French Drains

It's hilly here in KY.

My house is down by he water, so water drains my direction. The result is that I get water into my garage with almost any measurable rainfall. I think I might be able to do a French drain and sump pump combination to move the water around the house.

Anyone knowledgeable on such drains? Must it be adjacent to the house, or can it be a couple of feet back?

Any advice, not involving urination, is appreciated.

I'm no expert, but have dealt with challenges of my own property drainage and that of my business. It's best if you can avoid the need for a sump pump for system reliability. You should be able to begin with a list of all the things that can go wrong and still end up with water where you don't want it - even though you built a system.

French drains are but one option. The "lay of the land" will determine if that one is really the only thing that would work. If you can have a shallow swale in the path of the oncoming water, you can capture water before it reaches the garage with that, use ground-flush grated drain at the swale's low point, then take it around the house using flex hose (6 inch typically) buried with a natural grade to drain. This works via a reliable concept (gravity) even if the power goes out and doesn't clog over time as badly as french drains.

I agree with Flippin-Out about the sump pump. You should be able to install a French drain and have it drain away from your house using gravity and the slope of the land.

Just make sure they go 18" deep with the trench and use a mesh covered NDS

They make catch basins also that the pipe ties into. Make sure pipe is sloping away from home.

using flex hose (6 inch typically) never


Hard pipe. Always use hard pipe. The flex will start catching trash. I have removed flex that was a solid ball of roots because of collecting dirt than roots get inside and have a great home. Plus with hard pipe you will be able to clean with a hose once a year.

Without seeing the property i can tell you exactly how to do it. Post a picture.. You will need 1/2 inch fall per ten feet. You can get by with 1/4 but i like to get the water moving.

the biggest basin and grate you can use. There is no such thing as over kill

Too much concrete to remove to do that. If I can get water away from house, it will be fine

post a picture

A picture of what?

Were the water flows from and backs up. Getting into the garage.

This show the drive going up towards the road.

This is about 15 feet further downhill where the water enters into the garage.

In the second picture i assume that there is still fall away from the house. I would install something similar to this. http://trenchdrainsupply.com/kit_Mearin_100.asp

Your best bet is to install it about three feet out from house. I would make some kind of edging behind the drain to help keep the water out and into the drain. Creating a flower bed of sorts. Some pave stones would be perfect. I would run the drain the length of the garage

I assume the water comes off the drive and runs along the side of the garage.If so by placing the drain in that manor you would be able to stop the water from entering the garage. I like to see the drive were the water runs off

That is a good size pad. Probably 20x25.

That's why I am thinking sump pump. A drain will gather the water...but I need to get it around the house. It has to be pumped on top of the pad...or I have to dig they 35-40 feet of asphalt or concrete to get rid of the water.

Have someone tunnel under it with a directional drilling rig. Problem solved.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200657103_200657103 and a sump pump.
4 foot concrete culvert drain stood on end. Concrete the bottom with a 4 inch block in the middle to hold the pump off the bottom. Use screen basket around the pump. clean often. especially if you have a lot of leaves. I would screen the grate on top also

I have two slit French drains. Garage side wall drain is 36'. Shed drain is 24'. Long deep trenches filled with rock. About 12" wide. I divert water to the side of my garage and send it around the corner to the long drain. It has a plastic drain trench and grate with lots of large holes in it to dump to earth that catches the bulk and takes it downhill behind garage. It works. Same thing at shed except I catch it at the side wall and dump it to a L shaped drain so it goes behind the shed and downhill behind it to dump excess if needed. It also works.

I would like to see a pic from back in the yard, stand uphill and take a pic of the whole drive/garage wall area.

from what I see so far I think your cheapest/easiest/bestust way is this.



you can find the low spot on the drive where the water exits to the gar. wall, have a slit trench cut in the drive to accommodate a grate system. have it exit to a pvc pipe 4" or larger, take it about 10-20' (or wherever the natural fall stops) and put in a small sump, this would act as an overflow regulator.


unless the natural fall of the yard drains right to the gar. you should be good this way, we did virtually all of our drives in colorado this way due to the slope.

forgot to add, those grates are a prefab mass produced item too, they are not very expensive.

https://www.metalsdepot.com/metalsdepot/steeltrenchdrainagegrate-12x36.htm