What is a French Drain?

The French drain is not from France. In fact it was popularized by Henry French (1813-1885), a lawyer and assistant US Treasury Secretary of Concord, Massachusetts, in his book Farm Drainage.

A French Drain is a trench dug in the ground either around the perimeter of your house or between your house and your neighbors property. The drawing shows the cross section of a French drain.

Gravel is used to envelope the perforated pipe to slow down and filter the water and debris that enters into the pipe. The pipe is to be installed with a sufficient slope to move the water to the desired location, usually an alley or to a pop up in the lawn area.

French Drains are the most popular and affective form of drainage solution used today. The most common installation area is between two neighboring properties. In most cities it is against local ordinances to drain onto someone else property. Always take that into consideration when adding additions, pools, or any other type elevation change. Not doing so is a good way to turn Neighbor into your enemy.

It is good to plan your annual flower bed says Dallas Landscape DesignerMaria Bargellini, President of Dallas Curb Appeal.  Dallas Curb Appeal offers a variety of landscape services to clients in Dallas and Collin county Texas. Dallas Curb Appeal is a Landscape Company that has been in business for over 10 years providing a variety of landscape and and design services.  If you want the very best, trustworthy, reliable, and professional call Maria Bargellini at 214-257-8155 and learn how you can make sure to have the most beautiful yard on your block.

Dallas Landscaper Maria Bargellini, President of Dallas Curb Appeal, helps describe when you need a French Drain

How do you know when you need a French drain?

There’s a difference between having a drainage problem and too much water overwhelming your landscape. In North Texas we have heavy clay soil. Once the clay soil is saturated with water any additional rain or sprinkler water will have nowhere to go but to run off or stand in place if the drainage slope is not corrected.

How to Recognize if you have Drainage Problems

• Standing water around the perimeter of your house
• Standing water between your house and your neighbors house
• Consistently muddy areas around your property

Types of Drainage Solutions

• French Drains
• Dry River Beds
• Catch Basins
• Ponds
• Rain Barrels

It is good to plan your landscape drainage says Dallas Landscaper Maria Bargellini, President of Dallas Curb Appeal.  Dallas Curb Appeal offers a variety of landscape services to clients in Dallas and Collin county Texas. Dallas Curb Appeal is a Landscape Company that has been in business for over 10 years providing a variety of landscape and and design services.  If you want the very best, trustworthy, reliable, and professional call Maria Bargellini at 214-257-8155 and learn how you can make sure to have the most beautiful yard on your block.

Drainage Solutions:  Gutters

Gutters or the lack there of can wreak havoc on your home. The purpose of gutters is to collect the water landing on your roof and redirect it away from your property. Houses without gutters are more likely to have not only drainage problems but also issues with the foundation,  mud and grass or plant death. In Texas we can go quite awhile without rain but when it rains it pours. Houses with gutters usually have down spouts that pour water in the direction they were installed. For some your problem may be alleviated by the addition of gutters or redirection/ relocating of existing gutters, but often time it is not enough. Down spouts can have thousands of gallons of water flowing through them in a rain storm. If your property is not properly sloped you will have pools of water throughout. With our clay soils absorption will not take place fast enough to get rid of excess water.

To the left is an example of several drainage solutions for your home. By using different products we can eliminate the standing water and mud that plagues your back or front yards. If you have gutters we can incorporate the down spouts into a French Drain System. This will allow for the water to be collected on the roof and directed away from your property without bogging down your flower beds, walkways, and garages.

Drainage

If you’re like most people, you’ve seen the unsightly puddles around the yard and never gave it too much thought. You say to yourself, “I’ll deal with later”, or “it doesn’t rain that much here”. Then the ground dries, the soil cracks and you start to notice the cracks in the wall from the foundation moving.

Drainage correction is an inexpensive way to make sure that a small fix today doesn’t stop a major headache in the future.

Most drainage issues present themselves in water logged flower beds, bogged low spots in the lawn, water damage to garages, and downspouts that erode soil away from the house.

Each problem has a different remedy. We can use one or a combination of applications to pull the water away from your homes foundation and save you from unnecessary repairs in the future.

The most expensive option to rectify your drainage issues would be to re-grade the ground to correct the slope. This is also the most intrusive remedy, often leaving many visual signs of the past problem.

Better drainage remedies include:

• Channel drains for driveways
• Catch basins for easy debris collection
• Pop Up emitters drain water out to other areas in the yard
• French drains to handle sub surface water and downspout drains for surface water.

Caps also come in a variety of colors and metal finishes that can be used in almost all applications.
Don’t let this be your home. Call Dallas Curb Appeal today and be on your way to ridding your home from muddy feet and paws, foundation issues and dead plants and grass, due to unsightly standing water.