DIY Home Improvement Forum banner

French drain question

4K views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  Sammy 
#1 ·
Hi all,

I'm putting in a french drain in a section of my yard that collects a lot of runoff. Instead of filling the entire hole with gravel, I'm looking at filling the first few inches with gravel, then adding in a layer of 4" or 6" PVC pipe laid horizontal with fabric filter material over the ends and a gravel in the space around each pipe. On top of that I'll place some more gravel and then a 2nd layer of PVC pipes. I'll finish it with some more gravel and then the top layer will be decorative gravel.

The idea behind this is to maximize the capacity of the french drain. For reference, my hole is about 5'x10' and 20-24" deep.

Does anyone see a reason why building it this way could prove to be a problem?

Thanks,

Tom
 
#2 ·
I dont see a problem, but it may be over built. A french drain will only handle "x" amount of water depending on the surrounding soil and after that it will just backup the line or percolate to the surface.

One sufficiently sized line with gravel should get you the same results.
 
#3 ·
Sammy,

Thanks very much for your reply. Yes, I do imagine it is overbuilt. I more or less intended it that way since its purpose is to last at least another 25 years (ie: till Mom sells the house) and our soil is very clayey (slow drainage). That, and we have an enthusiastic Labrador who believes his purpose in life is to dance through every mud puddle he can find. After cleaning him off time and time again over the last 4 years, I'm willing to nuke the problem. :)

Thanks again for your response!

Tom
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top