Surface & French Drains
Installation of surface drains, which are catch basin with a grate over the top of them at ground level, allows surface water to flow into them. When installing this system, CGreens makes sure to use a solid pipe that runs to a lower area to discharge, such as the street or storm drains.
CGreens installs French Drains to collect subsurface water, not surface water! French Drains are a trench in the ground, lined with a GeoTech cloth that allows water but not soil to penetrate. A solid PVC pipe that has holes is placed at 5 & 7 O’Clock positions, then the trench is filled with gravel, and the cloth is folded over at ground level.
Creating this hole creates a barrier to stop water and serve as protection and a sponge to draw water away from an area that needs to be kept dry. When we install a French Drain to prevent water from penetrating under a pier and beam foundation, the drain will be at least 6 inches below the perimeter beam.
Special note* CGreens uses only SDR 35 solid, smooth bore PVC pipe. It is the same thickness as Schedule 40 pipe but is not used for pressure. Heck, you can almost drive over it! We do NOT use the black, flexible ADS rolls of pipe as it will crush very easy even when backfilling the trench!
