| May 7, 2018
If your basement floods or water pools on your patio, installing a French drain is one inexpensive way to solve the problem.
It’s easy to assume that French drains come from France. Au contraire! They’re actually a 19th-century creation made popular by Henry French, a Massachusetts man who was a farmer, investor, judge, and even assistant secretary to the U.S. Treasury.
A French drain is a trench that redirects surface water and groundwater. French drains use gravel and often (but not always) a perforated pipe.
With the recent heavy rains we have had here in the Fox Valley, basements have been flooding non stop. To keep your Fox Valley Basement high and dry, consider this simple DIY project for installing a french drainWhen is a French drain the right solution for you? Having enough slope to allow for proper drainage is most important, says Gary Alan with The Designer’s Landscape in Jacksonville, FL.
“Many people place pipe and gravel underground and think it will magically work,” Alan says. Uh, no.
Alan suggests creating a French drainage system using a triangular or point-shaped ditch concept. The benefits are many: It requires less digging than a round trench and uses gravel more effectively.
Installing a French drain: What you’ll need
Most French drain projects require the following tools and materials:
- Clean or washed gravel (not limestone, which can become like cement)
- Permeable landscape fabric (either residential weed cloth or a commercial-grade plastic tarp)
- Landscape staples
- Square shovel
- Scissors
- Wheelbarrow (to transport gravel and dirt)
Alan says adding a drain pipe provides “added security,” but you can often create an effective French drain without a one. If you do use a drain pipe, Alan says to make sure it has a stocking or water-penetrative cover to ensure it doesn’t clog.
You’ll need these additional tools if you include a drainage pipe in your project:
- Rigid plastic perforated drain pipe
- Fabric drain pipe sleeve or sock
- Pipe fittings
1. Find the area where water is pooling
The area where water is pooling will be the entry point of the French drain. You’ll want to decide where the water will go. Also, make sure there’s enough slope to transport the water away from the pooling area. For instance, if the pooling is happening at the bottom of a hill, you’ll want to find an even lower place to send the water.
Going uphill won’t work for a French drain.
2. Begin digging the ditch
Remove the sod from the area for the length of your French drain. Get out the trusty shovel, and start digging the ditch.
3. Dig the ditch in the shape of a triangle
Use a square-shaped shovel to dig down one side of the ditch and then the other.
- A triangular ditch removes less dirt than a round-bottomed hole.
4. Dig the length of your drainage ditch
Increase the size of the ditch as much as you want, but remember you don’t need to overdo removing dirt with a V-shaped trench. Dig the length of your drainage ditch, which should resemble the photo above.
5. Roll out the permeable landscape fabric
Unroll the permeable landscape fabric. Going with a commercial-grade tarp might be a better bet for your project because it’s more durable, so no dirt or sand can get through it.
6. Make a wide opening for the ditch
Make the opening of the drain wide so water can easily get into the ditch, where the drain will transport it away from the area where water is pooling.
7. Clean out the trench
Do any final cleaning out of the trench, so it’s V-shaped. Alan says a cleaner trench will make it easier to read the grade.
8. Put the landscape fabric in the trench
For more information, watch the video below.