French Drains for old house - Engineers advice needed

johnny_boy82

Hey folks,

I am looking for contacts for my old man. At the moment he is in the process of renovating our old farmhouse (about 250 years old) in County Kerry.

I'll be giving him a hand...and since he is not so tech-savvy I've been delegated to do net research

Story is : he is very clued when it comes to engineering, construction, carpentry etc, and right now we are hoping to address some of the damp issues in the house by putting in a French drain along the front of the house and barn (which is attached to the house).

Essentially he'd really like to get an engineer out to have a look and pick his brain. We had a guy lined up from the OPW but he seemed totally disinterested when contacted and just never bothered to reply to subsequent emails.

Does anyone know/can recommend someone in Kerry who would be willing to take a look and have a chat with him on it? We are not even sure what type of engineer it should be - are there drainage specialists? Anyway, if somebody can recommend anybody that would be worth contacting then it would be very much appreciated.

Cheers

godtabh

What do you want the french drain to do? Do you have any drawings?

Generally french drains are used for draining large areas of linear hard standing areas like along roadways/bottom of embankments etc.

They can also be used for architectural features.

johnny_boy82

Hey godtabh,

No drawings sorry. Afaik he wants to install the drain to take as much water as possible away from the house and into a nearby drain that runs off into the farm fields. There is more dry-lining work that needs to be done in the house but there are also dampness problems and he wants to divert water from under the house - thats my take on it anyway. Do you know anybody that could help or offer advice?

godtabh

Your best bet would be to contact a local consultant and ask them.

If there is water under the house be careful draining it. Draining water like that can cause settlement.

As for the french drains I dont think they are the most suitable. Try something like this .

Figerty

The best man for that job, and who is a Kerryman, is Michael john O'Shea who is a specialist in creating drainage systems for playing fields. This man is a mine of information and he should be able to put you right.
I don't think you will find better. I think he is based in Castle gregory.

miss no stars

godtabh wrote: »

Your best bet would be to contact a local consultant and ask them.

If there is water under the house be careful draining it. Draining water like that can cause settlement.

As for the french drains I dont think they are the most suitable. Try something like this .

Just one thing I would note is that something like that might look awful next to a big old farm house whereas a French drain would look lovely.

I suppose it depends on how much water there is though. We put one around an outbuilding of ours as the grass around it had a bit of a river flowing through it that was flooding the building any time there was heavy rainfall. So far so good, but for the size of the building and the land around it, it's a big drain.

So it could come down to a toss up between a small, efficient but not very aesthetic drain, or a bigger but nicer to look at drain.

OP, I second godtabh's comment about settlement. It could be well worth your while getting a civil/structural engineer to look at any drainage plans you come up with as that house has stood on that land with a similar amount of water in the soil for a long long time and removing the water could do damage. On a similar vein, you don't mention it and maybe you've considered it, but have you checked whether the house has foundations? That potentially has to be addressed before you go anywhere near draining the soil around it.