Our house sits below the street level with a little hill in front. I want to level the yard even with the front sidewalks but I,m afraid of water run off from the hill to the house.We have a dip in the yard I think for the run off. I want to install a french drain in the yard and fill it in. How do I go about in doing this. Or should I leave it alone? It would be about 25 ft long .The lenght of the house.
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The term frecnh drain is used in different ways.
To me is means a "hidden" drain, or below the surface. But you still need to make it so that the water will want to flow into the drain and not continue past it.
To me that means that you will want to dig a trench. line it with with filter cloth. Then lay in preforated drain tile. Then fill to within a few inches of the top with clean graded rock. Then lap the end of the filter cloth over it. The fill in the last few inches with decortative rock or non-organic mulch.
But the most important point.
Where is the drain going to run? You need some place that you can run it to daylight.
And it can't be to the street as you are lower than the street.
I'm having trouble visualising this...are you saying that you will pile dirt against the house since the house is lower, or just level out the hill?
Firstly, and in any case, always grade the surface away from the house, min 6'. Preferably 1" in 1', or better. Then dig your ditch for the drain such that it will drain well away - daylight it where it will not cause trouble for you, the neighbours, or the municipality. Depending on these things, I'd dig about 18" into the ground, install Big O if you expect a lot of water, put drainrock to the 6" mark (or clean coarse gravel) over, then lay landscape fabric over that. Either add drainrock to a point you can put dirt or sod over it...or get creative and meander the drain around and top it with large riverrock as per Japanese gardens' "dry river"...makes a lovely feature. Explore landscaping books for that idea.
Cheers
What I want to do is make the hill seem smaller in our front lawn. Iwant to fill in the dip we have in the front yard with dirt and that will make the hill slope down and end up even with the grade of the house. So I think with the slope of the hill, now the run off from rain will get to close to the house. Thats way I'm considering a french drain.
This sounds like a bad idea to me.
Sure, if you don't mind spending a gazillion bucks and excavating the entire front lawn and then re-landscaping it in terraces with built-in drainage at every level...then you could probably get away with it.
But the corollary to Murphy's law is IF IT AIN'T BROKE DON'T FIX IT.
Unless you have water coming into the basement now, my advice is to keep your hands in your pockets on this one. You're only likely to make things worse.
Just my $2.71 worth....
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship...
But it is not this day.
OK Mr Superman, I get you now. BUT I still maintain that some of the things I wrote re sloping away from the house, and daylighting the end of the drain carefully, should still apply. And of course the actual mechanics of constructing the drain. I don't know where you are - if in the Pacific NW then rain is a problem. Get it away from the house. And watch out: your water , sewer/septic, hydro and gas lines may be closer to the surface, so check with authorities, eh.
It's your place, go for it. Forget 'Dinosaur' - it's only money or your happiness, eh.
Good advice comes from people with brains. Thank for the help.
Thanks for the compliment, however a lot of it is experience. Some of it worked for me, I hope it does for you.
Cheers
Friend had a back yard that flooded in winter rains. Below grade, no place lower to daylight a drain. He laid in a French drain (John French, 19th. century upstate NY agronomist)to a dry well. It worked, despite being in blue clay and other glacial byproducts.
Neat trick for a dry well is to fill with cinder blocks laid on sides. This gives you the maximum dry well capacity.
They make plastic dry well liners - or you can line with a geotextile to suit. If you don't line it, you are wasting your time. Furgeson has some nice 18 and 24" perfed plastic culvert that might work.
The ToolBear
"Never met a man who couldn't teach me something." Anon.
With out a photo, it sounds to me like the little hill is there to curb the wate away from your house. See you next year when you check in to ask, why is my basement flooding
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I don't want anything French myself, thank you. Maybe a freedom drain would work.
FYI, the type of drain you are talking about installing is called a "curtain drain".
Ok, what is a curtain drain. I was just going to put black plastic pipe with holes in it in the ground with stones over and under it and cover it up with ground,reseed and go on to the next project.
A curtain drain is a french drain that basically sits out in the middle of your yard (as opposed to up next to the foundation) and is designed to help to keep water from migrating from one area to another.
Please note that I'm not saying that it is necessarily a good idea in your case. I don't think anyone can really say without a few good pics or a drawing. Doesn't sound like a good idea though.
Matt
Edited 6/2/2005 7:32 am ET by DIRISHINME