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I am working on a building that was built in 1909 and it has an old rock foundation. For the last 2 days I have been digging a trench all along the building, about 2ft deep and about the same width.

I have been reading about different drain systems. Obviously this building was built before they had all this fancy foundation wrap and sealer, so over the years water has not been kind to it where the building is next to a road that the grade is going towards the building.

I wanted to line my trench with 6mil plastic and place gravel down about 3in and lay my corrugated pipe down it has net on it thank to Fratco and cover the pipe with gravel and back fill it and in all the stuff.

Some say to use plastic and some say use cloth so someone that has put one in and seen them work. What do you recommend please?

I can't afford to dig the whole foundation up and seal it. The basement has a gravel floor so some water I can work with and would be no big deal to me. Knitting it's a fabric that goes around the pipe as it comes out the machine that keeps debris from plugging the slots up I thank you refer it as a sock really thin water can flow through it really easily we put I in fields that has a lot of sand so it doesn't go through the pipe

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  • Please clarify what "it has net on it thank to Fratco" means. Also, please clarify exactly what problem you're having and what it is you're trying to achieve with all this digging.
    – FreeMan
    Commented Jul 20, 2023 at 11:50
  • @FreeMan the OP's pipe was manufactured by Fratco, and presumably came encased in netting. Although I'm not sure what good netting is...I'd prefer drainage pipe to have a sock around it.
    – Huesmann
    Commented Jul 20, 2023 at 12:29
  • 1
    I figured that, @Huesmann. I am ever hopeful, though, that people might learn to read what they're posting prior to posting it to ensure that it is coherent and understandable by people who aren't them. Good communication is difficult and takes effort - 33 years of marriage has proven that to me time and time again...
    – FreeMan
    Commented Jul 20, 2023 at 12:42
  • @RobertMorrisNeedles not sure why you're getting so huffy. Who's complaining about your spelling? (Folk would have more reason to complain about your punctuation.)
    – Huesmann
    Commented Jul 21, 2023 at 13:20

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OP, definitely not plastic. The only place you might want plastic is all the way up and down the foundation wall.

Sounds like you're building a french drain around your house—a good idea if you have areas where water comes towards the house. Proper french drain construction is basically:

  1. Dig trench
  2. Line trench with geotextile (filter fabric)
  3. Place a few inches of gravel in the trench
  4. Place your perforated pipe in the trench
  5. Place some gravel in the trench to locate the pipe centrally
  6. Cover pipe with a few inches of gravel
  7. Wrap ends of geotextile over gravel
  8. Backfill with soil and compact

The pipe needs to be able to daylight somewhere, obviously.

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  • Note that "geotextile" is not the same as the landscape fabric often sold at home centers and not very useful for preventing weed growth.
    – FreeMan
    Commented Jul 20, 2023 at 12:41

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