French Drain History
The earliest forms of French drains were simple ditches, pitched from a high area to a lower one and filled with gravel. These were described and popularized by Henry Flagg French (1813-1885) a lawyer and Assistant US Treasury Secretary from Concord, Massachusetts in his book Farm Drainage.
French Drains How to
The system is designed prevent water from flooding your basement. It is installed inside the basement, below the floor, around the perimeter. This French Drain controls the water, delivers it to the sump pump(s), and discharges it out of the house. This system comes with a lifetime guarantee that your basement floor will not have any water on it.
If your house has hollow block masonry walls, an interior French Drain system can capture the water entering the block system and drain the water into a sump where a sump pump will discharge it from the building. Weep holes are drilled into the lowest course of block, allowing the drainage to occur. An interior French drain is much less likely to clog than an exterior, partially due to the fact that it is not sitting underneath several feet of soil.