On Nov 4, 1:57*am, Edward Reid
wrote:
Is there ever a reason to have a French drain with no outlet, or with
an outlet that's higher than the collector in the drain? This is in
Florida -- north Florida, but still very sandy soil.

To make a long story very short, I've discovered that's what I have
around my house. I had realized for a while that there must not be a
down-sloped outlet -- that would require ground slope which isn't
present. There's an outlet from the French drain around the
foundation, but it rises at least a foot, making the outlet about the
level of the top of the highest part of the French drain. To make it
worse, the gutter drain Y-s into the French drain outlet about 6' from
the house, in such a way that the gutter drain can feed back into the
French drain, and probably does.

The French drain probably isn't needed anyway. Almost certainly isn't.
But why it's there is part of the long story.

Anyway, if there's any excuse at all for this French drain, I'd like
to know before I start shooting my mouth off. OK, before I continue
shooting my mouth off.

Edward

Contractor that did the foundation probably just put it in without
paying much attention to where it ended. Someone else then hooked the
gutters to it. You're right, there is no temporary repeals of the law
of gravity when it comes to water. You could dig up the of that goes
out into the yard and bury it deeper with a some gravel at the
outlet. But I would take the gutters off of it. Unless you make a
really big drywell it will not be able to keep up and you will be
running the water back around the foundation.