French Drain Questions

[Art Vandelay]

I could use a little advice on the installation of a French drain.
I live in a small, 8-home cul-de-sac. I live at the back of the neighborhood. The driveway off the main road has a slight decline to it, so all the water ends up in a couple lakes 20-feet in front of my home. This is starting to damage the asphalt road. We have sanitary sewers, but no storm water drains. This is a private road inside city property, so they have no obligations to help here, even though each resident is billed about $30 a month for storm run off.

There currently is a French drain I had installed about 25-years ago. I was at work while this happened, so I did not get to see how they installed it. It is about 2-feet wide, by about 50-feet long. It has been so long that over the years all the dirt and debris has washed down into it rendering it very ineffective.

I did some poking around in it and did not find any kind of perf pipe. It looks like it is just a trench with drainage rock. This brings me to my question. Would you install perf pipe of any type in a drain where the pipe is not going to terminate to a location where it will drain? You would basically be laying it in a ditch to collect water, but the water goes nowhere until it seeps into the soil below. If the city would allow, you could terminate it into a manhole location nearby, but I know that is just not going to happen.

I have not decided whether or not I want to take on this job yet, or hire someone to do it for me. If I were to do it, I want to make sure I do it correctly, and the perf pipe that I have seen used in many videos confuses me in this situation. It just seems like it would be a storage location, while the water is still percolating down from above, and when full, would eventually end up with the same problem I have now.

Any suggestions or advice would greatly be appreciated! Thanks for your time! Also, I live in Western WA where it rains ALL the time.

 

[PJB12]

After their french drain stopped working, for my parents' home I trenched with a Ditch Witch type of trencher and put a header trench with several branch trenches coming off of it. Picture a septic field, but with gravel filled trenches instead of pipes.
(Like yours, they had no acceptable place for pipes to discharge either.)

Since they were on clay, I dug deep and I also lined the bottom and sides of the trenches with polyester fabric to keep the roots out. Then I filled with 21AA gravel and laid fabric on top before back-filling. (A landscaper at work told me pea stone would have been better. Another said 9A or 9AL.)

One ting to try, if you don't mind the questionable environmental impact, is copper sulfate. Yours may simply be filled with roots. But, somehow you have to get it in the trench, but not the cover dirt or plants won't grow there for years. It's an easy job when pipes exist.

Paul

 

[Art Vandelay]

Thanks for the tips and advice, Paul! I don't know how much of the problem is roots, or if it is just junk that has washes down into the drain over the years. The yard adjacent to the ditch is nothing but a bunch of weeds. I have used copper before, in a different location, and I would have no problem trying it again.

I may seek advice/installation from a septic/sewer company. If I were a younger man, I would just go dig it all out myself. I think those years may be long behind me. Unless someone told me otherwise, I just don't see the point in putting in drain pipe if it cannot terminate into an acceptable location. I likely have another month or so before it dries out enough to mess with. Thanks for taking the time to help me out.

 

[PJB12]

Thanks for the tips and advice, Paul! I don't know how much of the problem is roots, or if it is just junk that has washes down into the drain over the years. The yard adjacent to the ditch is nothing but a bunch of weeds. I have used copper before, in a different location, and I would have no problem trying it again.

I may seek advice/installation from a septic/sewer company. If I were a younger man, I would just go dig it all out myself. I think those years may be long behind me. Unless someone told me otherwise, I just don't see the point in putting in drain pipe if it cannot terminate into an acceptable location. I likely have another month or so before it dries out enough to mess with. Thanks for taking the time to help me out.

Since there's no place to drain the water, maybe this idea will work:
Hire someone like a landscaper or handyperson from craigslist or the local Church bulletin ads to dig a deep hole at far from where your pipes start and dig the trenches for the pipes. (Or rent a small Bobcat type back hoe.)

Lead the pipes to the hole.

Then fill the hole with concrete rubble or coarse gravel. Lead the pipes to the hole. Perhaps 8 or so inches below where you want the dirt line, lay a piece of treated plywood, aluminum sheet or similar on top of the hole & back fill with happy dirt.

Made are cylindrical plastic tubs to use instead of the rubble in a bare hole. (That's where I just now learned the term "Dry Well" which is what I think I'm describing above.)

I wish I'd have thought of it when I did my parents' house project.

Here's a video from a house fixing show ( if you don't mind sitting through commercials for hair growth tonics):

Paul
PS: I feel your pain of getting old limitations! Oh Boy- so much I can't do these days!
I also sympathize with the wet yard. The back of mine's still partly under water from winter melt and from two neighbors behind me having yards that pitch toward mine.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Thanks for that video, Paul. That is kind of a version of one of the ideas I had been thinking of. If I do the job, I am definitely renting some sort of equipment to do the digging. After 20-plus years of collecting crud, and having people park on this location at times, it is hard as heck. No way my old bones could handle that.

Yeah, getting old sucks! My mind keeps telling me to do stuff my body is not capable to doing anymore. And my mind usually wins, resulting in me paying for it the next day. On the bright side, at least I do not have snow still hanging out on my property. I hate winter!! I am just glad we have mild weather compared to many of you all. Thanks again for all your help, Paul!!

 

[PJB12]

Let us know how the project goes. We'll all be interested to learn from your hard work!
Paul