Diagnosis
What is the difference between a French drain and a yard drain?
A yard drainage system collects surface water at the points where it accumulates — catch basins and area drains — and carries it away in solid pipe. A French drain intercepts water already moving through the ground, using perforated pipe in a washed-stone envelope. Different conditions, different systems.
In more detail
Installing one for the other is the most common expensive mistake in residential drainage, and it does not fail immediately — it fails a couple of seasons later, after the lawn has grown back over it.
A catch basin sits at a low point with a sediment sump beneath the outlet so silt drops out rather than travelling into the line. Its effectiveness depends entirely on placement, which is determined by watching the property during rain.
The carrier line in a yard system should be solid. Perforated pipe in a collection line leaks its contents back into the ground partway along the run.
A French drain, by contrast, is deliberately perforated and deliberately surrounded by void space, because its job is to collect along its whole length.
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