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Curved french drain ideas

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770yardGuy

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Looking to tackle this 20 ft curved section coming off patio which has soil erosion over time (1st two pic) but has been widen and started to re-grade the area. This challenge is rain water comes off this patio onto the area where the grass should be growing and now I need to put in a french drain or so my logic goes. Ideally it would be on lower expensive side of things with EZ-Drain Prefabricated French Drain with Pipe or 5 in. Pro Series Channel Drain 6° Bend Qwik-Turn Deep Profile Radius coupling but those are not in stock anywhere.. Other ideas welcomed
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Discussion starter · #3 ·
The catch basin is certainly one idea I am considering which I like because I can shoot the water down the hill into my woods. Challenge is that I might need more than one because all the rain comes off the patio pavers and onto those steps.
 
#4 ·
Basin drains made from 4" thinwall pvc. They can be hooked up in series for this situation. I would not install a french drain here. Home Depot should have everything you need for parts to build this out.
 
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#5 ·
whats the square footage of the patio? Does part of the roof drain on the patio? A pic or two looking at the patio and house would help.
 
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#6 ·
I would probably suggest a rock border with landscape river rock around the patio. Install drain tile (what you are calling a French drain) under the rock. I would dig out a trench the width of the border around 8” deep and line it with ty-par. Lay the 4” tile on bottom and fill it with3/4” white rock. Then lay the landscape rock on top of the 3/4” rock, no fabric between. The look should match your patio, and it will act as a channel drain without looking like one. Carry the water away from the 4” tile with a 5” or 6” line if you have a very big collection area.
 
#7 ·
Slow the flow. I think that is a better option than French drain here. French drains are good for pooling water IMO completely worthless on slopes. As already suggested catch basins maybe a few in tandem with rigid 4 to 5” pvc buried and shooting it off and away after the slope. Done this tons of times in the past with very good results.
 
Discussion starter · #9 ·
J. Baker said:
I would probably suggest a rock border with landscape river rock around the patio. Install drain tile (what you are calling a French drain) under the rock. I would dig out a trench the width of the border around 8” deep and line it with ty-par. Lay the 4” tile on bottom and fill it with3/4” white rock. Then lay the landscape rock on top of the 3/4” rock, no fabric between. The look should match your patio, and it will act as a channel drain without looking like one. Carry the water away from the 4” tile with a 5” or 6” line if you have a very big collection area.
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Was think about rock today so that is spot on
 
Discussion starter · #10 ·
Rick1111 said:
Slow the flow. I think that is a better option than French drain here. French drains are good for pooling water IMO completely worthless on slopes. As already suggested catch basins maybe a few in tandem with rigid 4 to 5” pvc buried and shooting it off and away after the slope. Done this tons of times in the past with very good results.
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will take some pics in am but the buried basins tied together shooting water into woods and then with rock on top is the way I am leaning + its cost reasonable
 
#12 ·
I’ve put rock over 3 basins (tandem attached with rigid pvc to a drain out into my front lawn about 100ft away) in my own lawn top side that gets a lot of drainage as we are the lowest lawn. I put 2 layers of the fiber commercial webbing fabric then about 4” of limestone gravel on top. 8 years later still working fine.
 
#13 ·
Holy crap that is a horrible installation. What happened? The lowest course of block should be at least 4 inches buried, ideally completely buried for a fancy stairway installation like that. And no gravel footing?!
That's not erosion, that's just a horrible installation bound to fail miserably.
But maybe you did it yourself. I would still say the same thing.
 
#14 ·
Rick1111 said:
I’ve put rock over 3 basins (tandem attached with rigid pvc to a drain out into my front lawn about 100ft away) in my own lawn top side that gets a lot of drainage as we are the lowest lawn. I put 2 layers of the fiber commercial webbing fabric then about 4” of limestone gravel on top. 8 years later still working fine.
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Just for clarity, I wasn’t suggesting that it wouldn’t work. Just that for the area of runoff he has, a drain along the whole patio would be better. With a dry well, all the water has to flow to it. I’d rather not cover a dry well with rock. Kind of defeats its purpose IMHO. But yes, it will function fine that way.
 
Discussion starter · #16 ·
Hayduke said:
Holy crap that is a horrible installation. What happened? The lowest course of block should be at least 4 inches buried, ideally completely buried for a fancy stairway installation like that. And no gravel footing?!
That's not erosion, that's just a horrible installation bound to fail miserably.
But maybe you did it yourself. I would still say the same thing.
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It came with the house, so who knows if it was a professional or homeowner but its a large area that was done so my guess it was a pro. This is something like 10 years in the making, but your correct in the assessment that was was bound to fail which is why I am jumping on it now. Its either I tear it out and re-do it correctly or try a different approach. Good news is that I have plenty of dirt to built it back up (latest pics are about 10 full wheelbarrows) and figure I have another 5-10 to go, then run the trench (lower cost + lower effort) and get the water flow off this area and into the woods.
 
Discussion starter · #17 ·
Current plan, not sure I need 3 basin drains but from watching it over the weekend in the heavy rain there are 3 places the water is coming off the pavers. Both the ends which is minor and then one in the middle where its heavy flow which for sure needs a catch basin. The middle area of the pavers is where all the prior erosion is occurring and creates a mud swamp that then rolls down the hill. Figure a few more wheelbarrows of dirt to build up will help plus raise up the trench level a few more inches is not a bad thing..
 

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#18 ·
I would use 2 4" pvc drain lines. One to capture run off from the hill and one for the patio. It might be overkill but I'd want to make sure this was fixed right. If the base of the steps is a single course of block, make sure when its graded to get as much dirt as you can covering the base of the block(atleast 2 inches).
 
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Discussion starter · #19 ·
Scott87 said:
I would use 2 4" pvc drain lines. One to capture run off from the hill and one for the patio. It might be overkill but I'd want to make sure this was fixed right. If the base of the steps is a single course of block, make sure when its graded to get as much dirt as you can covering the base of the block(atleast 2 inches).
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I was thinking along those lines as well and then would run then into a single line into the woods
 
#20 ·
J. Baker said:
Just for clarity, I wasn’t suggesting that it wouldn’t work. Just that for the area of runoff he has, a drain along the whole patio would be better. With a dry well, all the water has to flow to it. I’d rather not cover a dry well with rock. Kind of defeats its purpose IMHO. But yes, it will function fine that way.
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I wasn’t even thinking that I was meaning it that way or at least didn’t mean to come across that way I was just sharing something that I had done to my own property and did work to solve the issue. No problem I was just sharing what had worked for me. Probably a dozen or so viable different options to remediate the OPs issue.
 
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