How Do EZ Flow Drains Hook Together?

The EZflow Product

• The EZflow product is manufactured as an optional slotted pipe enclosed in expanded polystyrene aggregate, all bound in a geotextile mesh. The entire assembly, with or without a preinstalled internal pipe, is referred to by the company as a “bundle” and is 10 feet long. The bundles sold with preinstalled pipes can be configured so that the pipe is at the center or the bottom of the bundle; in both configurations, the pipe runs along the center axis of the bundle.

  Three configurations are available, a 7-inch bundle sold with or without a 3-inch internal pipe and 15-inch bundles with or without a 6-inch internal pipe. Dedicated accessories sold for use with EZflow bundles include internal couplers, “Y” junctions and “T” junctions, elbows and end caps.

The Mesh

• The 30-sieve knit geotextile mesh around the outside is typically black and serves a twin purpose: It holds the bundle together through storage and delivery, then allows water to permeate into the drain while blocking soil migration; the nominal flow rate through the mesh is 300 gallons per square foot per minute beneath 3 inches of standing water, called in industry-speak "3 inches of head."

The Aggregate

• The drainage aggregate is typically blue and is manufactured entirely from recycled materials. It takes the form of expanded polystyrene beads; a smaller bead is used in the 7-inch bundles, and a larger bead in the 10- and 15-inch bundles. The beads have random protuberances that increase pore space and, as a direct result, flow characteristics. Properly called transmissivity, the flow characteristic is “one or two orders of magnitude greater than the native soils,” according to company literature.

The Pipe

• The drainage pipe is single-wall, corrugated polyethylene resin with a recycled content typically in excess of 90 percent. The 7-inch bundle comprises a 3-inch pipe; the 10-inch bundle comprises a 4-inch pipe, and the 15-inch bundle comprises a 6-inch pipe. Because the pipe is randomly perforated during the extrusion process, its orientation within the bundle is of no consequence.

Installation

• The EZflow French drain product is designed specifically to be easy to use. In addition to the manufacturer’s instruction, municipal and state code regulations must be adhered to when installing the product.

  One end of an appropriately-sized coupler simply clicks into place in the end of one bundle or system component, after which the exposed coupler end is placed inside the next bundle or component, which also clicks into place. With that, the connection is complete; no gaskets, no threading, no brush-on cleaners or jointing compounds. The only exception to this hooking-together process is that gaskets may be required for connecting the EZflow components to non-system add-ons such as cleanouts, manholes and catchbasins.