Move the water
before it moves you.

Standing water is a solvable problem.

Standing water in the yard usually means the grade is wrong, the soil compacted, the downspouts are dumping at the foundation, or all three. The fix is rarely glamorous and almost never visible after we leave. It's also usually the most important thing happening on the property.

Bad drainage costs more than the drain. It costs you the basement, the foundation, the planting, and eventually the patio. We solve it before it gets there.

What we install

• French drains. Perforated pipe in gravel trench, wrapped in fabric, daylighted to a safe outlet.
• Surface drains and catch basins. Low-point grates that capture sheet flow before it reaches the house.
• Downspout extensions. Buried solid pipe carrying roof water 10-30 feet away from the foundation.
• Regrading. Soil moved and shaped to push water away from buildings and toward outlets.
• Dry creek beds and swales. Decorative drainage features that move water and hold the look.
• Erosion control. Stabilizing slopes with planting, matting, and stone.

How we diagnose

The first visit is a property walk during dry weather, ideally with photos or video of what happens during a storm. We look at roof flow, gutter condition, slope, soil type, and existing drains. The fix is usually a combination, not a single drain.

Five things you can check before you call anyone

Most people know something is wrong long before they know it is drainage. These are the five signs we see most often on Richmond properties, and you can check all of them yourself in about ten minutes.

• Standing water a day after the rain. Richmond clay holds water. If the yard is still pooling on Monday after a Friday storm, that is not a wet week, that is drainage.
• Soft ground against the house. Mushy lawn next to the foundation means water is sitting exactly where it can do the most expensive damage. It looks like a lawn problem and it is not.
• Mulch that keeps washing out. If you are re-mulching every six weeks, that is not a mulch problem. Water is moving across the beds in a direction nobody chose.
• Moss where grass used to be. Moss wants shade and wet. Spreading moss in a spot that used to grow grass means the ground under it stopped draining.
• A downspout that ends in a puddle. A downspout stopping six inches from the foundation is a hose pointed at the house. The fix is usually below ground and it is usually the cheapest thing on the list.

Two or more of these on the same property is worth a walk. One of them on its own often is too, because the visible symptom and the actual cause are frequently in different parts of the yard.