Both move water. They are not interchangeable, and we see plenty of properties where the wrong one was installed and the problem simply relocated.
A French drain handles water in the soil
A perforated pipe in washed gravel, wrapped in filter fabric, buried below grade. It collects water that is already saturating the soil and carries it away. Use it for:
- A soggy patch that stays wet for days after rain
- Water sitting against a foundation or under a slab edge
- Hydrostatic pressure behind a retaining wall
A dry creek handles water on the surface
A shaped, stone-lined channel that carries visible runoff during a storm. Use it for:
- Sheet flow crossing the property during heavy rain
- Downspout discharge that is scouring a bed
- A route from a low point to a legal discharge location
Both need somewhere to go
This is where most failed drainage work goes wrong. A drain that terminates in the middle of the lawn has not solved anything — it has built an underground reservoir. Every system needs a discharge point that is legal, lower than the inlet, and not simply your neighbour’s property.
Do the earthwork first
Before either, check the grade. A surprising number of drainage problems are solved by re-establishing a positive slope away from the house. That is cheaper than any pipe, and it fixes the cause rather than managing the symptom.