Hello, I'd like to throw out an idea about a French drain design I have for critique. How about digging below a foundation footer a few inches more, putting in a few inches of gravel and the drain pipe, and then pouring the footer? That way the drain plain is well below any part of the foundation? https://ibb.co/NNm24Kh[

Footers need to be on virgin ground as much possible to help prevent settling and cracking of your walls later.

Not sure how mush you are gaining from having less water around your footer? The cons out weight the pro's in my opinion.

Have you looked at form-a-drain? The water starts draining within a half inch of the bottom of the form.

Hope this helps....good luck with your build....exciting.

Newboston is right. I recommend Form-A-Drain to all my ICF customers.. If I was building another house it would be the only way I would go. We have a lot of areas up here in NY that have radon concentrations. Good to be ready even it doesn't happen. One thing I do agree with, is that we always set our footers on crushed stone. A lot of clay here.

+1 Form-A-drain and crushed rock under the footer or under entire building footprint is great approach. If you just pour a footing on undisturbed soil or into a trench, there could be a hard or soft section below the footing that will lead to uneven settling and crack the footing. Plus, getting the slab above ground elevation is just good for many other reasons.

its a quite good design, but all professionals are here, so they tell you exactly if there is anything wrong.