French drains that pollute the ground water is a major health crisis.
Is there any French Drain Requirements?
- Yes there is.
- French drains must comply with legal requirements.
- The Water Services Act 108 of 1997 makes provisions for the correct application of french drains.
- This act is quite a lengthy piece of legislation.
Why is French drains design important?
- When a house is been built on a smallholding and the building inspector do the inspections.
- One of the inspections would involve the french drain.
- I can assure you that if your french drain does not comply with the standards that are been set.
- The building inspector will not sign the building project off.
- They are very strict about the french drains.
The french drain design.
- The french drain is most of the time three rooms where the water flows in.
- The first room is the biggest of the three.
- The second and third room is the same size.
- The inflow to every room is designed to prevent solids that may be in the water from flowing to the next room.
- The last room is the where the solids and most of the material is been removed from the water.
The walls of the French drain.
- The outer wall is a double layer of bricks.
- The inside wall between the rooms is a single brick wall.
- The inside of the rooms must be plastered.
- The wall surfaces must be smooth.
- That is to prevent the water from flowing through cracks into the groundwater.
Cleaning of the french drain water from the last room.
- It is a good practice to clean the water that flow from the last room.
- The way it is been done is by pumping it into tank.
- Air is then pump into the bottom of the tank.
- The air that moves upwards provide oxygen for the bacteria that is responsible to breakdown the material that could be present in the water.
- The last stage is a small tank that has a chlorine tablet in it.
- The chlorine does the final cleaning. The water can be used for gardening.
- There would be no smell present in the water.
