# Best fabric for french drain



## Daniel Holzman (Mar 10, 2009)

Unfortunately the term "french drain" is used to refer to a wide variety of drains, it would really help if you describe exactly what it is you are trying to do. If you are building a perimeter drain around a building with the intent of intercepting groundwater, it is very common to surround the perforated pipe with crushed stone, typically at least a foot around the pipe, and surround the crushed stone with filter fabric to keep the fine material from clogging the crushed stone. There are woven and non-woven filter fabrics, as long as they are listed for your specific application they will be OK. See this website for a full description of the various types of fabric available, and correct application. https://www.usfabricsinc.com/geotex...VHz09N7ZjcjeEUNT2DAkqpR8IYI5oyJOpoxoCmGrw_wcB


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## lpranger467 (Jun 22, 2017)

Thanks Dan, I know we have chatted before. I have opted to do a deep "curtain" drain at the base of a steep hill to prevent ground water from ever reaching the stone basement wall. The curtain drain will be about 6 feet out from the foundation as that I'm deathly afraid of undermining the soild under the 80 yr old foundation, but at the same time keep water out of the basement.

This being said though will I risk the fabric clogging and making the drain useless ?


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## Bondo (Dec 8, 2007)

Ayuh,..... We use 2 different fabrics,....

The woven stuff don't pass water very well, 'n is used to keep mud, 'n clay from pumpin' up into the fresh clean crushed limestone We install,....

The other stuff is a pressed filter fabric, like that found on fabric covered drainage tile,...
Never had the pressed filter fabric clog up to my knowledge,...
We'll dig a trench, from a couple feet wide, 'n deep to 10s of feet wide, 'n deep,...
Line it with the filter fabric, 'n backfill it with large washed crushed limestone,...
The filter fabric keeps the mud, 'n silt out, yet allows the water to pass,...


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## lpranger467 (Jun 22, 2017)

ok thanks. I had an inspector (home) come out today who felt that a swale might handle my issues but there is just so much water coming down the hill I'm not sure. how deep does surface water generally go ? (wondering if curtain drain is worthwhile)


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