What Is a French Drain
A French drain is a drainage trench filled to ground level with fragments of loose stones including brick, rock, and more. In other words, it is a pipe buried in the ground that transports water and manipulates the direction of it from one point to another. In Las Vegas, this trench can be installed with ease with professional Las Vegas landscaping companies all over town that an individual could hire. This pipe is indispensable for someone’s home when they are having damage to a building that one owns or even one’s own home due to the problem of overflooding.
The Uses of French Drains
There are two major usages of French drains. Most importantly, these types of drains tend to prevent ground and surface water from penetrating or damaging building foundations. This helpful application occurs when the drains absorb surface rainwater prior to the damage of a house or other buildings. After absorbing this water, the trench redirects the water safely to a ditch or sewer line. Hence, this is the primary utilization that French drains meet.
Following this principal usage for French drains comes another application. The other use for these drains includes opening ditches or storm sewers for streets and possibly highways as well. This alternative listed previously is of upmost importance as it has to do with individuals’ safety. With open ditches and storm drains, driving during rainfall is made easier and less dangerous because water is discharged to the closest bodies of water around a region. Without this, driving would be made much more difficult and many more casualties will occur. Thus, French drains provide a couple uses of paramount importance overall.
The Advantages of French Drains
Following all the uses of French drains comes the countless advantages of this type of drain specifically. However, only the top five benefits of French drains will be mentioned to ensure the most crucial strengths of this pipe. The first benefit of this drain includes preventing standing water. Standing water involves puddles, ponds, and rainwater. These can all cause damage to one’s home and making sure to prevent this from happening is the primary reason for having this drain.
After this reason follows that it is extremely easy to install. Self-instillation is definitely possible, especially for a French drain. It is a simple short process that doesn’t take a colossal amount of time from an individual’s day. However, if an individual is busy or is worrying about messing up, there are countless Las Vegas landscaping and maintenance companies all over the valley that are willing to help and assist someone at a reasonable price.
Not only are these drains straightforward to install, but also, are extremely aesthetically pleasing. If done correctly, then these drains will look good with one’s yard. The pipes that go underground are typically covered with rock, brick, or other enhancing features that will add to one’s yard. Compared to other drains, these are a fantastic option to have a healthy and beautiful yard.
Erosion control is the next benefit of a French drain. This pipe helps one’s yard as it aids in preventing soil erosion. This is extremely indispensable for one’s yard because without this, agriculture in one’s area becomes difficult. In other words, growing healthy plants becomes much more of a challenge. Furthermore, Las Vegas irrigation repair and Las Vegas monthly maintenance are available to help with an individual’s yard if any problems ever arise. Thus, erosion control is a remarkable benefit when having a French drain.
Finally, minimizing toxic rainwater runoff is the ultimate advantage of having this drain. In fact, all rainwater is toxic and has led to diseases and sicknesses. With a French drain, the water is moved from the original direction that it will go and is diverted. This allows water to not pile up and streets to not become extremely overwhelmed and flooded with water which ensures greater safety when traveling. Ultimately, the rationales mentioned previously are the top five main benefits of having a French drain in one’s yard.
The Disadvantages of French Drains
Overall, two factors determine the cons of French drains. French drains are great for the majority of the time; however, will have a couple problems as time goes on. The primary problem that will occur is that these types of drains may require that existing structures that are already in one’s yard, be removed. These existing structures include decks, walkways, and even more. Professional and skilled Las Vegas landscaping enterprises can aid in putting in this type of drain; however, with this drain comes extracting additions to one’s yard that an individual may deeply admire.
In addition to pulling out existing structures from one’s yard, French drains may also cause clogging. Clogging is a major problem in one’s yard that will be costly. To excavate and fix the clogging will be expensive so being confident when choosing the decision of picking this drain is necessary. However, when hiring professional and trustworthy Las Vegas landscaping companies, one’s yard can be fixed without problems and back to normal in a short period of time. Clogging is common and thus is a simple issue to fix. After companies help with fixing the clogging, it is helpful to hire Las Vegas maintenance companies to look over one’s yard and assist with any issues. Therefore, the couple reasons mentioned previously are the disadvantages of having a French Drain.
The Relationship of French Drains in Las Vegas
While French drains may be helpful in other regions or climates, these drains are not suitable for Las Vegas. In fact, these are the final option when having a drainage issue. Due to the weather in Las Vegas, there is a period of time in which 3 months involve monsoon season. This monsoon season would require French drains to take in too much water at a certain period of time. The result of this would involve clogging and would be an expensive fix. Compared to other options, French drains are not the finest.
Emphasizing on the point mentioned previously, these are the last solution to fix one’s drainage issues. A better option in turn would involve proper grading. This can prevent leaks, cracks in buildings, and is an overall superior option. This alternative will not produce clogging or other issues of major importance in one’s yard. For instance, when installed by a skilled Las Vegas landscaping company, it will help with one’s water issues and will not require large amounts of maintenance overall.
Unlike the proper grading, French drains need a high amount of maintenance. There are numerous companies all over the valley willing to help with this Las Vegas monthly maintenance but it is better to pick the right alternative first that will not cause problems as time passes. They require maintenance and fixing constantly which will result in an expensive bill every time there is an issue in your yard. In conclusion, French drains are in fact the worst option to implement in one’s yard while proper grading is the best possible alternative for controlling water issues.
The History of the French Drain
Even though a French drain may seem like it is named after the country that created it, this is in fact not the case. A judge and farmer named Henry French was the creator of this type of drain. Furthermore, he wrote about it and how simple the whole process was. All he wanted to do was to move water away from places it tended to collect by making or carving out a simple way for it. In 1859, this beneficial process was created and is continued to this day. Although French drains are not the best option for solving water issues at the present time, it is an alternative that does still work despite change and continuity throughout time.
