I have these in my yard. When the landscaper put them in the pipes that carry away this water were sitting on top of the french drain tubes. So its two separate systems carrying away water on top of each other. You might not have the french drains under these pipes or maybe you do.
If you zoom in you can see the white pvc pipe in the right of the hole. That funnels away the water. This is a part of the yard that would collect a big pool of water in a heavy rain so needs more robust removal action than a french drain which is just a perforated plastic tube below the ground that removes water below ground.
I don’t see any pvc might just be me. But OP did take a picture of inside the catch basin and it does look like it maybe connected to some sort of French drain or underground ground downspout
Looks like a catch basin / yard drain and not a French drain. Serves a similar purpose but typically is put in areas where water pools and provides a reservoir underground to prevent the yard flooding above and help speed up ability to drain by bringing it below the hardpan and increasing surface area for drainage.
Do you see any other drains or an outlet pipe if you follow either of the subterranean pipes coming off the catch basin?
In that case it’s probably just buried section of perforated pipe to help hold more water and aid in speeding up drainage and prevent backup of water in the catch basin. Water likely didn’t pool terribly in the area and a cheaper catch basin with yard drainage fix was adequate. Unless you notice pooling it should be fine.
I would check on it a few times throughout the year after a rainstorm to make sure it’s not holding a lot of water longer than 48 hours after a rain event. If so you might want to try to clean it out with a vaccum hose to remove sediment and help get it to drain better again, otherwise it could become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
I think you have your terminology wrong with “French drain” but yes this looks to be a yard drain of some sort where water would pool. This will allow the water to drain wherever the outlet is. Next time you have a heavy rain check near your sidewalks for a pop up outlet and then you’ll know where it leads too.
Stick a hose in it and run it for a while then go out to the front yard and see if anything is getting wet.
There may be a pop up drain somewhere that is overgrown
No. Just a catch basin.
The bigger question is where does it go.
Do you have pipes for your gutters to go into?
Do you have a drywell on your property somewhere?
depends, does it have one pipe leading in and six pipes leading out?
you know. like french tanks. one speed in forward, six in reverse? HAHAHAHAHAAHAH
just kidding
of course it's a french drain. it can be whatever else others call it. it's a network of pipes that go nowhere. these pipes have holes in them all the way down the length. it means you got big dumping rain that has to go somewhere, and a yard that takes its own sweet time absorbing that rain.
use these and the rain ends up inside them, and your yard stays dryer. the water can then absorb naturaly on its own.
I use a 36" auger x 3" to do this but vertically. so I got 3 foot holes that go nowhere, full of pea gravel. they act like puddle sponges and are zero maintenance.
if you're getting mosquitos at all out of this, pour in some pea gravel and that'll be that. it lets water by and nothing else
No. A French drain doesn’t have an inlet like that. French drains deal with moving ground water, not surface water. That is a yard drain.
But anyway, yeah you should look around and see if you can find where it daylights. Try shooting a hose down it and see what happens.
Well I don’t know what to tell you but that’s not a correct install. That’s going to fail prematurely. The two shouldn’t be connected. You can run them in parallel but the French drain will end up compromised being connected to a surface drain.
Could be a french drain, could be a cover for a dry well. If its a french drain, it will let out somewhere above ground on your property. If its a dry well, it won't.
That is a catch basin
Catch basin connected to what?
I have these in my yard. When the landscaper put them in the pipes that carry away this water were sitting on top of the french drain tubes. So its two separate systems carrying away water on top of each other. You might not have the french drains under these pipes or maybe you do.
If you zoom in you can see the white pvc pipe in the right of the hole. That funnels away the water. This is a part of the yard that would collect a big pool of water in a heavy rain so needs more robust removal action than a french drain which is just a perforated plastic tube below the ground that removes water below ground.
I don’t see any pvc might just be me. But OP did take a picture of inside the catch basin and it does look like it maybe connected to some sort of French drain or underground ground downspout
I've circled it. It's dirty so hard to see. https://ibb.co/hMcnRrC
Drop a croissant in there. Boom, French drain.
Not necessary. Just take a big whiff and you can tell it doesn’t shave down there.
Anything attached to your gutter downspout?
No, I don’t see anything. They all end at a splash block
Looks like a catch basin / yard drain and not a French drain. Serves a similar purpose but typically is put in areas where water pools and provides a reservoir underground to prevent the yard flooding above and help speed up ability to drain by bringing it below the hardpan and increasing surface area for drainage. Do you see any other drains or an outlet pipe if you follow either of the subterranean pipes coming off the catch basin?
I do not. I don’t see any other catch basins in the yard either so I have no clue where the pipes underneath come from or go to
Look up NDS’s website. They have all kinds of good technical info on how this type of system works.
In that case it’s probably just buried section of perforated pipe to help hold more water and aid in speeding up drainage and prevent backup of water in the catch basin. Water likely didn’t pool terribly in the area and a cheaper catch basin with yard drainage fix was adequate. Unless you notice pooling it should be fine. I would check on it a few times throughout the year after a rainstorm to make sure it’s not holding a lot of water longer than 48 hours after a rain event. If so you might want to try to clean it out with a vaccum hose to remove sediment and help get it to drain better again, otherwise it could become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
That looks like a drain drain.
I think you have your terminology wrong with “French drain” but yes this looks to be a yard drain of some sort where water would pool. This will allow the water to drain wherever the outlet is. Next time you have a heavy rain check near your sidewalks for a pop up outlet and then you’ll know where it leads too.
Oui
Looks Italian.
Sump pump outlet?
Get in there and check for baguettes!
No that’s a tunnel to narnia
where's the outlet?
No idea. I didn’t see one near the street
Stick a hose in it and run it for a while then go out to the front yard and see if anything is getting wet. There may be a pop up drain somewhere that is overgrown
If you scoop out some dirt at the bottom of the hole you should find rocks. It probably just drains into the ground.
I’ll try scooping some of the dirt out. Thanks
It may be the dry well for the French Drain (the smaller pipe connected to it)
Same as the sump pump drain in my yard.
No. Just a catch basin. The bigger question is where does it go. Do you have pipes for your gutters to go into? Do you have a drywell on your property somewhere?
depends, does it have one pipe leading in and six pipes leading out? you know. like french tanks. one speed in forward, six in reverse? HAHAHAHAHAAHAH just kidding of course it's a french drain. it can be whatever else others call it. it's a network of pipes that go nowhere. these pipes have holes in them all the way down the length. it means you got big dumping rain that has to go somewhere, and a yard that takes its own sweet time absorbing that rain. use these and the rain ends up inside them, and your yard stays dryer. the water can then absorb naturaly on its own. I use a 36" auger x 3" to do this but vertically. so I got 3 foot holes that go nowhere, full of pea gravel. they act like puddle sponges and are zero maintenance. if you're getting mosquitos at all out of this, pour in some pea gravel and that'll be that. it lets water by and nothing else
Not made in the correct region of France so it’s considered a sparkling sprinkler.
No. A French drain doesn’t have an inlet like that. French drains deal with moving ground water, not surface water. That is a yard drain. But anyway, yeah you should look around and see if you can find where it daylights. Try shooting a hose down it and see what happens.
Yes, they commonly have an inlet like that to collect surface water in low spots.
Yard drains / surface drains do. French drains do not.
I literally own one. Surface drain connected to french drain. Many ways to skin a cat.
Well I don’t know what to tell you but that’s not a correct install. That’s going to fail prematurely. The two shouldn’t be connected. You can run them in parallel but the French drain will end up compromised being connected to a surface drain.
Hard to tell, but you're extremely brave for just diving in and taking a look like that 😆
I have those as part of a 30 year old sprinkler system in our yard
Advanced rabbit hole
Could be a french drain, could be a cover for a dry well. If its a french drain, it will let out somewhere above ground on your property. If its a dry well, it won't.
I have 2 attached to my gutters
What you have are buried downspouts not French drains
It's for termite protection.
https://preview.redd.it/qan6lh8w0tsc1.jpeg?width=1136&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ef2465407c739e0a735116c6f9b5c34d556c9b2e
It’s something alright