French Drain x French Mattress - Recommended trench dimensions

[Forest_Man]

I'm going to assume your house sets on somewhat of a hillside, and they cut a flat bench to build on.

Very good post, thanks for sharing your feedback. And yes, the cabin is on the hillside.

 

[Forest_Man]

Around me a proper French drain lasts much, much longer than a ditch.(lasts as long as a septic drain field) If you don’t clean that ditch every other year it fills in with leaves/trees/bushes till it’s no longer a ditch. French drain make and forget.

We currently have a large ditch and it works only to contain the mountainside water: it is a pain in the a$$ to maintain it and it only catches the surface water.

We need something for the underground water as well..

 

[coldsteelva]

Could it potentially be more advantageous to simply elevate the parking area by bringing in some geo-grid/geo-cell and gravel? The mats would hold and lock the gravel while also supporting the base.

 

[Clayak]

If the ditch doesn't work, maybe it's not deep enough. My ditch is 4-5 deep. Across it I've put in a few bridges of railroad ties and 6 inch wide cedar strips to walk on and get to the garden. Looks decent to all, great IMHO, but then we live in the country where answers like that are understood.

 

[Streetcar]

I tried to look up what a "French Mattress Drain" is, but the results came back that it doesn't exist.

I am familiar with French Drains. As a Home Remodel Contractor, I have quite a few clients that have them. In my experience, all of them love it when they are first installed, and then it's just a matter of time until they stop working and they realize that they wasted their money. How long this takes to happen varies on where it's at, how long it is, and who installed it.

In my opinion, French Drains have become the magical fix to drainage that everyone knows about, but never performs over time.

There is only one sure fired, guaranteed to work method at removing water that is used by Commercial Contractors and Government Agencies. And that is a ditch. Only home owners, landscapers and the guys who mow your lawn, use French Drains. I'm sure there is an exception to this, but it's like saying you wont get cancer from smoking cigarettes'. It happens, but it's not worth the risk of failure.

Nobody wants to dig a ditch because it's a lot of work, and it's hard to make not look like a ditch. You have to go really wide to make it not look like a ditch. Or you have to fill it with gravel, or something to make it look better.

Since most people have to live with a wife that wont approve of a ditch, the only other option that might last is a pipe with a drain to catch the water and carry it away. An open drain can still plug up, but a lot of the time, you can clean it out, and if you are careful with what goes into it, you might get lucky and it never plugs up.

Eddie
I have worked on French drains that were still functioning after sixty years. Work was rerouted the portion damaged by road widening

 

[EddieWalker]

I believe you. Like anything, there are those rare occasion when something that is a very bad idea, actually works in certain cases. It would be interesting to figure out why it's still working. There are so many reasons for them to fail, finding one that lasted is really kind of amazing.

 

[Fixastuff]

Id guess installing them correctly had much to do with them lasting.