Article needs a lot of help - French drains

I saw in RC Patrol. It seems incomplete and also to contain quite a lot of misleading information and images. To me, someone trying to complete a project using only the information in this article would end up with a disaster. Rather than point out all the problems, please compare the article to this image gallery and this webpage. To me, this article needs a complete overhaul and, as always, it would be best done by someone with experience completing the particular project multiple times,

I think the article meets the wikiHow quality. I do not know if it is true or not. As for the images, if they are wikiPhoto images (wikiHow written on the bottom), you may leave a message here:\_talk:Wikiphoto Hope this helps :) ~Ima

Yeah, it's missing a lot of information, from what I've seen. It really isn't a quality article, that's for sure. The stones or rocks aren't specified in any way in the article. I don't know what specific type of rock would be best, but it supposedly is pretty important. Basically, I think our article just explains how to safely put a pipe in the ground rather than how to build a french drain. The Hydrostatic Pressure part in the link you gave us isn't even addressed once in the wH article. Actually, none of the purposes for a french drain are mentioned in the article. As much as I hate hgtv, it looks like this article they have explains it a little bit better than ours. ( I think we should kind of use this as a model to correct it. I want to do some copyediting, but I don't see how I can do that without completely rewriting part of it...If anyone has some more information than I do (Ive only gotten this info from a couple quick google searches) it would be awesome if they'd do the copyediting. I'll give it a shot if nobody else has ever built/knows about a french drain. Thanks for doing all that research, Alabaster! :)

In the real world, all a ''French drain" actually is is a pipe or even a simple gravel bed trenched into the soil to allow water to seep into the ground without ponding or running off... They are not practical in locations where water cannot percolate into the ground, or where large amounts of water will be collected and expected to disperse. Engineering has reinvented the French drain into something more, a hybrid between an underground water storage and dispersal system and an effluent disposal method. I have seen French drains successfully used using may different types of gravel, and even ''sock pipes'' buried in sandy soil without any gravel at all, so the degree the article is lacking in either content or accuracy is really a matter of defining what a traditional or modern French drain should consist of and accomplish.

Go for it @Confusionist. From what I know there are many different uses for the French drain - intercept and divert groundwater, carry water away from a footing, stabilize terrace walls. Perhaps if the article were divided into sections - uses; design options, considerations, and limitations; permitting; building; water dispersal at the outlet. The information in the article linked above and on the associated website, if understood, would make an excellent starting point, in my opinion. The list of tools/equipment in the linked pdf is a strong indicator that the man has a lot of real world experience. I believe that the dry well is an accepted water dispersal method - just Google it. In my experience, dump trucks of gravel are required rather than bags and the 120° perforated solid pipe is definitely the way to go. I know how to write the article, but it is a major project and I am tied up with the NAB testing. I will lend a hand, though.