How to Install French Drains in a Small Yard

When you purchase a new home, one of the first tasks on the list is to lay out and execute the landscaping. A landscape may consist of a lawn, vegetable gardens, flowerbeds, trees or shrubs, but it always requires consistent, even drainage. If you want to landscape your yard but own land prone to puddling, build a French drain or two for drainage and decoration.

Shovel
Drainpipe
Tape measure
Gravel
Landscape fabric
Scissors
Sand/topsoil/decorative rock

Instructions

- 1
  Dig the French drains in the spring or early summer, when the soil is warm, relatively moist and soft. Run the French drains down the borders of your property --- or from the most troublesome spots --- to the street or naturally low-lying areas. The goal is to move water from your yard to a more convenient drainage site.
- 2
  Build trenches for the French drains. Dig trenches 12 inches deep at their starting points, and 5 to 6 inches wide. Slope the trenches downward as you go by digging 1/2 inch deeper every 3 to 4 feet. This slope enlists gravity as your drainage ally.
- 3
  Line each trench with 3 inches of coarse gravel as a base, and then lay a length of 12- to 14-inch-wide landscape fabric over the gravel. The fabric should run the length of each trench and also line the sides.
- 4
  Lay a drainage pipe on top of the fabric in each trench, with the end in the yard pointed up toward the sky and even with the top of the trench. Use perforated drainage pipe with the holes facing downward for quicker drainage and in yards without access to a gutter.
- 5
  Cover each drainage pipe with the edges of the landscape fabric, and then fill the trenches with gravel. Leave the gravel exposed for a dry riverbed look and decorate it with river rock or other decorative stones, or cover it with sand and topsoil to hide it.

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