DIY French Drain for Under $250 

My flooded backyard brought me here.. 1st time homebuyer.. there’s sooo much to learn keep the home in good shape had no idea what a French drains were so thanks.

Just a hint of advice, from the down spouts you want the corrugated pipe to slope away from the foundation of the house. Depending on where the house is located (wherever you have large amounts of snowfall or if located near a low lying area or potential flood plane), you want to bury the pipe below the frost line (some parts of the country it’s 36”, other parts it’s 48”+. Also before digging, call ALL utility companies, including cable and internet companies, and have them mark out where everything runs (get ready for all those little flags). They don’t charge you to come out and mark where everything is located. Now, the fun stuff. Remember when I said to run the corrugated pipe sloped away from the house? The reason for doing so, is to prevent any excess moisture from seeping into your basements. Any moisture will cause black mold to build up in the house (that’s the bad stuff) and can/will cause health problems, it can cause the foundation to crack from freezing and thawing from freezing temperatures. You’d be amazed of the hydraulic pressures when water freezes. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. That’s one repair bill you don’t ever want to get. If you’re looking at buying a house, talk to neighbors about any flooding problems. If you’re looking at building a new home, get a geographical survey done and don’t be afraid to ask questions about how deep water tables are. The reason I say this is, because in Oklahoma, the water table is only 3’ below the surface of the ground. Nobody in Oklahoma has a basement or even a storm shelter underground. I hope this helps you in any way, shape, or form. Always remember this saying from my time in the Army, there’s no such thing as a stupid question, a stupid question is a question that’s never asked. I apologize for the length of my novel.

Great memories with your son. Cute kid and looks like he enjoys helping his dad out.

I’ve put in about 5000 feet of French drains. I’d recommend to not take your roof water into a perforated pipe. The reason is it can leak out of the perforation as it travels. The best way to do this is to take your roof water into a solid non-perforated pipe. And run another perforated pipe for the French drain in the same trench. Having two pipes.

Some of these comments are ridiculous and rude. For one, he said in the video he called someone to check for buried lines and the surveyor didn't detect that cable...but several comments blast the guy for it anyway. How about pay attention to what he said in the video before commenting? And why are there so many "know it all' commenters? If you have some constructive criticism, why not just give it without being so snarky? The internet really brings out the worst in some people. I think some of you might want to try and make your own video so we can learn how to "do it the right way" instead of trashing this guy since you all seem to think you know so much about the subject matter. I know nothing about French Drains, but at least this gentleman took the time to show people how he did his. Maybe it's not totally 100% correct, but it seems to work for him. My guess is many of these commenters are professional landscapers who hate it when someone shows people they really don't need to overpay them for a smallish project like this.

Great Job. Your video was by far the most entertaining and great how you included the little one.

When I start my drain putting in my drain system. I may send you a few pictures and videos to show how my project goes. Great video, Thank You!!!

Breathaking Explanation, very helpful French Drain Update 🙏 Thank you 😊 so much and congratulations 🙏

Great job dude! Well explained, thorough, step by step and good editing as well. Also not blasting music into our ears either 👍

Hey thanks for the video! I’ll be putting one in next week and you helped and answered my questions in this video🤙💯

Thank you for all stages have been shown. I also like the way you traced the pipe along the fence. Hope water drains away well)

Great video, commentary, work and family!!! Love that people like you, with great will, and initiative, exist. If I were to do this particular 'project'. I think I would use solid pipe if the desire was simply to collect water from one downspout and move it 80' from a house. My understanding is that the purpose of a french drain system is to collect water from one area and move it to another (ie standing water in your yard). The fabric in a french drain trench keeps soot, dirt, mud, debris out of the perforated pipe (aka drain tile). The stone creates a void (water looks for the path of least resistance). Some say you could use just the perforated pipe wrapped in the fabric (aka: sock) but I do not believe that it would perform nearly as well as setting the pipe, at the bottom of the trench, surrounded by stone. 1.5" to 2" round rock is best, for a "french drain", as it creates the best void and won't compact (or sink/settle) into itself as angular rock will. Again, IMHO, using perforated pipe in THIS application does not make much sense as again your NOT looking to catch water in the yard (that's the purpose of a french drain) but again you're looking to collect water from ONE downspout and move it 80' away A solid pipe would be best for this application and of course the rock, perforated pipe, burrito thing is not applicable. Considering freeze/thaw is a whole other thing. Finally having that catch basin below the downspout, IMHO is not a good idea as it will often be covered in leaves and debris and most of the water from the downspout will end up around the catchbasin and penetrating the home's foundation.

Enjoyed the video, keep up the good work!

If you are moving water from the gutter you would use a solid pipe and and the gravel and fabric are unnecessary. A French drain is used to move standing water from a wet area.

Dear Gear: Kudos for your elucubrated list and links of "credits" in the description of your video "movie." Well done. This is beautifully organized -- an optic of pleasure.

Well done sir. Good lessons learned.

nice video! Never saw a survey that picked up a fiber optic line, you give them too much credit!

Great job explaining how to do it! I personally don't like to use fabric because of it clogging up over time. I use a lot of gravel and a little bit of top soil where I have to.

Your fig tree is awesome. I am growing 4 in my garden.

The most perfect dirt for shoveling I have ever seen. Try mine: full of shale!!!

I did mine over the summer. Probably spent somewhere north of $1000. Had too many roots, so needed to rent an excavator. Plus had 150 ft to run and also did some downspouts. All in all it took me the whole summer. I'd hire someone next time if I had to do it again!

Thanks so much and we are going to try your guide to our problem.

Great video!! About to install a drain system like this underneath my deck.

Great job, I would reverse the concrete run off just to break up the water from eroding the soil away on the other side of the fence.

Great job, looking to do the same this year. Just an FYI, should always call 811. Before you dig, just for the reason you found out, ya never know what is down there. Lucky it was a cable and not a live line. Good thing you were only hand digging too!

Thanks bud! Exactly what I needed.

Wonderful I got a good ideal how to do my project

“This wrapped up dead body…” Annnnnd subscribed. We share a similar dark sense of humor.

Very nice work! Thanx for video

Ditto. I love the explanations.

Nice job.

Cool project!! Show us a video of it working!!

That digging looks so easy compared the dirt here in Arizona.

Extreamly helpful thank you sir. My neighbor divirted a spring into my yard. Courts are closed and there are no contractors capable of doing this, so I have to do it myself and fast. My basement may have damage and the trees may come down on my house if a big storm. Luckily my property goes up to his driveway. :sigh: thnx again for this helpful video

Thanks for taking the time to post this! How does it flow? It would be cool if you could add a video while it’s raining to see

Good job! I think downhill like you have there will work with less gravel. The other area you mentioned for your next drain will probably need three times as much.

You should skim the grass so it ends up being 2” to 3” wider than the width of your trench. There should be a ledge on each side of your trench.

Great work! how would we deal with a property which the water problem is at a lower level and any direction from there is higher in order to get the water out. i have water at the house close to the foundation, which is the lowest point of the property.

Thank you for this video

I'm in Georgia with clay. Great video but digging looked so easy for you guys I'm jealous. :)

actually, you should have filled the trench with gravel, and pipe on bottom .... watch French Drain Man like Nathaniel Bradley said.

Great info thank you 🙏🏻

Good video.

“Wrapped up dead body” LOL!

Watched your video. How is it working? Have you had any really heavy rains since you installed it?

If you’re not covering this up with soil or sod do you still need to use the fabric

Cool, I love yard work projects like this. I've never done any kind of drainage system like this before but why do a French drain and not just a solid tube all the way down?

My elder mom attempted to do a quick poor-man drainage system and had a one of these preforated pipes sitting above ground for atleast 10 years. You think I can still use it for under ground if I wanted to do a french drain or do I have to buy whole new preforated pipes

at any point the piping slops up it will create backflow and not completely drain at your exit point of the hose. Also if you live in winter freezing climate that slop area will freeze a full piped area and burst. Never slope up gravity won't comply.

wrapped up dead body 🤣 that one gave me a good laugh

So glad that I found this. Just got a quote for 1400!

You are supposed to put a couple of inches of gravel on the bottom of the ditch put your pipe in then cover with more gravel best to use a sock on your perforated tile to keep the small chunks of gravel from clogging up

I have a slope back yard that leads to a storm drain, My back yard is 30 ft but I can only use 10 ft of it until it slopes. I want to put dirt on the slope and install French drain so it can go to the storm drain, does that sound good

Would it be bad to cover the entire pipe with the rock as well? I’ve seen a couple vids that have done this. I have getting standing water on the side of my house and runs underneath. Need to make one of these to take the water down to the street

My mom just paid $3000.00 for a very small area to be done. It was maybe 30’-40’ of pipe and they put 2 drains and one pop-up diffuser at the ditch.

Does the water flow into the pipes from the top like is there slices in pipes

Is it better to use other material so you can exclude the Rocks like PVC pipe

😅love the phrase: Dead body! Lol

Next Christmas present should be some work boots 😂 Also please stop jumping on the shovel like that ahahah

Great job sir. I would caution people about a couple things of concern. Your choice of rock is key to good ingress of water. You should not use crushed stone in the drain, the broken pieces and chips will plug your openings in the pipe. Round rock is much preferable to crushed rock. Also, the direct entry of the downspout into the system can ,over time, fill the drain with unwanted debris reducing its effectiveness. Just my thoughts on the matter.

Hey great job but just wondering when I see these videos If digging so far away from the house is over kill.. looks like your house is already on a slope so wouldn’t most of the water naturally run down hill? Just my opinion, I’m still learning so maybe I’m missing something. Seems like getting the water away and clear from the foundation would simply be enough.

Great video. How do we end the french drain, i dont have much slope at the end. ?

One question. If your wanting to take water out of the yard from the gutter then why use perforated piping. ?

Hi. Would it make sense and also be cheaper if you just put in two of the pipes, vs a lot of stone?

If there is literally a river of water running down in my backyard when it rains, can I dig right along that same path and install my French drain where the water runs? Does that make sense? Thank you for the video btw.

“This wrapped up dead body” 😂

Nice 👌🏾!

How has this held up ?

the line on pipe goes to top otherwise you're drain only works if coming from top not letting water in from bottom of trench

This is to drain the gutter water away from house. Just dig a 10 ft length, 1.2 ft deep and 10 in wide, place the black color pipe and cover with soil. I will collect rain water to reduce basement flooding.

If only we all had soil that easy to dig through Oy

Can you install while it’s raining already? Tips?

Curious to see what it looks like now, a year later.

That kind of shovel. Do you mean a spade?

Highly recommend caulking your catch basin as it will not be water tight. It will be soil tight but not water tight.

Where did you get the pipe?

nice job my friend ..but what size of pipe is preferable to use 4 or 6 inches ..thanks

Will landscape fabric work in place of the "geo" fabric ? Is there much difference ?

2:36 this wrapped up dead body LMAO😂😂

French drain man!

In Massachusetts they would charge about $10,000 for this

How many bags of rocks did you end up using?

Need more rock in there cuz .. that’s not gonna drain very good.. anyway up to u bro

Won't the water splash once it hits the catch basin? Why not connect the downspout right to the pipe?

only used ten bags of rock for 90 feet??? i cant see how

How many bags of rock do you need for every 10'?

So new plan ran into an issue and tired of doing this already so well kinda just be done lol

I live in a subdivision without any field next to my property. Where should we have the pipe lead to? The side walk? Is that allowed?

The part I do not see in any video...Yes I take the water from point A and go to point B by digging up, now point b is in my yard, can I just leave the end of the pipe under the soil (in Florida change in elevation is very tiny) or do I make a little pool of water in my yard or.... Basically, what do we do to the end of the ditch, where the start and the end are 35 feet away with only half a foot drop in elevation...

MORE ROCK!!!!! get it from a quarry and get 3-4 tons for 30 a ton

Hi my home does not have drain that catches roof water and runs down the wall like your home. But I want to build a French drain to remove water from where it collects when it rains, how would I build it without a catch basin?

I thought I heard dead body. 😂😂

Hi. How has this held up? From my research, I think your downspout water will be leaking out of the pipe because perforated pipe should never be used for downspout drains. French drains should be used to capture ground water and because the elevation change is so severe near your home I don’t believe there is much ground water. I’m curious how the system actually works. I think you would be better off taking it all up and replacing the pipe with a solid PVC pipe for solid perforated pipe.

You said that you suggest drilling holes into the bottom of the water catch basin. Can you elaborate on the reasoning for that?

Tq

Interesting video, but you left me with a ton of unanswered questions. I would be curious to know first of all: has this French Drain served its purpose? I couldn't really understand the main problem you were trying to solve, was it just moving water to a safe place, or were you getting water accumulated uncontrollably? From the research I have done, it seems that you did not use enough gravel and you consciously made that decision. Seems like you relied more on the filter fabric and the actual soil than gravel. Also, instead of using a catch basin, why not just run the gutter directly into your pipe? Are you leaving it to catch water from elsewhere? Thanks and your video is full of good other information.

The cable won't be a problem until they want to replace it and tear up your drain system. Also, did you not call for a utility locate?

French drains are for nonpoint? water from a gutter is point water or direct water. I could be worng.

where is it draining the water too ?

Would have been much better to have the down spout drop directly into the corrogated pipe. This guy will find out why later. Should have just done rock on all sides with only fabric on top, then your sod. Fabric and clay gets clogged. But he'll find that out down the road too.