When asked at 3 years of age, “What is Dada good at?” my daughter answered, “Digging!”

Both before and after the Whanganui floods of 2015 I have focused on drainage on the farm and especially around the house where pretty much everything had been done wrong – causing a lot of water to flow underneath leading to serious damage over the last three decades.

Managing water can be done well or can be done poorly. I took this photo at work one day.

It is important to direct water away from homes. Retrofitting drainage where it has been done poorly can be difficult and expensive. Along with a number of other approaches – including cutting channels in concrete – I put in a French drain on the high-side (South) of the house.

Ironically I finished the drain two days before the 2015 floods.

The perforated pipe runs the length of the south wall.

It’s surrounded by stone and wrapped with filter cloth.

Water flows through the stone and into the pipe.

Stone covers the filter cloth to keep it tidy and out of the sun.

At the southwest corner the perforated pipe enters a sump and then flows under the entire home on a gentle slope through a solid pipe to the north side, and then away from the structure.

Any amount of drainage that directs water away from a home is important!

Peace, Estwing