Which is Better, French Drain or Downspout Drain? Which Solves More Problems?

[@edseventyeight6749]

Chuck, can't thank you enough for your videos. We just bought a house in the mountains. Between signing and moving in there were a few days of heavy rain. We now have a major washout that cuts through the gravel driveway and carries all the way through the side yard. Thanks to your videos we have a good idea of how to prevent that from happening again.

[@thomasmorrison3279]

Took me about 3 weeks part time working 2 hours per day to hand dig 3 long trenches for downspout pipes, e.g., 120 feet. I had to use a chain saw and sawzall to cut tree roots along the paths. Good video.

[@martinbateman2467]

2 people (wife and myself), 8 days for 150m of perforated and backfilled with stone in clay.....thankfully, I hired a trencher and widened by hand. Just need to get a rotary harrow to level things now....thanks for all your tips

[@maheshrajannan3416]

As long as a home owner you are prepared in some method to take rainwater away from the house, the method you choose does not matter. I live in Illinois and corrugated pipes do not last long. Plus given that labor is 90% of cost, use at least 3” Sch 40 PVC . Keep in mind once you bury the pipes , it’s hard to add more joints. So plan more capacity of pipes. Next , drain to dry well and connect to day light if you do not have much slope.

[@johnwhite2576]

Why no catch basins/distribution channels, esp with these long lines how do you avoid these getting clogged up? ESPECIALLY as you are using non smooth corrugated pipe ? How do you maintain your slope consistently and completely with flex corrugated pipe ??!!

[@frankgrant4784]

No, No, No, never use 3" or 4" diameter flexpipe! Use PVC SCH 40, or SDR 35 solid pipe instead. Corrigated only collects leaves and tree needles which serve to clog the pipe in time. Also glue your PVC don't use the "snap" together ADS flexpipe because in time the roots get into the joints between the fittings and the pipe. Also drain students never use regular" tees. Instead you will get much better flow by using a "Y" instead of the tee. If for some reason you have to use ADS flex drain pipe then at least wrap the fittings with 2" #10 mill black plastic plumbers tape.

[@b.b.finsclara3589]

I feel i must agree w/U due to my hard earned lessons w/my house. You give wise input!!! Thanks

[@Prairie_Barbarian]

Wye's over tee's all day long. Not only they flow better but they can produce a scavenging effect on the trunk line. But having tried both kinds of pipe for gutter drains, I remain on team corrugated over PVC because it produces more turbulence than smooth pipe. I've had better luck with corrugated when it comes to hard gutter debris but I certainly would not use it on my sewer system.

[@sprankthetank]

Make ur own video then, and stop trying to crap on everyone else

[@citticat2]

I just installed a drain to my downspout using this method - hope the tubing lasts.

[@staiacolo]

what if it clogs? Can`t see any openings for declogging interventions.

[@alexanderchenf1]

What if I want to lay down a concrete drive way on top of the downspout drain afterwards?

[@alchemista2]

why didn't you put any aggregate below and around the drain? and why didn't you seal the Ts? I had roots get into the tiny crack on a non-sealed T, grow and complete block up the drain

[@tbarbuto2345]

What function would the aggregate serve? The pipes are solid not perforated.

[@alchemista2]

@@tbarbuto2345 reduces the sediment and root growth against the pipe. Sealing the Ts with tape or similar is extremely important, it's why my drainage system failed when roots grew in since the last installer didn't do something as simple as that.

[@tbarbuto2345]

@@alchemista2 completely agree on sealing the connections. Didn't know aggregate reduced root growth.

[@riumudamc4686]

Don't the roots enter the system at the joints of the pipe and fittings?

[@maplenook]

If so rent snake

[@missme1848]

How do roots and leaves not clog the drain?

[@azulgaia7782]

how do you know if you have enough slope? and you don't have dips and rises along the way? also, when you flood the sidewalk next to a retaining wall with very little slope to road, is that dangerous, and will i now have to drain under the sidewalk and drill a hole through the curb?

[@thomaswhudson]

This might be a dumb question but how do you know if you have it sloped enough to go to the road?

[@craigkeller]

Water is happy to run down a slope of 1/8” per foot of run. 1/4” per foot is better.

[@madcowusa4277]

Think I'd prefer 4" glued PVC instead of that weak black corrugated pipe, I dunno, never had an issue with PVC but have ripped up several flattened, crushed, root and mud filled black flex pipe installs at my rentals. We get almost 80" of rain/year here (western WA Pacific coast).

[@SheenaRea]

Absolutely fantastic. I just have a question: At 9:50, am I correct that there is NO drain under those walk pavers, but the drain is connected to the two downspouts off to the other side? Love how you show this in detail. Many thanks!

[@Racontact]

have you ever done trenching with a power washer? I've done it a few times man and it saves your back. especially hopeful when your back feeling with gravel

[@peterviveka41]

Hi Chuck, thanks for the great videos and tips. I was thinking of installing a French drain around my house which is a split level design and is slope down from the front of my house. Could you please recommend how far should I install it from the house wall or the foundation? Thanks heaps.

[@wudger901]

Chuck-have you French drained all the homes in FL and started moving up north!? Great!

[@nole8923]

Laying some pipe. We used to use that term in college but it meant something else. 🤣

[@maplenook]

Can we take that water to back yard ?

[@tonyp6631]

I am going to run a similar setup for my house. I live in upstate ny. Do i need to go down 3ft like we do posts here to prevent upheaval? Or are drains more stable? Also if i have ground water, do i need to run another line for groundwater as well as a catch for downspouts? I plant to ad a sump basin and run to street as well

[@prettygirlus9008]

Do you have any negative slope for the downspout drains. I ran three downspouts about 40 feet each to the street with 2 inch negative slope per ten feet.

[@hilltopmachineworks2131]

Curious of that too. You would think you would need some sort of drop.

[@lettingthebearout7528]

How do you know you have the correct angle of decline for the trench and pipe?

[@forevertexas76008]

Use a level every two feet or so. The bubble should move in the correct direction ever so slightly providing you with a consistent decline to the popup or whatever is at the end of the pipe.

[@jnxythemouse]

but we still never answered the question here. I have a slanted yard. i halfway in stalled a 12 foot section that needs to be 25. I am testing it. Gravel system with mildly self drilled corragated pipe as a side yard drain that also has a downspout connection. (taking in back water before i ajusted the downspouts and added the trench.) hasnt rained to hard to tell but I am thinking of changing to a solid pipe until most of the way around the house (very slanted down to the back yard)

[@Z-Ack]

Looks like itll leak at the catch basins with the slice cut and no sealer.. also what happens if a pipe clogs? You dont put in clean outs at every downspout? And the T fittings wouldnt let a cleaner go anywhere if cleaned from the basins.. plus no duct tape or anything but the snap action holding those fitting connections together would come apart if not on its own but if you cleaned it out in the future.. With a run that long out to the sidewalk, do you all grade the trench down 2 inches per few feet like sewer pipe so the water will drain and not pool up in a tube? Or do the catch basins have pumps in em to push the water out? Id say itd stink pretty good right by that door with 2 basins with standing water and rotting leaves in em...

[@LarsonFishing]

I’m going to do something like this around my house since I’m missing some gutters and can’t get anyone out to put them up on my two story home. I don’t have fascia either and I just had my shingles replaced I would rather not screw straps on my shingles. Any thoughts on the correct drain methodology, I was thinking corrugated slotted pipe with rock and a sleeve like a burrito 😆can I get your professional thoughts on the correct drainage methods and products to use for this. Thank you in advance! 🙏🏼

[@mianaomipost9885]

Love this channel

[@afura1987]

I need an estimate, I am having drainage problems.

[@ejshelby5460]

What happens if we use perforated pipe, or, if I accidentally dug into a pipe and punched it? Is that a big deal of some water leaking into the surrounding soil

[@andrewmccarthy4859]

Hello Chuck and everyone at Apple Drains, Thanks for the videos and all the great tips. I recently put drainage in my daughter's garden after watching your vids. The results are amazing. My grandchildren now have a fabulous space to play. Max respect, Andy (UK) 🍻

[@johnbedell2376]

Hi Chuck! Do you know any SE Michigan companies you could refer for this sort of work?

[@Athletesperformance1]

Using Ts, no gutter clean out and no tape to secure the connections and protect from leaks...

[@josuerobles2677]

Do u recommend someone in texas?

[@mikebolt9753]

i have a patio 9 meters wide which is level going across. how do i pitch a storm drain across it as it will no longer be flush with the patio

[@danzigii8342]

I need help chuck I put in a Ez flow French drain but there is no where I can outlet the water . Plus my soil is clay! Water comes in my yard from next door property . Water pulls up when it rains heavy it drains but when it’s raining it fill up heavy and floods my whole yard . I don’t know what the heck to do

[@MarsKvaratskhelia]

It would be my question I have two downspouts at the back of the house and my back of the house is second flood from front and first floor from the back I built it on slope rock I know I need to let it go outside but should I also run French French rain besides solid downspout pipes for roof rain? Or one pipe can do both ?

[@edithflood631]

Never direct water you have already caught in a gutter or down pipe into a French drain pipe. But you can direct water caught in a French drain into a solid pipe to take the water away. That type of home is called a split level, same as mine. Single storey at rear, looks like two storey from front. I have a similar situation. This is how I plan to deal with it... Two down pipes at rear, groundwater naturally seeps toward back wall of house ( the single level ). The downspouts need to be directed far away from the rear of the house off the the sides and down hill using preferably solid 4” DWV pipe. I have flooding across a back paved area, so I have to install a channel drain parallel to my rear wall but further out on the edge of the paving or diagonally across a corner of the paving depending on the fall, which will link up with one or both of my (above mentioned) DWV pipes using a sanitary Y. Another option would be a French drain across say, the back lawn, again parallel to the rear of the house but several metres out from it, (if I had lawn running right up to the back wall, I would put the French drain there at the foundation) which could again hook into the DWV pipe to take any unseen groundwater away. Finally due to the slope on one side of my spilt level home, I have to address water coming toward my side wall foundation from one of those slopes. Again, taking my gutter downspout water clean away from the sides is first priority, then to address surface runoff attacking the sides, either spoon or channel drains, or landscaping to create fall away from one side is another option, but bitumen rubber paint on the wall & footing and French drain butt up against the outside foundation is called for to address persistent groundwater movement which any surface solutions cannot stop. Last line of defense against groundwater movement is a French drain under the house in the crawl space with catch basin and pump. In a split level home with different rooms and layout underneath, that will have to done in sections where the worst problem is. On the positive side, plenty of natural slope on a split level site for all these solutions to work with.

[@ohiomack]

What if you don't have a trencher

[@richardp2267]

With the rain chain basin or catch, is there enough water in there left to create a mosquito attraction?

[@thomaslgrice]

The "catch basin" was a section of culvert that has no bottom. With some rock fill there would be less than a gallon of water that didn't drain through the corrugated which would drain into the soil beneath.

[@butnino2007]

thanks lot for the video quick question how dep you dug

[@rudolfrojas]

Wondering why you didn't elaborate on the end point of the pipe. My thinking would have been to add a popup as an elegent finish. As it stands now, the water will just pour out and possibly erode the yard and go over the sidewalk. In the northern cold climes this would not be a feasible end, as it would ice up sidewalk.

[@GMan-yv8cb]

I'm not sold on pop-ups! Northern climates - freezing, controlling water flow (as you pointed out) and SNOW - Both naturally fallen, and SHOVELED Deposits! These 'professional' videos never address that!

[@smjastrzebski]

Chuck, is it OK to connect a French drain system to discharge through the same pipe as the downspout drains that go out to the street, or is that a no no? (Curious if the downspout drains would force their way out of the French drain pipe due to the pressure from the downspouts.) Thanks for the great content! 👍

[@GMan-yv8cb]

THIS IS NOT CHUCK - OR ANY OTHER DRAINAGE PROFESSIONAL From all that I'VE seen (and/or read), you CAN tie the 'drain' portions (solid pipes) portions together. As long as you have proper 'fall' from the 'collection' areas. (The gutters and perforated pipes). I wouldn't feed any gutter water into the French Drain's collection section.

[@francoisstrydom9329]

I have done many drainage installations, with the sand soil your going to be back to clean the pipes. Why don't you use bidim and stones with your installation?

[@radio-active8843]

It's non-perforated pipe.

[@francoisstrydom9329]

Yes sorry about that, it's my fault. I saw it afterwards, watched without sound at first. Now it makes sense, great job! I love the Ditch Witch, it makes a job much easier.

[@kevinpeters1944]

I’m in MI so freezing is a factor, but my sprinkler guy helped me bury my downspouts just 10-15ft from my house. I’m now starting to consider moving them even further like this. Is it needed to take the water this far away?

[@on4acres]

Depends on how sloped your yard is. If you have a decent slope than that shouldn’t be a problem.

[@jimbeck6093]

Chuck chuck chuck, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE show you work in action!! Please!!

[@jimbohnenkamp5082]

The rain chain was featured on Ask This Old House a few years ago. It seems like a 'least of all evils' solution when nothing else works. It isn't particularly precise. It seems like builders should not create a situation like that.

[@sluggonotnancy6178]

Agree....that just seems....dumb.

[@LichaelMewis]

No freezing issues with that water discharging on the sidewalk?

[@dpeagles]

Not in Florida. What about rain from driveway? It freezes too.

[@lifeisgood070]

@@dpeagles In other areas of the country freezing rain is common. The driveway won't ice over as bad if it's just water from the sky, but if there's additional flow and say it's 40F in the upper atmosphere where the rain cloud is, but 20F at ground zero, more water = a bigger ice problem. He probably didn't know this was Florida. It would be more of a problem in NC, PA, Michigan, etc.

[@buddys7099]

Chuck, I am sure that after 30 years you can eye the grade and know its good. What would say to someone whose eye isn't so calibrated? Why is the best way to be certain that your grade is falling away from the house?

[@FloridaFrank2010]

I too am jealous of Chuck's ability to just see grade - something I struggled with. In my case, a DeWalt DW088LG self leveling green laser on a tripod works great near dusk - then just use a stick with gradations on it to find your low/high spots.

[@MooseTurder]

I used 50 ft clear 1/2 tubing filled it with water and a couple drops of red food coloring to make a water level and did each section of my yard making sure it was slightly lower than the previous

[@marlboromatt5656]

I use a water level. I bought a 100 foot clear plastic tube on Amazon and then hooked it to a water bottle and put a tape measure on a pole . Total cost about $25.00 and I am more accurate than my neighbors $1000 laser.

[@thomasmorrison3279]

You can purchase a 4 foot or 6 foot long level and make sure you are sloping slightly based on the bubble location.

[@lifeisgood070]

@@MooseTurder You fill the water level like 75% full? just wanted to say seriously thank you. I had a grade problem in a really really tricky location and I'm going to try this technique. I have 2 swales coming in and the right and left are both bumpy. Can't wait to try this water level technique to figure out how I should fix the grade.

[@Stratacaster5]

Great video! Has anyone ever told you that you sound like Tom Petty?

[@janehop]

Loved Tom Petty....

[@ccpanel]

need belt hook for that saw

[@martinfabian398]

Hi Chuck, your videos are very informative and full of knowledge. I'm planning to do myself a french drain around my house. I'm fully confident that I can do it. Can I ask you a question? I live up north in Canada where we have long and freezing winters. Would you recommend to use a solid PVC pipe instead of corrugated pipe that you use in your video? Thank you.

[@tnt666tnt]

I am Ontario, I did all corrugated pipe a few years ago. most of them froze the first year . last year and this year I've been doing solid pipe and havent had an issue since

[@martinfabian398]

@@tnt666tnt Hi Chris, thanks for your response. Did the corrugated pipe crack as well? Did you replace it with PVC? Do you used outdoor sump pump as well?

[@robw1031]

Basements in Orlando, who'd a thunk.

[@gassimahmed]

hi Chuck - how come you didn't use gravel in this drainage solution?

[@gassimahmed]

never mind - now i see that we are simply moving drainage from down spouts away from the house and not doing any other type of collection with the piping.

[@deborahplyler6528]

Thank you sharing I am going to install one in front yard

[@michaelreed9652]

Good Tips

[@dylanhausinger5317]

When the hell did chuck get a tattoo? Lol

[@rosalio484]

I think it’s a lot of water for 4in pipe. I would have done 6” as main line

[@Alex.AL_26]

I was thinking the same thing, but that looks like a very small house so it wont be catching alot of water anyway. Around here we use 6 or even 8 inch pipe for downspout drains since many houses are 8,000-12,000 square feet.

[@254JROCK]

This guy saved that house great job. So calm & cool 😎 also

[@kunlunlu7672]

You are amazing!!!

[@andrewsoots3562]

One pipe is not enough to take all that water 1 inch of rain per 1000 sq ft of space = close to 400 gal of water and a roof makes it flow very fast

[@JoseOrtiz-zx8sf]

Is that legal, to have a drain pipe where the water will exit over a sidewalk ? :). You better pray that it doesn't freeze if in cold weather and someone falls and sues you.

[@angellas.1314]

This is in FL!

[@RickKerr]

Better flow with PVC and doesn't trap debris

[@Active1237]

When the water goes out to the street and then freezes in the winter doesn't that create a ice car skidding problem?

[@alchemista2]

these guys are in Florida - probably nothing they have to think about :)

[@hilariacruz8565]

ur video is getting me very dizzy

[@Thebeautiful11]

You're not concerned that cutting those tree roots kills those trees?

[@getupandgetgoing]

guy lays more pipe than Ron Jeremy

[@oldmannt]

get sick after watch this video, you need to stablelize the video

[@appledrains]

Thanks for your input!