i30 Builders · Residential
French Drain and Yard Drainage Contractor in DFW
French drains, surface drains, buried downspout lines and regrading, so water leaves the yard instead of sitting in it.
Written scope and locked price before any deposit. One-year workmanship warranty.
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Clay does not soak it up. The fix is moving the water.
Most of North Texas sits on Blackland Prairie clay, and wet clay takes on almost no water. Rain that would soak into sandy ground sits on top of it instead: it ponds in the low spots, stands against the slab, and leaves the lawn soft for days after a storm.
So drainage here is not about helping the ground absorb more. It is about collecting the water where it gathers and carrying it somewhere it can leave: a French drain along the wet line, a surface drain or catch basin where it pools, downspouts piped underground instead of emptying at the foundation, and a grade that falls away from the house. Where the water needs a path you can see, a dry creek bed of river rock carries it across the yard and reads as landscaping rather than a ditch. We tie into the downspouts you already have; we do not install gutters.
The hard part is usually the end of the pipe. The water has to discharge somewhere it is allowed to go, such as the street, a drainage easement or a lower part of your own yard, and never onto a neighbor's lot. Where that point is, and how far away, sets most of the job.
Drainage is also the other half of a retaining wall. A wall with no drain behind it is holding back wet clay every time it rains, and that is what fails it. Where a yard needs both, we plan the wall drain and the yard drainage as one line to one discharge point.
Pricing
We quote drainage from the walk.
Two yards with the same puddle can be very different jobs. One has a lower corner twenty feet away to drain to. The other has to run pipe the length of the house to reach the street, under a walk and across the sprinkler lines. How far the water travels, how deep the pipe runs and what is in the way set the number, and none of it is knowable from a phone call.
A site walk, ideally after a rain or with photos of one, then a written scope with the route, the discharge point and a real number in it.
Already in the price
- Utility locates called in before any digging
- Trench cut to a continuous fall to the discharge point, and checked before it is backfilled
- Perforated pipe bedded in washed gravel and wrapped in filter fabric, so soil does not wash in and clog it
- A cleanout on longer runs, so the line can be flushed rather than dug up
- Trench backfilled and compacted, and excess soil hauled off
- One-year workmanship warranty
How we quote it
A site walk, then a written scope back within five business days. The scope names the work, the materials and the price, and the price does not move unless the scope does.
Anything found behind a wall or under a slab that changes the work gets priced and approved before we touch it. That is a change of work, in writing, not a surprise on the final invoice.
Payment is by ACH, card, check or cash, on the schedule written into the contract.
What Moves the Number
Up and down, before you ask for a quote.
Pushes price up
- Distance to a legal discharge point, which sets the length of the run
- Depth, where the pipe has to go deeper to keep its fall over a long or flat run
- Concrete, a walk or a driveway that has to be cut or bored under
- Sprinkler lines and buried utilities crossing the route
- Several downspouts or surface drains tied into the same line
- Regrading, where the ground itself slopes toward the house
- Hand digging where equipment cannot reach the back yard
Keeps price down
- A low corner or open easement close to where the water collects
- One wet area rather than water across the whole yard
- Open lawn along the route, with no concrete to cut
- Equipment access through a gate or down the side of the house
- Doing it before new flatwork, a patio cover or a retaining wall goes in, rather than after
Common Questions
What does a French drain cost?
We quote drainage from a site walk rather than publishing a rate, because the length of pipe is only part of it. How far the water has to travel to somewhere it can legally go, how deep the trench runs to keep its fall, and what is in the way, such as sprinkler lines, buried utilities or concrete that has to be cut, move the number more than the size of the puddle does. Tell us where the water sits and which way the yard falls, and you will get a written number.
Do I need a permit for a French drain?
Usually not for drainage that stays on your own lot. That can change when the line discharges into the street, a storm drain or a drainage easement, which some cities want to review or approve first, and your HOA may have its own rules. It varies by city, so we check where your water is going and what applies at the walk, before anything is dug.
French drain or surface drain?
They catch different water. A French drain is a gravel trench with perforated pipe in it, and it collects water that sits in or seeps across saturated ground along a line, such as a soggy strip beside the house or the foot of a slope. A surface drain is a grate or catch basin at a low spot, and it takes water that pools on top, off a patio or out of a downspout, into solid pipe. Many yards need both, feeding one line to the same discharge point.
Will drainage fix water against my foundation?
It deals with the water. Water standing against a slab on clay is one of the things that makes a foundation move, and carrying it away with drains, buried downspout lines and a grade that falls away from the house takes that water out of the picture. It does not repair a foundation that has already moved. Cracks, sticking doors or a slab out of level are a question for a foundation engineer, and we do not do foundation repair.
How long does a French drain last?
A well-built one lasts a long time, and what decides it is whether soil gets into the gravel. That is what the filter fabric is for: it lets water through and keeps silt out, so the stone and the pipe stay open. Beyond that, keep the grates and the discharge point clear of leaves and grass clippings, and flush the line through the cleanout if it ever slows.
How long does drainage work take?
A typical yard run is often a day or two on site. Longer runs, several downspouts tied in, concrete to cut or regrading across the yard take longer, and where a city has to approve a discharge into the street or an easement, that review comes first. You will know the schedule at the walk.
Get a Written Scope
Tell us what you are looking at and roughly how much of it. We price the scope, and the price does not move unless the scope does.
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