French Drain Installation Around Foundation

The best practice for installing french drains is to use perforated drainage pipes which allow water to enter or exit through small openings along the pipe.

French drain installation around foundation.

A french drain is a trench filled with a perforated pipe and gravel that allows water to drain naturally from your yard. Every new house has some version of a french drain at the bottom of the foundation. Digging a trench around your foundation is required when installing a french drain. Perforated 4 inch pvc or flexible abs are the least costly and most foolproof foundation drainage conduits.

Filling and piping a french drain after. The trench should be dug to the depth of the perimeter beam and sloped about 2 percent. The french is lined with a porous fabric to minimize soil intrusion. The perforations can be circles or slots.

A perforated pipe is then placed on the trench s interior to help water drain out. A french drain also called a curtain drain is made by placing a perforated pipe in a trench that has been filled with gravel. If you re installing a french drain around your foundation to prevent basement moisture take care to position the pipe below slab or finished floor level. In many cases older homes with foundation water issues lack a french drain at the footing level.

Percolation trench is also called an infiltration trench similar to the trench you have around the foundation. Luckily you can avoid these problems by installing a french drain. You will also need to dig a trench away from the foundation to either a percolation trench dry well or to daylight if the slope of the land allows. Foundation drainage drain tiles also called footing drains and by some folks french drains which is not correct water flows in the path of least resistance.

Where the lot has enough slope and size for a drain to run downhill from the foundation to daylight most builders prefer to install the drainage outside the footings. It is a great option if you want to direct surface water away from your home s foundation to remove surface water or to prevent flooding. French drains are often installed around a home foundation in two different ways. But slotted pipes are better than pipes with small round holes because they tend to reduce the amount of fine soil particles that get into the pipe.