French drain

[bgott]

One of my rent houses is lower than the rest of the lot. I decided I needed to drain the lake so we have tunneled under the house and replaced the sewer and we're going to put in a french drain to try and keep it at least semi- dry. Have any of y'all used this stuff? I think it will save me a ton of labor compared to getting recalcitrant helpers to trolley gravel under the house.

 

[bgott]

It comes in ten foot lengths, $22 and change at Lowe's.

 

[bgott]

This is how we're, or they're /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif, getting the sand we're using for fill under the house. I found this section of roller conveyor at the dump.

 

[Harv]

Brad -

Never used it, never seen it before. But now I'm real interested in how it works for you.

Please keep us posted.

 

[bgott]

This is one of my other tenant's kids, Nick. Nick is smiling because he just got out of jail AND found a few days work to make some partying money for the holiday! Life is good! Nick's little brother is the one under the house. That's because Nick is bigger then him.

 

[bgott]

Gotta get my tractor in here. The tenants renting this house have about three more kids living here then they said they had when they moved in. They're friends with the four kids next door, also. A dumptruck load of sand is one he11 of a fun toy so I had the sand dumped at my house. I live about five houses down and it's easier to just haul as much as we need when we need it rather than scraping it back up out of the grass.

 

[MarkV]

Brad,

The drain material you have looks like the same thing they call “Easy Lay” and is used for septic systems down this way. I don’t know if that is the product name or a slang name used by the locals. It gets good reviews from those I have talked to.

MarkV

 

[patrickg]

One thing that comes to mind is that, over time, silt and or other materials could get between the plastic "peanuts" and plug the works. In similar applications I have used Tyvec sleeving over the perforated drain pipe burried in gravel but better yet is some geotextile over the whole thing to keep stuff from getting in over time and ruining the drainage capability.

Another possibility where gravel is too much work is to use recycled tires (ground up i big gravel sizes) as a substitute. Works fine in leach fields, french drains, and similar applications but is much much less labor to move around.

Best of luck to you,

Patrick

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I've never used the lamb's leg looking stuff. But I have put in french drains. I like'em plenty fine, maybe more.

When we first moved into our house the yard stayed a bog. It's heavy black clay and took forever to drain. When I put in the spa I went ahead and ran french drains all over the place and then to the street out front.

Now it can pour down. And an hour later you can walk back there and instead of it being ankle deep in water the grass is wet like the sprinkler was just turned off.

The biggest glitch is getting a place to drain off to. Here when I planted my oaks and pecans I dug eight inch holes seven feet deep and still was in black clay. But sometimes if you can get to a break in the soil that will do the draining for you.

It is amazing how a foot thickness of clay can be like a yard of concrete when it comes to stopping perculating in the soil.

 

[patrickg]

wroughtn_harv, I don't think your black clay could be any worse than some of our red clay unless it is just the color. I'm shopping for floor coverings that look like they already have red clay stains.

Right you are with the layer comment. If you can punch through to another layer it can be like pulling a stopper out of a basin. I was all hot to make some of my ponds a lot deeper but was warned that I could go through the water retaining layer and drain a pond like draining a bath tub.

Patrickg