French Drain 101

[wkasak]

Welcome to my first "Vacation Day" this year. I have taken off work the end of this week as my home vacation for the year in order to tune up the yard equipment, do some projects, and meet with contractors for future projects, etc.

Project for today...french drain...

I dug the ditch over the last week (12"x30") and got to work early this morning installing the french drain. Day went like this...

- Redug out clay that caved into trench last night...love wet clay.
- Had 12 tons of stone delivered.
- Installed landscaping fabric to bottom of trench.
- Backfilled with 6" of stone.
- Installed 4" perforated black pipe with filter sock.
- Backfilled to within 6" of finished grade.
- Had 23 tons of stone delivered...to finish up and use in other areas.
- Installed more landscape fabric.
- Backfilled to grade with stone.
- After stone settles a bit I will probably top with topsoil and seed.

There's a few glammer shots of the BX24 too. I worked her hard today.

Sorry about the sideways pictures...I couldn't rotate them when uploading to the forum...

 

[witel]

Beautiful! I can't wait to see pictures of the water flowing out of the drain once you're completed with the project. Nice work.

 

[keving]

Nice job. Did you get a lot of water there?

 

[wkasak]

The story is that the old buildings in the pictures were built by my Grandfather and Dad. There was an existing dry well made of stone between the buildings with no outlet and another stone well closer to the pond that had a solid perforated pipe that exited to the pond. These were built about 1950. They were both clogged and not moving any water. The area were I installed the drain is usually always soggy from the underground springs and clay not allowing it to go anywhere but up. So I basically used the same path that my Grandfather and Dad took and just rebuilt it and extended it a little further. I hope to dry that area out so I can tear down the two buildings and add on to an existing pole structure or build a new one.

 

[WayneB]

Nice job Walt! Take some pictures of the finished product and the water running.

Wayne

 

[czechsonofagun]

Thanks for the pictures, it is on my to do list for this year.

 

[Dog Lover]

Great Job. I have to do the very same thing. Good Pics, just like taking a course...French Drain 101.. I also have to put in two dry wells for rain gutter run off on high side of the garage. Thanks for putting pics for all to see.

 

[bones1]

Very nice job. Did you use the pipe with the little slits or the ones with the holes?.

 

[wkasak]

Black perforated 4" pipe with slits...bought a Home Depot.

 

[TractorLarry]

It just so happens I've got about 4 tons of Gravel to get rid of. I might do this in my lower, wet area's.

-Larry

 

[wkasak]

Just an FYI...I went thru about 20 tons of #57 stone to do this project.

 

[archerynut]

Great looking work. Have something just like this planned for this summer. Looks great and sounds like a lot of fun.

 

[TractorLarry]

Ok, mine will be smaller

Still sounds like the perfect way to get rid of 4 tons of gravel!

Now, to find the neighborhood kid I need to dig the trench and move the gravel. it's beyond my steel-reinforced back these days

-Larry

Just an FYI...I went thru about 20 tons of #57 stone to do this project.