French Drain Designs

French Drain Designs and Installation in Los Angeles, Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, Long Beach, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, & Surrounding Areas.

Using French drains around your property is a common and practical way to help you protect your home from water intrusion problems. When designing a French drain system, the main thing that is taken into consideration is how to keep the water flowing using gravity. By creating a trench dug exponentially at ¼” depth per every foot of linear pipe installation, water will surely be carried away from your home and to the street, where it belongs. There are definitely other places that the water can travel to in order to make better use of the water. But the main goal in a French drain design is to prevent water from sitting in any place adjacent to your home.

Sitting water can cause a lot of damage to your property. A well design French drain system will help to correct any problem that rainwater may cause. Water problems may also come from poor lawn irrigation and soil erosion.

Some problems that water can cause include a cracking concrete footing in the foundation of your home as well as causing the soil under your home to shrink or expand with becoming wet and dry. This will cause your home to shift or settle, which will make the wood floors in your home become unleveled.

French drains usually come in plastic or clay. They are perforated pipes that are set with filter cloth usually 2’ below the surface. It is then backfilled with gravel. Many homes have gravel trails around the planters surrounding the perimeter of the home. These are usually the gravel-filled French drain systems. When designing a French drain system, homeowners will have many options as to what the final installation will look like. Aside from gravel, one many choose to set it with rocks or other kind of loose-packing material. The overall goal is to allow water to seep through and to set a nice look for your yard or area around the home.