary sewers, to provide access for inspection with a camera snake. Also, a French drain that is not installed with a sump pump counts on gravity alone to drain foundation water, and if the house is not located on a hill or near a steep incline, finding this slope can be problematic. Additionally, maintenance on an external French drain involves expensive exterior excavation, which includes removal of walkways, shrubberies, porches, gardens, and anything else along the perimeter. Installing a French drain around the inside perimeter is most commonly done after the house has been built. Most commonly, this is done in response to a wet basement or right before performing a basement finishing. To install this kind of drain, the perimeter of the basement floor is jackhammered down to the footing and the cement is removed. A layer of stone is laid down, and a perforated drain pipe is laid on top of it. Water is collected from the basement wall floor joint as it enters, and a pump is installed to remove water from the house and away from the foundation. Once completed, the area, save for a 2 in (5.1 cm) gap around the edge, is cemented over. This gap exists to allow water in from the basement walls. This can be installed very quicklyone to two days by an experienced crew. The system is easy to maintain once installed, and the sump pump will need annual maintenance to perform properly. An interior French drain is much less likely to clog than an exterior, partially due to the fact that it is not sitting underneath several feet of soil. Interior French drain installation is an effective way to waterproof a basement but requires the use of a sump pump. Many contractors will install plastic sump pumps that can quickly break down or neglect to install a battery backup sump pump, making the basement vulnerable to flooding during power outages. Sump pumps should be installed with a battery backup system in a proper sump liner of 20 US gal (76 L) size or larger to prevent the sump from having too little water and turning on and off continuously.

French drain has evolved significantly from its origins- starting off as a hand-dug ditch, moving on to ceramic tile, PVC pipe, and eventually to the new French drain innovations on the market like WaterGuard and Grate Channel. Each new system is able to address weaknesses of the old as the French drain continues to improve and evolve. For example, whereas Henry French used chippings of tree bark to provide anti-microbial properties, an anti-microbial additive can now be included in the material of the plastic channel.

[edit] Legal issues

In the U.S., municipalities may require permits for building drainage systems as federal law requires water sent to storm drains to be free of certain contaminants and sediment.[citation needed] In the UK, local authorities may have specific requirements for the outfall of a French drain into a ditch or watercourse.

[edit] Gallery

Beginning of French Drain.

French drain with Base Rock and Pipe.

Top view of French Drain.

Gutter connection to French Drain.

The French Drain: Theory, Application & Practice

Mr. French
The French drain, also called a sub-drain, is so called because the person who is supposed to have invented it, an American, was named French. First used for agricultural purposes in New England before the development of perforated plastic pipe, the system invented by Mr. French was probably somewhat different from what we call a French drain today. Unlike a surface drain system which collects and removes surface moisture, this type drain system collects and removes subsurface moisture. A sub-drain, by modern definition is basically a trench filled with gravel with a perforated pipe at the bottom. The pipe and gravel are wrapped in a protective geotextile fabric. Moisture accumulating in the trench percolates down and enters the pipe which transports the moisture to some point of discharge. This page will discuss when and where a French drain should be installed. I will also provide step-by-step details on how the work should proceed. Just for fun, I have added highlights from a French drain job which I found both challenging and rewarding. Before I do that, I want to talk a bit about a corollary in nature which can help explain the basic principals at work:

A Natural French Drain

A few years back I invested in a small farm in the San Simon Valley of Arizona. Originally developed back in the 1950s, the farm used furrow irrigation. The property was carefully leveled to a uniform gradient prior to installation of the irrigation system. The USDA maps describe the soils as clayey loam. The first year, I planted wheat and oat seed on about 80 acres and pumped out over 15 million gallons from my groundwater well to the irrigation furrows. Although I harvested a crop, the yields were far below normal. Later I was told by locals that I had not irrigated enough! After studying some maps and old aerial photos taken prior to development of the farm, I discovered that there had been three buried streambeds cutting diagonally across the trend of my irrigation furrows. Grading and leveling had covered them over but they were still there. After walking the property and observing the soil closely, I was able to locate the buried streambeds visually based upon the increased frequency of rounded cobbles in the overburden soil. The sub soil in these zones contained a high percentage of sands and gravels. It became evident to me that a significant proportion of the 15 million gallons of irrigation water had percolated into sands and gravels of the buried streambeds without any benefit to my thirsty crops.

Permeability
Those cobbles, sands and gravels of the streambed just below the surface of my land have a much higher permeability than the adjacent clayey loam. This means that they soak up water and draw it away much faster. This is exactly what a French drain system does. A French drain employs the high permeability of coarse gravel to draw moisture away from finer and less-permeable soils. Mr. French would probably have been pleased to discover buried sands and gravels cutting across his swampy New England farmland. In the arid climate of Arizona, water is at a premium and my experience with irrigation and farming caused me to rethink my

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