french drain and dry well.3GP

Short Clip of the french drain just installed in my back yard in Virginia Beach VA. The yard was always soggy and muddy for weeks after a good rain, hopefully this will solve the problem.

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Howto & Style

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• home video

[isacl01]

I just used a shovel and post hole digger (aka knuckle busters).

[isacl01]

I posted this video to help other people figure out how they would tackle a similar project. There's lots of means for dealing with excess water. I got most of my ideas from watching videos on U-tube, and just hoped I could do the same for someone else.

[pldehoff]

To follow up: Even if the well pipe is solid, I strongly suspect that there is no annular ring, so the water in the dry well can flow around the well pipe and into the water table w/out soil filtration. This is one of the reasons that wells (permitted) have annular rings from grade down several feet.

I do understand the reasons for digging the well where you have already dug a hole but, unless you're in the boondocks, you may want to consider plugging the well and digging it somewhere else.

[isacl01]

To answer your question, there is fabric in the trench, and around the pipe. The Dry well doesn't go all the way down to the true water table. I just goes deep enough to let all the surface water dissipate. On any given day the water probably still passes through several feet of soil before it reaches a water source.

Honestly, after doing all the digging on this thing last year and seeing how well its performed; the thought of plugging it is probably the stupidest idea I've heard.

[benhinote69]

It's amazing that all of you people actually think these work. Check out AAA home draiange. He has some videos on here. And his website teaches you how to make real french drains and drywells. Trust me they are the only ones that work.

[isacl01]

The drain is working awesome, we recently got 13 inches of rain in less than 24 hours for hurricane Irene, and the day after my yard was back to normal, the dry well filled up for a little bit but after couple hours all that water filtered back in to the water table.

This system works great.

[pldehoff]

I was only referring to plugging the hole made by the solid wall pipe that goes directly into the water table, not filling in the rest of the dry well. Sorry for the confusion.

Contaminating your local water table with surface runoff (it goes around the outside of the solid pipe) matters only if you care about the health of your neighbors. I agree that filling the entire dry well would be foolish.

Excellent job overall.

Curious: how did you dig your water well? (center solid pipe)

[pldehoff]

The system looks well thought out overall. Good use of fabric around the pipe. Though I am not sure if you said the landscape fabric was around the around the trench.

Only real issue I can see is that draining surface water directly into the water table is a bad idea as this contaminates the local ground water. In this case with the crap from the roof and the organisms in the rainwater. Ideally, the water should go through the A layer of the soil, if possible, to decontaminate.

[wisprworld]

Continuation: I made the angle so all the water from the patio drains inside the french drain hole where the pipes lead all the way to rain barrel. The hole for the perforated pipes is about 3F deep about 20" wide and 60F long. That's a lot of F@%#$G digging. You would think lifting 52 Driveway pavers would be hard try digging a hole size of your self that's 5F wide. How ever it's done now and I will post video of how I did it. How ever you were my inspiration on these project. Thanks!!

[wisprworld]

Just letting you know that I have follow your example. I have used probably 25 bags of river rock 1 ton of gravel and 52, 2 by 2 F driveway pavers. Also used about 4 12F pipes. I actually made my patio on the angle and put a lot of tarp underneath so water does not go trough. Did that all around the house. Got probably most advance water system in the neighborhood. lol. I dig a hole about 7F deep and about 5F wide for the 300 gallon rain barrel. Connected 1 of the down spouts to it.