What a French Drain Costs in the Pittsburgh Area
Why two quotes for the same yard come back thousands apart, and how to tell which one is actually cheaper.
Why nobody can give you a number over the phone
A French drain is not one product with one price. A short run to daylight through soft ground is a different job from a deep run around a foundation that needs a pump because gravity has nowhere to take the water.
That is why we do not publish a number on this site. Any figure we printed would be right for some yards and badly wrong for others, and the ones it is wrong for are the ones that matter.
What is worth understanding before you get quotes is what moves the number, because that is what lets you read two quotes and tell which is which.
What actually drives the price
In roughly the order they matter:
- The outlet, more than anything else. If the grade lets water leave by gravity to daylight, the job is straightforward. If it does not, you need a dry well or a pump and a discharge line, and that adds to both the cost and the long term maintenance.
- Depth. A deeper trench means more spoil, more stone, and sometimes shoring. Depth moves a number more than length does.
- Access. If a machine can reach the work, it is a day. If everything has to be hand dug because of a narrow side yard, the labor multiplies.
- Surface restoration. This is the line people forget. Cutting and replacing a driveway or a patio can cost more than the drain underneath it.
- Length, which is the one everybody asks about first and is usually the least important of the five.
What should be included, whatever it costs
A quote is only comparable to another quote if both say what is going in the ground. Look for:
- Perforated pipe, not solid, and not thin corrugated pipe that crushes under backfill.
- Washed stone the full height of the trench, not a token layer under the pipe.
- Filter fabric wrapping the stone so silt cannot migrate in and clog it.
- Continuous fall to a real outlet, with that outlet named.
- Compacted backfill, topsoil and seed.
If a quote does not say what pipe, what stone, and where the water goes, it is not comparable to one that does. It is usually cheaper for exactly that reason.
Cheaper is sometimes the correct answer
If the actual problem is grading or downspouts, then the right job is smaller and costs less, and we would rather quote that one.
A drain installed to solve a grading problem does not solve it. That is an expensive way to find out what was wrong.
Why do quotes vary so much for the same job?
Usually because they are not the same job. Depth, outlet, pipe and stone specification, and restoration vary hugely and are often left unstated. Ask each contractor what pipe, what stone, and where the water goes, and the quotes stop looking so different.
Is a French drain worth it?
If subsurface water is getting against your foundation, yes. It is considerably cheaper than the foundation and finish work that follows years of saturation.
How long does installation take?
Most residential runs are one to three days. Hand digging, deep runs, or hard restoration extend that.
Why will you not put a price on this page?
Because we price off a walkthrough. We would rather tell you nothing than tell you a number that turns out to be wrong once we see the access and the outlet. You get a written scope with a fixed price in it after we have looked.
Tell us what you are trying to do
Send a few photos and what you have in mind. You get a straight answer about scope and what the job involves before anyone asks you for money.