French Drains and Yard Drainage
Standing water in the yard, a wet basement wall, a soggy strip that never dries out. These are grading and drainage problems, and they are fixable once you know where the water is actually coming from.
Why your yard holds water
Water is simple. It goes downhill and it stops where it cannot leave. When it is sitting against your house, one of a small number of things is true: the grade runs the wrong way, the downspouts are dumping at the foundation, the soil is heavy clay with nowhere to drain, or an old drain line has collapsed and nobody knows it.
It matters which one it is. A French drain installed to fix a problem that was actually a grading problem will not work, and you will have paid several thousand dollars to learn that. This is the single most common thing we get called to redo.
Around here the usual culprit is the first one on that list. Backfill settles against the foundation until the grade tips back toward the house. It happens slowly enough that nobody notices until there is water in the basement.
How we do it
Every job runs the same sequence. If something changes it, you hear about it the day we find it.
We find the source
Before we quote pipe, we work out where the water is coming from. Roof runoff, surface grade, groundwater, or a failed line. The fix is different for each one.
Check the grade against the foundation
Ground should fall away from the house. If it does not, sometimes regrading alone solves the problem and you do not need a drain at all. We will tell you that even though it is the smaller job.
Set the line where the water is
A French drain is perforated pipe in washed stone, wrapped in filter fabric, set below the wet zone with continuous fall to a real outlet. Every one of those words matters.
Give it somewhere to go
This is where most drainage work fails. A drain with no outlet is a buried bathtub. Daylight if the grade allows, a dry well or a pump if it does not.
Restore and test it
Backfill, topsoil, seed. Then we want to see it in real rain. If something is not moving the way it should, we come back.
What it costs
What moves the number
Drainage is priced by length, depth, and above all by where the water can be sent. What that means job by job:
| Work | What changes the price |
|---|---|
| French drain, standard run | Length, depth, stone volume, and outlet distance |
| Downspout burial and discharge | Number of downspouts and run length to daylight |
| Regrading around the foundation | Area, fill volume, and access |
| Sump pump excavation and discharge line | Interior or exterior, pit depth, and discharge run |
| Dry well | Volume required and soil percolation |
If a walkthrough shows the fix is regrading rather than a drain, we will quote the regrading. That is a smaller job and we would rather do the right one.
We price off a site visit, not off a photograph, so you will not find a number on this page. You will get a written scope with a fixed price in it, and it will say what is included and what is not before you are asked for anything.
The work
Photographs from our own jobs.
Questions
Before you call anyone
Worth reading first
How do I know if I need a French drain or just better grading?
If the water shows up during and right after rain and sits in a low spot, it is usually surface grade. If the ground stays saturated for days, or a basement wall weeps well after the rain stops, that is subsurface water and a drain is the right tool. We work that out at the walkthrough, not on the phone.
How long does a French drain last?
Properly built, decades. The two things that kill them are no filter fabric, which lets silt clog the stone, and no real outlet. Corrugated pipe crushed by settling backfill is the other common failure we dig up.
Can you fix a drain someone else installed?
Often, yes. We usually find one of three things: no fall, no outlet, or pipe laid straight into dirt with no stone or fabric. Sometimes it can be reworked. Sometimes it is cheaper to do it properly once.
Will this fix my wet basement?
If the water is getting in because of surface and shallow groundwater against the wall, yes, and exterior drainage plus grading is the right first move. If there is a structural crack or a failed interior system, that is a different scope and we will say so.
Do you have to dig up the whole yard?
No. A drain follows the water, which is usually one run along one side of the house or across one low area. We restore the trench line with topsoil and seed.
Need French drains & yard drainage in the North Hills?
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.