How to Install a French Drain Correctly - Step by Step

so today's project is going to be a French drain a literal French drain so most people refer to landscape drainage as a French drain but actually a French drain is technically reserved for a much larger project which involves gravel perforated pipe landscape fabric there's a bunch of other stuff involved in a French drain most people just have landscape drainage installed which is just a pipe in the ground that carries water so today we're going to show you how you do a French drain and what all it involves so one of the first things you do is Mark your line where your trench is going to go this French drain is going to be about 10 inches wide so we're cutting our first line and then we'll move the the line over 10 inches and cut another line and so what we're doing is creating sod pieces that we can set to the side and then replace on top once we're finished to have a nice clean look oh all right making good progress here we're just digging this trench you can see it's a pretty good sized Trench [Music] um and that's really what defines a French drain is how wide it is that's about 10 inches there normally we'd only need to go four inches for a four inch pipe to go straight in the ground [Music] um show you a little trick here so what he's doing is he's got a bucket of water and occasionally he'll dip the shovel and that keeps it clean or mostly clean from dirt otherwise this Texas clay will start to Clump up on you and you'll spend half your time just cleaning your shovel [Music] look at all those nice pieces aside you're going to hardly know we were here when we're done [Music] so it's a little unconventional but sometimes you work with what you got and using some pressure from Tire this makes our job a little easier here we go [Music] bam foreign and that's the result of a Diamond core drill so that's a perfectly drilled core right there and a seamless hole perfect so using Stakes will hold the fabric in place when we come through and fill this trench with gravel okay so now the entire trench is lined with this geotextile non-woven fabric allows moisture to go through prevents the dirt from mixing with the gravel and is the key to a long lasting French drain so French drains can come in any shape and size really but a standard typical size is about 12 inches deep and we're going about nine to ten inches wide on this one that leaves us roughly three inches around the four inch pipe so we're doing a three inch layer first and then we'll come back in with our four inch pipe and afterwards we can start covering it up so the next step is to put our pipe in the ground and this is perforated PVC pipe so it's got two sets of our two lines of holes drilled only on one side of the pipe so you'll notice this side of the pipe is solid this side has holes drilled in it so the key to setting this pipe in the ground is that you set it with the holes facing down now that seems counterintuitive you would think you want water filtering in but actually what happens is that water is going to absorb into that gravel Trench and then percolate up into the holes that are facing down so the key again is to have your perforated pipe with the holes facing downward using a little Mallet comes in very handy it doesn't damage the pipe but it will join them together really nicely and this Project's convenient it's just one long straight French drain so we're going ahead and assembling that pipe together before we drop it in the trench all right so that's a perfect fit in there that last little stretch is going to be just straight regular pipe but everything back is perforated and again those holes face down counterintuitive but it works with physics and how the water is going to flow first into the Rock and then percolate up into those holes as it runs down the pipe and out through the curb right now we're just checking the level that's really important when you're sitting drain pipe that you have a flow that goes downhill that's what you want so now it's just all about filling that trench all the way up we've got our level right and now we're just back filling with gravel a lot of work but if you do it right it's amazing how much water this thing will carry all right so the entire French drain is now covered and so all this is is the Fabric's been folded over and then you can you can use these landscape staples to clamp everything together and hold it in place and then we're putting the sod back like a nice little jigsaw puzzle [Music] by the time we're finished here you won't even know you'll hardly be able to know that we were here look how perfect that is I love it so it's definitely about the details when doing this type of work using a rake getting all the small pieces of dirt afterwards we'll come back with a hose and wash it all down you know it's about treading lightly while you work leaving as small of a imprint post job as you can even with something dirty like landscape drainage look at that we're getting there we put in a lot of work today especially these guys really working hard and making this happen wow well there you go all that dirt that used to be there now it's in the trailer we're just going to come back through here and wash this off Pat that grass down where the sod was cut right here we're just tying in the very end putting these flagstone pieces back where they were and what used to be a swamp over here is going to be a well drained area so when it comes to dealing with mud water is the great equalizer just add water so the secret to bring in that uh sod down to level is to just add water to it and then you step on it and a little water a little pressure and that stuff will sink right down and get flush with the uh the other grass all right closing down a long day [Music] [Applause] and uh wow hardly even though we were here getting everything cleaned up washed off tied together then head into the house oh yeah except there's one problem that's one truck and two trailers so uh hmm I don't know but somebody might be returning back here uh after dark get the other trailer I just love that that could not be any cleaner man that looks good Dallas drainage Pros cleaning and installing French drains also leaving cleanly installed French drains all right so the Sun is setting and I still need to go get that other trailer uh it's all good though it's all part of starting up a business you uh you know you got to put in put in the hours for real um I did want to talk about something so it looked like today's job was gonna actually be a two-day job that's what I was thinking and um you know the guys really pushed and ended up knocking it out today it was a long day um but I mean I told the guys hey if we finish early I'm gonna pay you as if y'all had worked two full days to get this thing done um you know that's that's that's kind of in you know rewarding the hard work I uh you know I've worked for companies and there have been days where I realized hey we made this happen and we made the company a bunch of money and that kind of effort was never rewarded and so coming from that perspective coming from that experience um you know I know what it feels like and so the company that I'm building I want to build it on the uh the idea of sharing sharing the wealth rewarding effort and um you know bringing people in so anyway that's it for today

Channel: Dallas Drainage Pros

Views: 60,205

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Id: ITpaeNyiHHY

Length: 10min 45sec (645 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 28 2023