How to Install a French Drain the Right Way

When you are installing a french drain you want to use an excavator to remove all the dirt from the trench. The trench you see here has been excavated, the soil has been taken out and hauled away. There is a pipe at the bottom of the trench because that’s where the water is.

The black fabric that you can see, lines the trench and will wrap around the stone. This will keep the stone and the subsoil separate, making this a maintenance-free system.

There are a lot of videos about how to install a french drain that use a trencher to dig the trench. We are replacing a system that was installed using a trencher.

How do you install a french drain? You use an excavator to dig the trench. An excavator can remove enough dirt to put in a lot of stone that will move a lot of water and extend the life of your french drain. Using an excavator is the proper way to dig a trench for a french drain system.