I am installing a French drain between my driveway and house. The only place to exit the French drain is on top of the driveway. However, If the end of the drain exits the driveway, this severely limits the depth of the French drain in order to ensure a slope toward the end if that makes sense.

My question is, I have seen pop up drain emitters. They basically look like a 4 inch 90 degree elbow with a top that pops up when water pressure is exerted. Will a French drain product enough pressure to force the water out of this type of emitter since water will have to travel "up hill" albeit for just the length of the elbow.

I appreciate any advice!

On Tuesday, May 12, 2015 at 8:55:19 AM UTC-4, wrote:
I am installing a French drain between my driveway and house. The only place to exit the French drain is on top of the driveway. However, If the end of the drain exits the driveway, this severely limits the depth of the French drain in order to ensure a slope toward the end if that makes sense.

My question is, I have seen pop up drain emitters. They basically look like a 4 inch 90 degree elbow with a top that pops up when water pressure is exerted. Will a French drain product enough pressure to force the water out of this type of emitter since water will have to travel "up hill" albeit for just the length of the elbow.

I appreciate any advice!

If I understand this right, the answer is no. The governing
principle here is that water has to flow from a higher place
to a lower one. If you lower the French drain at the beginning
of the run so that it's lower than the termination end at the
driveway, then water isn't going to flow, regardless of what
you put on the termination end to pop up. Addtionally, with
any pop up thing like that, if it's subject to freezing, that's
an issue too.

wrote in message ...
I am installing a French drain between my driveway and house. The only place to exit the French drain is on top of the driveway. However, If the end of the drain exits the driveway, this severely limits the depth of the French drain in order to ensure a slope toward the end if that makes sense.

My question is, I have seen pop up drain emitters. They basically look like a 4 inch 90 degree elbow with a top that pops up when water pressure is exerted. Will a French drain product enough pressure to force the water out of this type of emitter since water will have to travel "up hill" albeit for just the length of the elbow.

I appreciate any advice!

------

Can you get one and lay it out on top of the ground with a length of pipe and test it? Gut SWAG feeling is that eventually the elbow could fill up with sediment instead of flowing out horizontally. Still might be worth a try if it's not hard to remove the pop-up and clean it out once in awhile. Completely guessing with all this.

On 5/19/2015 9:40 PM, Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney wrote:
wrote in message
... I am
installing a French drain between my driveway and house. The only
place to exit the French drain is on top of the driveway. However,
If the end of the drain exits the driveway, this severely limits
the depth of the French drain in order to ensure a slope toward the
end if that makes sense.

My question is, I have seen pop up drain emitters. They basically
look like a 4 inch 90 degree elbow with a top that pops up when
water pressure is exerted. Will a French drain product enough
pressure to force the water out of this type of emitter since water
will have to travel "up hill" albeit for just the length of the
elbow.

I appreciate any advice!

------

Can you get one and lay it out on top of the ground with a length
of pipe and test it? Gut SWAG feeling is that eventually the
elbow could fill up with sediment instead of flowing out
horizontally. Still might be worth a try if it's not hard to
remove the pop-up and clean it out once in awhile. Completely
guessing with all this.


Twenty years ago I installed French drains and set up the runs so they
ran down my front slope right where the end would peek out at ground
level. Then the city rebuilt the street and sewer, during which our
front yards were torn up, then regraded and resodded. My outlets ended
up 3-6 inches below the new grade.

I located the outlets, then ran a rototiller around them and dug out
wide, gently sloped basins in the lawn to once again enable drainage.
It was either that or dig up both runs and reinstall them. This was
less work.

So, if you don't mind some unevenness in your lawn, you could dig out
wide shallow-ish basins where your French drains will end. In normal
rains, the lawn will absorb the water before the basin overflows. In
heavy rains, the basin will overflow, so factor that when figuring how
deep to dig the basin, and grade it so that the overflow drains away
from the house. I saw photos of one guy's setup where he did this, but
he made the basins into ponds, for permanent water landscape features.

"Moe DeLoughan" wrote in message ...
On 5/19/2015 9:40 PM, Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney wrote:
wrote in message
... I am
installing a French drain between my driveway and house. The only
place to exit the French drain is on top of the driveway. However,
If the end of the drain exits the driveway, this severely limits
the depth of the French drain in order to ensure a slope toward the
end if that makes sense.

My question is, I have seen pop up drain emitters. They basically
look like a 4 inch 90 degree elbow with a top that pops up when
water pressure is exerted. Will a French drain product enough
pressure to force the water out of this type of emitter since water
will have to travel "up hill" albeit for just the length of the
elbow.

I appreciate any advice!

------

Can you get one and lay it out on top of the ground with a length
of pipe and test it? Gut SWAG feeling is that eventually the
elbow could fill up with sediment instead of flowing out
horizontally. Still might be worth a try if it's not hard to
remove the pop-up and clean it out once in awhile. Completely
guessing with all this.


Twenty years ago I installed French drains and set up the runs so they
ran down my front slope right where the end would peek out at ground
level. Then the city rebuilt the street and sewer, during which our
front yards were torn up, then regraded and resodded. My outlets ended
up 3-6 inches below the new grade.

I located the outlets, then ran a rototiller around them and dug out
wide, gently sloped basins in the lawn to once again enable drainage.
It was either that or dig up both runs and reinstall them. This was
less work.

So, if you don't mind some unevenness in your lawn, you could dig out
wide shallow-ish basins where your French drains will end. In normal
rains, the lawn will absorb the water before the basin overflows. In
heavy rains, the basin will overflow, so factor that when figuring how
deep to dig the basin, and grade it so that the overflow drains away
from the house. I saw photos of one guy's setup where he did this, but
he made the basins into ponds, for permanent water landscape features.

A friend has a driveway that slopes down from the street and one side slightly slopes toward the house. There was an existing concrete ditch along the house that caught most of the water, but over time, it developed cracks. And also water was soaking into the ground higher up and getting around the ditch.

I helped install a French drain starting uphill from the concrete ditch and it worked very well.

Later he dug another shallow ditch about 6-inches or so deep around the edge of his yard and filled it with river rocks to look like a dry stream bed. Worked great diverting drainage out of the yard. After a few weeks of weathering, it was amazing how much it looked like a mountain stream when it rained.

On 5/20/2015 2:29 PM, Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney wrote:
"Moe DeLoughan" wrote in message
...
On 5/19/2015 9:40 PM, Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney wrote:
wrote in message
... I
am installing a French drain between my driveway and house. The
only place to exit the French drain is on top of the driveway.
However, If the end of the drain exits the driveway, this
severely limits the depth of the French drain in order to
ensure a slope toward the end if that makes sense.

My question is, I have seen pop up drain emitters. They
basically look like a 4 inch 90 degree elbow with a top that
pops up when water pressure is exerted. Will a French drain
product enough pressure to force the water out of this type of
emitter since water will have to travel "up hill" albeit for
just the length of the elbow.

I appreciate any advice!

------

Can you get one and lay it out on top of the ground with a
length of pipe and test it? Gut SWAG feeling is that
eventually the elbow could fill up with sediment instead of
flowing out horizontally. Still might be worth a try if it's
not hard to remove the pop-up and clean it out once in awhile.
Completely guessing with all this.


Twenty years ago I installed French drains and set up the runs so
they ran down my front slope right where the end would peek out
at ground level. Then the city rebuilt the street and sewer,
during which our front yards were torn up, then regraded and
resodded. My outlets ended up 3-6 inches below the new grade.

I located the outlets, then ran a rototiller around them and dug
out wide, gently sloped basins in the lawn to once again enable
drainage. It was either that or dig up both runs and reinstall
them. This was less work.

So, if you don't mind some unevenness in your lawn, you could dig
out wide shallow-ish basins where your French drains will end. In
normal rains, the lawn will absorb the water before the basin
overflows. In heavy rains, the basin will overflow, so factor
that when figuring how deep to dig the basin, and grade it so
that the overflow drains away from the house. I saw photos of one
guy's setup where he did this, but he made the basins into ponds,
for permanent water landscape features.

A friend has a driveway that slopes down from the street and one
side slightly slopes toward the house. There was an existing
concrete ditch along the house that caught most of the water, but
over time, it developed cracks. And also water was soaking into the
ground higher up and getting around the ditch.

I helped install a French drain starting uphill from the concrete
ditch and it worked very well.

Later he dug another shallow ditch about 6-inches or so deep around
the edge of his yard and filled it with river rocks to look like a
dry stream bed. Worked great diverting drainage out of the yard.
After a few weeks of weathering, it was amazing how much it looked
like a mountain stream when it rained.


I'm building a berm/ditch combo on the south side of my property to
deal with the so-called "storm of the century" rain events that have
now occurred four times in the past twenty-two years. The rainfall in
these storms is so tremendous, a river of rainwater pours down my
southerly (uphill) neighbor's hill, across my property, and smashes
through a basement window, resulting in an indoor waterfall down my
basement wall. The first time was an amazing fluke, I thought - but
it's happened three more times now, twice in the past five years. The
heck with it. The berm/ditch combo will keep the runoff from my
foundation and divert it to my front (downhill) yard.