$60 Miniature French Drain - No More Downspout Extensions

It is critical that water is able to drain away from your home’s foundation, but who wants to have downspout extensions sticking out into their yard? I set out on a quest to replace my downspout extensions with something that I could walk and mow over without burying deep drainage tile.
I first looked at floor drain gutters, but they were surprisingly expensive ($25-$30 per foot). Then I saw how inexpensive plastic roof gutters were and the wheels in my head started turning. It took some trial and error to learn what worked, but in the end I am happy with the improvement to my drainage and landscaping.
Shopping list:
(2) 10-foot sections of simple 4-inch plastic U roof gutters
(4) end caps for the gutter sections
(1) 8-foot stick of plastic edging for FRP wall panels
(6) 1/2-cubic-foot bags of washed 1.5” river rock
Optional:
(1) bag of play sand (to help level the bottom of the trench you dug to lay the gutters in)
(1) bag of grass seed (to repair your lawn around the new miniature French drain)
Chapters
0:00 Intro
00:15 First Attempt
01:47 First Failure
03:23 Second Attempt
04:23 Second Failure
04:40 Third Attempt
07:01 Success!

[@CertifiedMailSignatureRequired]

finally, a real human approach to trial & error. subscribed. look forward to more videos. thanks, Reid!

[@reidthemanual]

Thanks for the support!

[@lachutequimarche8074]

You’ve benefited so many of us by showing us why you need to do each step. Thanks for this awesome tutorial! The rare Menards shoutout was nice too haha

[@reidthemanual]

Thanks for the nice comments! We all like to “Save Big Money!” ;)

[@terranceirving2961]

Towards the end of the gutter I would drill some holes so the water doesn't sit in the gutter. You will need to place a few rocks under that location so it doesn't wash out.

[@reidthemanual]

We’re on the same page. There are some pebbles and sand under the end. I didn’t have to drill holes though because the end cap is not water tight. It seems to still be working great.

[@TampaDrainDudes]

Have 811 come mark the gas line, and dig that area by hand! You could likely make it under or over with some 4inch corrugated pipe. If the gas line is close to the house, you could do a rock bed for easy percolation and then have a French drain with a blind inlet from the gas line forward! Either way, there’s hundreds of ways to redirect water away from foundation and it looks like you built an affordable system that works for you. Great job!

[@reidthemanual]

Thank you for the recommendations! I always appreciate insightful alternatives for others whose situations may not be exactly the same as mine. Question for you on the French drain: Another reason I did not pursue a buried pipe/tile system is that my neighborhood is very flat (poor natural drainage). There is a concrete gutter running down the edge of the street but it is less than 1ft below the elevation where I put in this surface drain. So, how do you typically provide an outlet for a French drain in a flat neighborhood?

[@TampaDrainDudes]

@@reidthemanual the best way is daylighting straight out, and coring or cutting through the skirt/curb. Rule of thumb is 1% slope, or down 1inch for every 10ft in length. If you can get that slope and don’t want to or can’t cut the skirt we use a popup emitter surrounded by drain rock that is about a foot deep and a foot wide. Downspouts have plenty of force to push water up and out of them and when the line isn’t heavily flowing it can still drain out of the weep hole into the rocks. We have a couple videos on a similar system!

[@ryanglaser5336]

If using stone, go with jagged type. River rock tends to migrate and drainage rock will create voids for water to move through

[@reidthemanual]

I could definitely see how jagged rock (ex: crushed granite) would stay in place better. Honestly, I went with river rock because I liked the color palette and the price! Haha My river rock has moved around a bit, but overall the drain is still doing a lot to help keep my foundation dry while avoiding any trip hazards or eyesores in the yard.

[@rjnunziante]

It appears as if the end of the gutters are closed off. Are the ends completely closed or are there perforations of some sort? If there's no way for the water to continue beyond the end of the gutter, I'd be worried about standing water in the gutter causing mosquitoes, smells, etc.

[@reidthemanual]

That’s a great point. The ends are covered with caps but not are sealed. The caps just pop on and are not perfectly water tight. The goal is to (1) keep the rock in, (2) slow down the rush of water out of the gutter so it does not erode soil around the outlet, and (3) let all water slowly drain out. If it does hold water, I will pull some rock out and drill a few holes in the bottom of the gutter at the end.

[@1timby]

Hmm, so you don't have any issues with the lawn mower picking up the stones & flinging them?

[@reidthemanual]

It’s a bit hard to see, but these rocks are slightly below the top of the grass. No mower issues so far. My primary mower for this area is a Husqvarna Automower (it cannot pick up rocks), but I also drive a zero turn riding mower over similar rocks in another area with no issues. If you want to mow directly over top of the drain, make sure the rocks are lower than the top of the ground. You don’t want the rocks touching the mower deck or blades!

[@reidthemanual]

Also, my experience has been that the smaller the rocks, the more easily they are sucked up by mowers. It’s a similar issue to the little pebbles that were carried away by flowing water. If you are concerned about mowers sucking up the rocks, use larger rocks and make sure they are recessed below the grass. And always use caution, or course. :)

[@edwardgurick5432]

3rd times a charm!

[@reidthemanual]

It’s amazing what a few mistakes can teach you! Haha

[@taytayloops]

I thought this was very helpful! I’m looking to do something similar. And even better - reading the hater comments was pretty entertaining lol these people need to get a life or go kick rocks!

[@reidthemanual]

Thanks for watching! :) It is still working perfectly!

[@jrm163]

I think what you have built works great as a French drain END, not efficient as a DRAIN. As you know, two reasons to use rocks are to slow down water and to use them as filter. Your rocks are blocking too much for the drain main channel, and probably it’s a little waste as a drain END. Good demo though !

[@reidthemanual]

Can you help me understand your terminology here? Is a “drain” for water intake and an “end” for water outlet? And are your saying this has limited intake capacity?

[@jrm163]

@@reidthemanual Yes! I’m not a pro on this, but I think that’s why French drain uses a hollow pipe instead. A pipe can discharge water fast. At the end of the discharge, we need something like rocks to slow water down and to prevent soil wash-away.

[@reidthemanual]

You’re right. On my family’s farm, we install perforated drainage tile in our fields. We typically connect the gutters of large buildings to similar drainage tile that eventually outlet in ditches, lakes, or creeks. Tile (or solid pipe if tree roots are nearby) is definitely the best way to move a large volume of water and/or move it a long distance. Funny you comment on using rocks to filter water. I actually cut that topic out of the video, but the small pebbles were not only washing away with heavy rains but also clogging up with leaf deposits that were washing out of my gutters. The larger rocks have been trouble free on both fronts. For surface drainage around my house, I really just need to get the water 5-10ft from my foundation - the slope of the ground generally takes the water after that. That’s why this miniature French drain fits my needs perfectly. Compact, affordable, and attractive (to me). The nice things is that if I need to increase the water capacity, I can just add width with a third gutter section without having to dig deeper (and risk hitting my gas line). I was thinking about someday installing a full sized French drain to drain my entire back yard, but I do not have any existing drainage pipe to connect the drain to, so I will have to have a surface outlet for the French drain. Do you know how you typically direct the buried tile/pipe back to the surface for the outlet?

[@harrybaulz666]

Bad idea

[@reidthemanual]

Care to elaborate? The final version (at the end of the video) has worked really well.

[@LaFox23]

Just pipe the downspout water away. Don’t try and make whatever this is.

[@reidthemanual]

If you have the option to route your downspouts (the vertical sections) directly into subsurface drainage tile or pipes, that is a fantastic option. It’s something I see often on newer, larger properties. Unfortunately, I have a gas line buried in this location by my house, so I was limited to surface drainage only. This rock drain has been a great improvement over the downspout extension.

[@scotschwartz4355]

French Drains are to take sub surface water, no idea what your building but its not a french drain.

[@reidthemanual]

I wish I could have installed a actual French drain along my house, but it was not possible. Whatever you call this, it has been working great! No more downspout extension and the crawl space is dryer.

[@vilo3454]

Dude this is a failed attempt….

[@reidthemanual]

Did you watch the whole video? The third version works well.