A French drain is a slightly sloped trench filled with gravel and perforated pipe that's used to capture and divert surface water away from flood-prone areas such as lawns or garden areas, basements and crawl spaces.     

Interestingly, the French drain is actually not French at all. Au contraire, the system is an American invention named for Henry Flagg French, a Harvard-educated judge and farmer in Concord, MA who promoted the system in an 1859 book about farm drainage.     

Poor water drainage creates stagnant pools and wayward streams of surplus water that rot property, erode landscapes, and provide environments favorable to organisms that can cause disease. Henry French used the system to divert water away from livestock, reducing disease in both the animals and people. The French drain is now considered the leading method of removing water and moisture caused by seepage into basements that can cause mold and mildew to grow.

To dig or not to dig?

A 50-foot-long exterior French drain trench requires excavating about 75 cubic feet of soil. Depending on how wet your soil is (and if you have a drainage problem, the answer is probably "very"), up to 4-5 tons of dirt must be moved to make way for 4-5 tons of gravel. Then, once the dirt is out, is has to go somewhere! Good uses for this displaced dirt are as fill for a low or uneven section of your yard or a couple of raised garden beds...but is all of this really necessary for minor bouts of dampness or sporadic water collection in your basement?

Reasonable alternatives to digging a French drain may be installing a sump pump in the basement or adding an upgraded gutter system to your house that diverts storm water away from your foundation and deposits it into a drywell.

If water seepage is frequent and mold and mildew a persistent problem, however, digging French drains is highly recommended. Note: A French drain to cure minor flooding problems in your yard, sometimes called a curtain drain, can be built yourself. However, installing a footing drain to cure a wet basement is definitely a job best left to the pros.

A "typical" drain is 8-12 inches wide and 12-18 inches deep when it is needed in area of the property that is not in conjunction with a building. If the drain is adjacent to a house, the drains must be lower than the basement floor. Other price factors include soil conditions such as how rocky it is or how much clay is present. The depth and the width of the trench are also factors.

If you have problems with unwanted water collection in your yard or basement, we'll be happy to take a look at your property to see if French drains or similar, gravel-free systems such as EZFlow or prefabricated strip drains can help. 

Clothing Drive to Benefit Our Neighbors in Need 

We will continuing to hold our annual clothing drive through Friday, October 21, 2011, at Borst headquarters, 260 West Crescent Avenue in Allendale. Area residents are asked to bring new or gently used clothing for men, women and children, including outerwear, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. A truck will be parked outside our office where donors may deposit their clothing donations.

The donations will benefit patrons of the Star of Hope Thrift Shop in Paterson and also recipients reached by Solid Foundation, a Midland Park skateboarding club that organizes charitable community projects in our area and makes regular visits to New York City to pass out coats, blankets and food.

Wyckoff 9/11 Memorial 

Borst recently contributed materials and labor to the new Wyckoff 9/11 momument in front of Memorial Town Hall. Click here to view photo and more information.

Allendale Day