Question
My yard slopes to the house and when it rains we have alot of water.  We have a patio in the back so the water dose not reach the house.  I had some one come out and price doing some kind of drainage.  He suggested doing a french drain but with the stone exposed.  Dose this soudn good or are there other option.  I can not pitch the water away because of the neighbors house I live on a coner lot so we need to send the water to storm drain.  Any help will be great.
Thanks
Adam

Answer
Hello Adam, the best method would be a corrugated plastic pipe laid in a trench and then filled with gravel. I believe this is called a 'French drain' in the States. The gravel should then be covered with a nylon fabric to prevent the soil mixing with it- this would render it useless otherwise! You can then make a gravel path over it or even make a lawn over it, providing it has at least 30 cm of soil between the gravel and the lawn. It's the nylon fabric that is essential!

Make sure that the pipe slopes away from the area that you wish to drain.