How a French Drain System can Prevent a Dry Creek Bed Failure

How a French Drain System can Prevent a Dry Creek Bed Failure

Dry Creek beds. I am all for dry creek beds as long as they’re built correctly.

Now, this is a dry creek bed that they did not ditch.  And what I mean by that is they just laid some rock in a swale.  Pine needles, leaves, all kinds of organic material built up over the course of a few years and the water no longer runs.

The proper way to build a dry creek bed is to ditch it. You want to ditch it like we build all our French drains on all our YouTube videos.  Now the problem gets really, really bad and you end up with all kinds of water that won’t move through the stone.

Now, if this would’ve been ditched, if there would have been a channel created and stone put underground with filter fabric and then lay rock for decorative reasons, rock over that so you can have that dry creek bed look.  Basically, it’s a decorative open French drain.

See, the water can’t find its way down to the storm drain catch basin anymore because of all the organic material that has filled the voids of the stone. Now, if this would’ve been ditched or a channel created with a bunch of stone wrapped with filter fabric, two feet of organic material could be built up on top it wouldn’t even matter. We’d moved the water underground.

For yard drainage, for dry creek beds, some pump lines, perimeter French drains, and curtain French drains in North Macomb County and North Oakland County, give us a call at 248-505-3065.