Drainage / French Drains

[Old Noob]

Well the storm last night flooded part of my new house.
The house has a French drain but it is obviously way to small. Water was gushing out at the end of the drain. I had to suck up a bunch of water with my shop vac. Looks like some things might be trash now but I moved a lot and the most of the stuff looks okay.
Any recommendations on french drains or does anyone here install them.
Looks like no more rain awhile in the forecast. Need to get it done fast.

 

[enuf]

French drains are just ok. They can be too small, as in your case and they eventually require maintenance - plugging or collapsing or during a drought time critters will make nest. Reshaping your property for surface drainage is always better.

 

[TinkerTanker]

Edit: Enuf types faster than me, beat me to it. Well here's my advice anyway...




My history is you can spend thousands getting new french drains put in (expensive), then clean them out yearly with a pipe auger (awful work).....or rent a skid steer (cheap) and grade the dirt on that side of the house to drain off by operating heavy machinery (exciting, manly work). The whole thing can be done in a weekend if you plan your drainage before hand, either into a lower part of your land or off toward the street.

You can re-seed the grass immediately afterward too since it's fall. Man after this I may rent one and play in my yard. I have some hills that beat me up a little on the riding mower. Time to give them a haircut. Arr Arr Arr!

 

[Bocephus123]

French drains are just ok. They can be too small, as in your case and they eventually require maintenance - plugging or collapsing or during a drought time critters will make nest. Reshaping your property for surface drainage is always better.

create a swell around your house positive flow away from the house . to lowest spot out and away

 

[SlugSlinger]

French drains aren’t meant for flood prevention. Sounds more like a grading issue.

Is the grade around the house designed to direct water away? I suspect not since there is a French drain. Those are a bandaid on a bigger issue.

 

[KOPBET]

Lay a 4" pipe out to low ground or street and add a 6" catch basin or two. Not a French drain.

 

[Old Noob]

Thank you all for the input.
Think my problem is the road is higher than my driveway and the drain can not keep up with the runoff from the road. Might need a ditch dug with a drian to the other side of the road.

 

[Old Noob]

The water problems are in the garage and the office (converted side garage) next to the garage.
You can see the water levels on the wall and garage door.

 

[Old Noob]

Driveway has a drain pipe on one side that goes out to the other side of the road and the other side is connected to the french drain.

 

[MilitantBEEMER]

That sucks that you have to deal with flooding.
We just had a French drain installed a couple months ago. With all the rain this last week it has done great. We also had the yard built up by the crew so water would not have a place to pool.
Best wishes with getting the problem resolved