Do I Want a French Drain or a Trench Drain?

French drain and trench drain might sound alike, but there are some key differences between the two (and yes, they are different things). Both are used to manage excess water, often stormwater, but the distinction comes down to whether the drain is doing surface water management or subsurface water management. Here are some of the key differences:

PURPOSE AND LOCATION

French drains are installed underground and work by redirecting subsurface water awa from a specific area, such as a foundation, basement, or low point in a yard.

In contrast, trench drains are installed above ground, often in paved areas such as parking lots, driveways, or sidewalks, and are meant to manage sufface water, such as rainwater or runoff, to prevent it from pooling or flowing in an unwanted direction

DESIGN AND FUNCTION

A French drain typically consists of a perforated pipe buried in a trench filled with gravel or rock. Water seeps through the ground, enters the trench and pipe, then flows downhill and away from the problem area.

Trench drains are long, narrow channels typically lined with concrete, plastic, or other impermeable material, and often have a grate on top that surface water passes through before being directed away.

CAPACITY

A single French drain is limited in the amount of water it can handle. Effective French drain systems often include multiple branches and in some cases parallel trenches and pipes to comprehensively address subsurface water problems.

Trench drains usually handle larger volumes of water and are commonly needed to control fast-moving water to prevent flooding.

IN CONCLUSION

While they sound alike and perform similar tasks, French drains and trench drains have some key differences in how they are built, where they are built, and how they work. Despite these clear distinctions, not every scenario or application for these types of drains is simple to diagnose and solve. A qualified outdoor drainage specialist can work with you to determine the best way to address your needs.

4 Reasons Winter is a Great Time for Yard Drainage Projects

Many people consider spring to be the season of yardwork and improvements. But when it comes to residential drainage, including french drain installation and catch basins, as well as drainage system repair, here are 4 reasons why working on these items in winter could be a great idea for you.

Avoid interrupting optimal grass growing season

While it’s done in the name of progress, we still get a little sad when we have to dig holes in healthy, thriving turfgrass. In the winter, warm weather grasses like bermuda and zoysia can be easily replaced with dormant sod. This means that when the growing season arrives, everything is ready to green up together. And for cool season grasses like fescue, growth slows in the colder winter months, which means you won’t disrupt the fast growth of spring and fall.

Problems are easier to identify and isolate

With cooler temperatures and more rainfall, the chances of an accurate drainage system assessment and diagnosis go up, and your ability to show a professional drainage contractor any problem areas is much higher. Turf that is growing quickly in season, dry surface conditions, and warm temperatures can mask many problems

Work could be cheaper and be done sooner

Many residential drainage contractors are heavily booked during the peak spring and summer seasons. By the time you call for an appointment, you might be looking at weeks or even months before they can get to your job. Pricing during these times is often the highest of the year due to high demand. For work being completed in winter, ask your professional drainage installer about any off-season discounts or promotions.

You aren’t using your yard anyway

For many, winter is not the preferred time to be outside enjoying patios, decks, pools, and yards. There may not be a better time to take your yard out of commission than the months it’s not in use…so that when you actually want to be outside, all the work is done.

Why “Scalping” Your Bermuda or Zoysia Lawn is Important

If you want a beautiful bermuda or zoysia lawn this summer, you need to “scalp” it this spring. Normally, people think of “scalping” a lawn as something bad that happens when your mower blades are dull, set too low, or when you have uneven terrain causing the mower to bottom out and take off the entire plant. The same things that make scalping bad in the middle of the summer (taking the entire plant off) is what makes it essential in spring maintenance.

Check out the photo above. Your lawn probably looks like the right half of the photo. Crank your mower down to the lowest possible setting and mow the whole thing so it looks like the left side of the photo. Bag the clippings and get rid of them. Yes, this will take a long time, and you’ll need to figure out what to do with likely dozens of bags of yard waste, but it’s worth it. Tempting as it may be, don’t use a mulch setting…that’s for later in the year and it would defeat the purpose of all the hard work you’re doing to scalp. You want this organic material GONE!

This guidance applies ONLY to bermuda, zoysia, and hybrid varieties of warm-weather grasses. This does NOT apply to fescue, rye, blue, and other varieties of cool-weather grasses. If you scalp those, you’ve likely killed them.  

Scalping bermuda cleans up dormant turf and gets that extra material off of your lawn so it can’t form a thatch layer or impede growth of new grass. It also exposes the soil to more sunlight and warmth, helping to promote earlier growth and green-up. When bermuda grass turns green, it’s because new plants have come in, it’s not a transformation of the existing dormant stalks. They are completely replaced. Scalping helps get them out of the way more quickly.

Don’t scalp too early. The danger of a freeze must be behind you, otherwise those delicate new plants that you’ve worked so hard to coax out of the ground will be damaged if the temperatures dip. Late March through April is a fairly safe bet in North Carolina.

After scalping, plan to mow every week or two as the grass comes in, which will promote healthy horizontal growth that fills bare areas and won't brown when you mow it low later in the year.

What Is a French Drain?

A french drain is a simple but extremely effective way to direct water on a course you choose. Most commonly used by homeowners in grass and garden settings, a french drain consists of a small trench, ideally dug with a contractor-grade trenching machine and lined with landscape fabric, and a perforated, corrugated pipe that runs the length of the trench. During installation, once the pipe is properly situated, the trench is typically filled with gravel, rocks, and/or dirt, and then covered in a manner of the homeowner's choosing - including grass/turf.

Many drainage problems are caused by ground water having no place to go once it has reached a roadblock or a low point. The french drain gives the water an easy path of egress, as the water permeates the rock and pipe and drains in whatever direction the drain is pointing. French drains do not help with surface water directly, though they do collect and direct water once it penetrates the surface and becomes groundwater.

Some people use the need for a french drain as an opportunity to install custom high-end rock and creek beds for an upscale designer touch. These hard landscape features are both beautiful and functional.

While no french drain (or any solution short of a dome for that matter) can guarantee a fully dry yard immediately after a major downpour, a properly installed french drain will ensure that water does not accumulate in low spots, corners, or against your home's foundation, and that your outdoor spaces are livable and usable to the greatest possible degree.