I am looking to build a French drain along the side of my property. The previous owner put a concrete path at side of the property. This blocked the airbricks, so I had to remove the concrete path. I was told to dig down 150mm from the top of the airbricks. I have never set up a French drain before. Should I try to create a slope with the existing soil that slopes away from the property? Should I have the drain at the far right of the path? Effectively next to my neighbours fence. Due to the path being so narrow, it is quite tricky seeing if it is level. I am looking to put gravel down once I have set up the drain. Any advice would be appreciated. I have attached a picture of the path. Thanks Andrew
First consideration is where is your french drain going to drain to? Will it be a soakaway or a ditch for example. French drains a re really for catching surface water as the backfill is open to the surface. They don't normally lose much water out the base and of course you should have a perforated say 80mm dia pipe installed at the base sitting on say 50mm pea shingle. Is your path going to be shingle right across, in which case set the perforated drain in a roughly 300mm wide by 300mm deep trench with a slight fall to the outlet. Alternatively if you wanted a hard path down the side forget the french drain and install drainage channel to pick up the surface water and convey to outfall.
Drainage channel is a better option or Aco HexDrain Brickslot Channel down fence side, less obtrusive. http://www.aco.co.uk/product_detail.php?id=11
Thanks for the advice. I would go for the most simplistic option as I have never built one before. I can drain the water off to the front or rear of the path. I will have to decide on this. Digging it out by myself has been time consuming, but it near enough level now. I may need to dig out a trench element though from the sounds of it.
This is a video I took of the path. Should make understanding the task I am faced with easier. Thanks Andrew
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