# Where should french drain terminate?



## Tuoms24

I'm putting in a french drain (100') and was originally thinking of using a popup emitter to end it. The right way to do it would be to go all the way to end of my property (live on an acre) but that would be an extra 100' feet. Would a pop up emitter work or are those only for heavy flo situations like downspouts?


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## twolf

That depends on the popup emitter output level relative to french drain pipe. Emitter will emit water only if level is above the edge. Where would be level of water in the french drain by then? Ideally you would want to make upper edge of emitter to be lower than your drain pipe.

On the other hand, If you are only worrying if water will not be able to open the emitter - it will.


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## Still learnin

I'm debating this as well. Considering a French drain but I'd have to go a long way to get to a decent place to daylight that is not on the property line. And the neighbors yards are the problem-sloped to my yard. I'm considering running a couple sections of French drain to a dry well. Keep everything underground that way. And hopefully relieve me of water pooling issues. Not sure


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## Tuoms24

Ya, I'm thinking maybe a Dry Well at the end as well.


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## adgattoni

Look up French Drain Man on YouTube - his builds look super expensive, but he indicates it can be completely self contained (i.e., no inlets or outlets). If there's no slope to handle a popup/daylighted drain, this could be an option.


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## Tuoms24

Thanks, I've watched some of his videos, just couldn't him talking about that. Man I have no clue what to do.


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## ken-n-nancy

Short answer to the title of "Where should french drain terminate?" is that, ideally, the french drain will terminate to an above-ground exit on the side of a hill or at least a downwards slope, so that the water that was in the drain can escape to get into the place that normal surface runoff goes from the property.

If you have the option of extending 100' to get to that (ideal) situation, then I would suggest devoting your effort to making that happen, rather than any other compromise (less preferred) solution, such as a dry well or a pop-up emitter.


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## Tuoms24

I ended up going the extra 100' feet, but the hill is not as sloped as I once thought, the farther down the yard, the less and less the hill is on the side. So...I'm essentially dealing with the same grade. So I guess the only option is a dry well?


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## latitude36

I just did 60' for a pop up emitter and its an a lot of work to if you are working with the right slope. I really dont know why you would need the pop up if you have the french in drain done correctly. Knowing what I know now I would do no daylight french drain and see how that works before the extra labor.


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