For most people, their home is their most valuable asset.
Most homes in New Zealand are framed with wood.
Keeping water away from wooden structures is essential to keeping them in good condition.
The home we bought nearly four years ago has issues: drainage issues. Nearly everything was done poorly or wrong, and it has been a long process sorting things out.
One major project was installing a French drain along the high side of the home to reduce the amount of water making its way underneath.
French drains come in two flavours.
I definitely favour the open drain because I a want to minimise the chances of soil or roots clogging up the drain.
I bought in a load of stone to make sure I had plenty to work with.
My daughter helped digging and moving stone.
I couldn’t run the water around the house so I had to go under. I used a sump as the transition to a non-perforated pipe that runs on a slight slope to the low side of the house and then over the bank and down the hillside.
In the end it makes a tidy edge to the damp side of the home.
Peace, Estwing
Eco Thrifty Living 
That’s funny I have been researching French drains thanks for sharing instructions, I have had to remove our guttering as we are surrounded by trees, I mean surrounded & every second day i would be cleaning out gutters, the back of the house is 2 storey & required climbing onto the roof. I’m not sure which way I’ll go as far as guttering or the French drain as long as it helps fill the dam. Thanks for sharing, love it when the kids help.