Does Your Yard Need a French Drain?

In this post, I’ll talk about what a French drain is, how they work, and who might need one. 

Let’s start with that last thing:

Who Needs a French Drain?

If your yard has drainage problems, there’s a very good chance YOU need a French drain. 

There are a few reasons why you might have standing water, but what I want to focus on today is why standing water is a problem, and what you can do about it.

You probably already know standing water is bad (which is why you’re here), but let’s talk for a minute about why standing water in your yard is such a big deal.  

Your kids or grandkids might love those puddles in your yard, but you know what else does? Mosquitoes. 

Plus, standing water in your yard leads to poor oxygen aeration (aka the roots of your plants aren’t getting enough air). 

You know what happens to you when you don’t get enough air? 

Same thing with your plants. Bit of a different timeline and process, same end result. 

Eventually, your flowers will die, your shrubs will die, and so will your trees :( 

Which is a real pain. Their roots become unstable, causing the tree to lean and maybe fall over. (Hopefully not on your house.)  

Sidenote: if you are dealing with a leaning tree, we do offer tree removals. 

Plus, standing water can damage the cement foundation of your house. Fricken. Yikes. 

You don’t want that. I don’t want that. Nobody wants that. If you’ve got standing water, make it a top priority to handle that situation ASAP. 

French drains are also important to have around retaining walls to prevent ground water from building up behind the wall and undermining their stability. 

Ok, that’s enough doom and gloom for now. Let’s talk solutions.

So…What is a French Drain?

I’m glad you asked! Honestly, French drains are pretty simple:

They’re underground water drainage systems that collect excess water and direct it toward an acceptable exit point, like a rain barrel or your town’s storm drain. 

Basically, they just help you keep your yard free from standing water. 

How Do French Drains Work?

French drains are so simple, they’re kind of elegant. Or maybe I just think that because they’ve got the word “French” in their name…

….Either way, the concept is pretty simple! 

You dig a trench in the problem areas of your yard. 

You put a perforated pipe (read: a pipe with holes) in the trench. 

IMPORTANT! That pipe MUST be wrapped in water-permeable fabric (I’ll tell you why in a minute). 

So you put your holey-pipe - all swaddled up in special fabric like a baby in a blanket - in your trench. 

Then, you bury that baby in gravel. Or stone. Whatever.

Using gravel or stone here is important because their loosely-packed structure provides a path of lesser resistance than dirt. 

And, as science tells us, water always takes the path of least resistance.

In this case, that’s gonna be the path filled with gravel, not dirt. 

So gravity pulls the water down into the ground, and the water finds its way to your gravel-filled trench.

It filters down through the stones until it finds the pipe. 

The water enters the pipe (thanks to the permeability of the fabric we talked about earlier) and makes its way down the pipe to the exit point. (Yeah, science!)

‘But Dakota, why do we need to wrap the pipe in fabric? Why not just put the pipe in the trench and then bury it in gravel?’  

That’s a great question, and I’m glad you asked! Wrapping the pipe in water-permeable fabric allows water to enter the pipe, but nothing else.

So dirt, gravel, and other debris stays out of the pipe, and the pipe stays clog-free.

And we like that! 

A debris-free pipe = less maintenance for you. Nice. 

You need a little bit of a slope in your pipe. A French drain can still work for your yard, though, even if it’s relatively flat. 

That’s because your pipe only needs about 1% slope to work. So we’re talking at least 1 inch drop for every 10 feet of pipe.

Pretty doable in most yards in Southern Indiana. 

I’m gonna wrap this up for now, but if you’ve got water drainage issues in your yard or you’re concerned about water getting into the foundation of your home, give me a call!

I’ll come take a look (for freeeee) and let you know if a French drain is the right solution for you.