French Drain Help

Hello everyone 1st post here. I read quite a few posts on here before signing up about french drains and thought I had a plan but now I have questions.

Just bought first house at the end of august and as soon as I moved in a water problem developed to the side of the detached garage. Its probably a 20 foot area in the yard that retains water and wont drain in fact there are usually two puddles that wont go away. My plan was to install a french drain.

So I started digging the yards on a slight downhill grade so I thought it would work perfect. I was digging 20 inches deep about 12 inches wide and almost 100 feet long. But heres where I am getting confused at the beginning of the french drain system is it as simple as placing the pipe/gravel/landscaping fabric and then continue down the trench like that or do i need some kind of basin or something to collect water?

Next I was going to have it set up to have the lesser of two evils I guess and just direct water to bottom of my yard out of the way so if it gets muddy down there no big deal. But is the end of the drain supposed to be out of the ground? I feel like if its in the ground it will eventually back up and the drain will be useless.

Also, Should I place just perforated pipe in the water problem area then solid pipe to the end to where it will drain? or Perforated all the way?

Lastly, my neighbor said there is a pipe running at the bottom of his yard that the neighbor behind us has that runs into a pond like structure that all their water drains into and he let him run his drain into his and I should ask him if i can do the same. If I ask and hes ok with that I would have to cut a hole into that pipe the same size as the pipe im using and put them together, but how could I make sure its a tight seal?

Alot of questions, thank you!!

 

A French drain must have an outlet, that is, somewhere for the collected water to go. If the "destination" is a pit or some place with a finite capacity then there must be some means such as a sump pump of emptying that out before it overflows.

Slope is not mandatory for a French drain but large amounts of water should not collect due to reverse slope or bellies (low points). It is normal for small amounts of water to remain and soak back into the soil.

(A "French drain" with no outlet is technically a leach field even though it may have been constructed in the same manner.)