TL;DR
Drain tile is perforated pipe — originally short clay tiles, now usually corrugated HDPE or PVC — laid in a gravel-filled trench to collect subsurface water and carry it away from foundations, lawns, or soggy low spots. Residential runs are typically 4-inch pipe wrapped in filter fabric to keep silt out, pitched toward a daylight outlet, dry well, or sump basin.
What it means
Drain tile is perforated pipe — originally short clay tiles, now usually corrugated HDPE or PVC — laid in a gravel-filled trench to collect subsurface water and carry it away from foundations, lawns, or soggy low spots. Residential runs are typically 4-inch pipe wrapped in filter fabric to keep silt out, pitched toward a daylight outlet, dry well, or sump basin. Landscapers install it under chronically wet turf; the same product rings footings as a foundation drain.
Where it sits in the glossary
Drain tile is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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