French drains and subsurface drainage

Perforated pipe in clear stone, for water that grade alone cannot move.

When it is the answer

Low corners, side yards between houses, flat lots and areas that stay wet days after rain when re-grading is not possible.

How it is built

Trench, filter fabric, clear stone, perforated pipe sloped to an outlet, more stone, fabric wrapped over, then backfill. Cleanouts where the run is long.

The part people skip

A discharge point genuinely lower than the problem. A pipe that ends in soil achieves nothing, and that is the most common DIY failure.

Whatever the material, the base under it and the water around it decide how it looks in ten years.