ᐅ Drainage Around the House: But How?

Dear building professionals

My wife and I are planning our new build. I would like to install a drainage system, but I’m not sure how extensive it should be. Is it enough to install drainage all around the house (like a moat)? What about the garden? I have a garden both in front of and behind the house. Or should I lay pipes in a serpentine pattern throughout the entire garden?

Thank you very much!

If your goal is to keep your house dry and manage water drainage properly around the house, then please make sure to do it all around the house. But if you are asking like that, you don’t want to do it yourself, right?

No, of course not by myself. But I am interested in how water in the garden area, which drains poorly, can be best managed with drainage... so that I can avoid "water pools" in the garden.

Your house is not built yet? Is a soil survey available?

No, everything is still in the planning stage. I just wanted to be on the safe side.

I find that Hornbach provides a very good information page that clearly explains the differences between garden drainage and structural drainage (DIN 4095 for buildings).

In my own research, I was unfortunately unable to determine how much drainage is actually necessary. For example, the DIN standard does not allow coconut fiber pipes for drainage. However, about 90% of garden and landscape contractors will install exactly those. Whether and how filter fabric and drainage gravel should be used seems to be more a matter of opinion.

As always, the main discussions come from interested homeowners whose systems have usually been in use for no more than one year. Unfortunately, experiences with how drainage systems perform after 10 years are rare. If anyone has such information, I would be very interested as well.