FDM CanadaOakland County Featured Drainage Project
We were contracted in Oakland County to run drainage in a bioswale. Basically it’s a detention pond. Now a detention pond is dry for the most part. A retention pond is a pond that always has water in it. This entire community in Rochester Hills, all the streets, all the yards, all this property, it finds its way through these storm systems that take it to a bioswale. The bioswale helps filter out any contaminants from off the streets, any fertilizers that come out of the yard. The problem is it’s low, it’s flat, and after these big rain events, once the bulk water moves through this detention pond, the ground stays saturated. Now the kids in this neighborhood, obviously this huge bioswale can serve as a great playground. And if we can run a French drain system that will tighten it up, make this suitable for children to play. That would be a big win.
So we’re going to replace a 6 inch french drain system with another 6 inch french drain system. The difference is we are using corrugated pipe which has holes all the way around it and not PVC with only holes on the bottom.
Installing our French Drain System
We tore out a six-inch PVC, French drain system. It failed. It’s full of sediment and the holes on the bottom plugged. We over dug our trench, so that we could put in three, six-inch corrugated pipes. The people that put this system in were truly amateurs. So, one six-inch pipe was not enough. When I did the math, two was bare minimum, and because we love overkill here at the French Drain Man, we went ahead and we put in three six-inch pipes.
Now there’s no stone under our drainage system. We place our stone on top of the french drain. Under this failed PVC drain, there was stone which caused water to sit at the bottom of this trench.
This is virgin pipe. It’s not regrind. Regrind is black pipe. It’s all your recycled materials, ground up, melted down and used for a second time. I know it seems like a great idea to use recycle materials for a drain pipe. But when we rely on these pipes to keep our basements dry, our crawl spaces dry, our yards dry, why we’re putting garbage, literally trash, in the ground for our drainage system?
So corrugated pipe gets a bad name because people are used to the regrind. We use a virgin pipe, this is virgin material. It doesn’t deflect or have any issues with cracking, splitting. This pipe has a little bit of flexibility, which is its strength. If the clay dries up and we go into the drought season, it won’t affect this pipe like it will PVC. When you have a drought and clay shrinks, PVC pipe is so rigid that it really has a hard time with that.
Why did the previous drain fail? Keep reading:
PVC French Drain Pipe or Corrugated? Failed System Provides Proof
Yard Drainage Experts in Oakland County, Michigan
Are you looking to have a drainage system installed and want it done right the first time? Or are you dealing with a failed system installed by another contractor?
We bury downspouts, build roof runoff systems, French drain systems, yard drain systems, sump pump discharge lines. We dig ponds. We are the drainage experts in Northern Oakland County and northern Macomb. Give French Drain Man a call at: 248-505-3065
