# French Drain



## denick (Feb 13, 2006)

What do you consider a French drain?


This is another of those terms that seem to have different meanings in different areas.


Nick


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## rino1494 (Jan 31, 2006)

Any ditch that contains pipe and stone to carry away water.


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## PipeGuy (Oct 8, 2004)

To me french drain = dry well; they don't drain to daylight but merely percolate into the surrounding ground.


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## jmic (Dec 10, 2005)

IMO French Drain / Farmers Drain being the same is just diverting ground water from one location to another without pipe by means of native stone - rocks. I've heard one of the reasons farmers built walls was to allow water to follow along them, of course another was to get rid of the dam rocks they kept plowing up, then also to keep the heards in. Then you could argue they wanted to create boundries.:jester: :laughing:


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## Teetorbilt (Feb 12, 2004)

I'm with Rich. They work great in sand, not so sure about other substrates.


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## tgeb (Feb 9, 2006)

When I use the term "French Drain" I think of removing water not storing water the way a dry well might.



> rino1494, Any ditch that contains pipe and stone to carry away water.


A dry well you would pipe water to and allow it to percolate away.

A french drain would be to intercept water from either below grade as with ground water or from above grade in order to.... I don't know, drain rain water from a lawn that is too flat.

And it's great cause sometimes they come with baguettes.:laughing:


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## tgeb (Feb 9, 2006)

And you could run a French Drain to a dry well.
But usally we run them to daylight.


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