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Una

(Una) wrote:
Roof gutters and French drains are alternative, not complimentary
solutions. Roof gutters are a maintenance nuisance, and they aren't
very satisfactory in climates where rainfall has a monsoon pattern
(short, heavy showers).

Edward Reid wrote:
I hear you, but in my case it's clearly essential to get most of the
roof runoff away from the house.

I agree. What I am saying is that a French drain would serve well for
that. The thing you have, that was supposed to be a French drain, is
not one. It is a long skinny underground reservoir.

I just don't believe there's enough slope to move the water away from
the house once it hits the ground. If it goes into the French drain,
it's something like 18"-24" underground. Even if the exit hadn't been
installed uphill, what was the choice? A leach field? The bottom of
the French drain is possibly lower than the ditch, and certainly not
enough above it for proper flow. It has no place to exit.

They put corrugated plastic 18-24 inches down? No wonder the job went
over budget. That is far too deep. Good news is, it means you have
a lot of room to raise the drain tile to nearer the surface under the
drip line, and have a good slope down to the conduit leading away from
the house. It would be less work though to abandon the underground
stuff and build a ground surface channel from the downspouts to the
ditch. You can make the channel look like a stream bed, if you like
that sort of thing in a garden.

Una