finishing a basement with French drain

[joshhudm]

Hi everyone, I am planning on finishing a basement with a French drain.my question is, do I place the wood framing right over top the basement, or do I move the framing a few inches out and leave a gap?

[HayZee518]

how deep is the drain and what is it made of? aggregate and sand. aggragate [coarse] then fine then sand ???
how well does it drain? any back ups?

[joshhudm]

Its a new house we are buying and I am just getting ahead of myself... Looks like right now its filled with rocks, not sure how deep or if it backs up. Basement seemed pretty dry when we. Checked it out.

[HayZee518]

since you know the make-up of the drain, now's time to find out what drains into it, how often etc.
if you are finishing the basement I would place a perforated cover over it for access if it should ever have problems.
maybe even enclose it into a cubby hole of some sorts for that access.
be sure to install a vapor barrier towards the living space to keep moisture away from the wall surfaces.

[pushkins]

It's always tricky attaching directly to a basement wall, the last thing you want to do is create a place for moisture to enter, it's going to depend on just how the exterior is sealed, makes me wonder why there is an internal french drain ?
I prefer a gap of a couple of inches between wall and basement wall, it avoids drilling into the basement wall and allows free flow of air up against the block wall. Unless I know for sure how the basement wall as waterproofed, if it's finished on the exterior side with membrane and sealer WITH a perimeter drain then I'm far more likely to attach directly to the wall. You would need to remember that in this case you wouldn't add insulation with a vapor barrier as this would trap moisture, in this case you would use only unfaced insulation.