Yard drainage · Lock Haven, PA
Yard drainage and French drains.
We install French drains, tie in downspouts and regrade yards that hold water, working from Lock Haven across Clinton, Lycoming, Centre and Union counties. Every job starts with a free estimate: we walk the yard with you, look at where the water sits and measure.
- Pipe in washed stone, fabric sock
- Downspouts tied into solid pipe
- Daylight outlet or dry well
- 6-month workmanship warranty
What a French drain does.
A French drain is a trench with perforated pipe laid in washed stone. Water in the soil moves into the stone, enters the pipe and runs downhill to an outlet instead of sitting in your yard or against your foundation.
We wrap the pipe in a fabric sock to keep fine soil out of it, and we send the water to a daylight outlet or a dry well.
Our guide Do I need a French drain? goes deeper on when one is the right fix.
Signs your yard needs drainage work.
Give us a call if you see any of these after an ordinary rain.
- Water standing in the same low spot for a day or more
- A soggy strip along the foundation or under a downspout
- Water running down the driveway into the garage
- Mulch or soil washing out of beds and across a walk
- A patch of lawn that stays wet even in dry weather
How we build it.
These are the parts of our Grade & Drain build. Trench length, outlet and the number of downspouts are set at the site walk and written into your price.
| Pipe | Perforated pipe in a fabric sock |
|---|---|
| Stone | Pipe bedded in washed stone |
| Downspouts | Tied into solid pipe and carried away from the house |
| Grading | Ground regraded to pitch water away from the house |
| Outlet | Daylight outlet or dry well |
| Before digging | PA One Call (811) called, as state law requires |
Grade & Drain package sizes.
If your yard fits one of these three sizes, you pay the listed price; a free 15-minute site walk confirms it before you sign. You’ll find financing options on the package page.
Daylight outlet or dry well.
Water collected by a French drain has to go somewhere. Where the yard falls away to a spot where water can come out at the surface, we run the pipe to a daylight outlet.
Where there’s no downhill spot to reach, a dry well holds the water underground and lets it soak into the soil. Our dry well vs. French drain guide compares the two.
We pick the outlet at the site walk, after we’ve seen how your yard falls.
What to expect.
- We call PA One Call (811) before digging, so utility marks may show up on your lawn first.
- Drainage permits, where a township or borough requires one, are yours to get and pay for; we’ll tell you what we know at the site walk.
- The crew will need to use water and electricity at the house during the job.
- Up front, you pay one-third of the contract price at most; special-order material named in the contract is the only exception.
- Your drainage work is covered by our 6-month written workmanship warranty.
Drainage as part of a bigger dig.
Wet ground often turns up while you’re planning a patio, a wall or a new slab. If drainage is one piece of a larger job, the same crews can do the grading, footings and clearing too.
Our excavation and site work page covers the rest of what we dig.
Questions.
Do I need a French drain or just better grading?
If water soaks into the ground and sits below the surface, a French drain gives it a path out. If it runs across the top or comes straight off the roof, regrading and tying in downspouts may solve it without a trench. Our guide on why a yard holds water after rain walks through the causes, and we tell you which fix we’d use after walking the yard.
Can you tie my downspouts into the drain?
Yes. Downspouts get tied into solid pipe, not perforated pipe, so roof water is carried away instead of soaking back in next to the foundation. The medium and large Grade & Drain sizes include downspout tie-ins. Our guide on how to bury a downspout explains the details.
What happens to the lawn along the trench?
The trench does cross lawn, and stone and pipe go in where the sod was. Lawn repair and seeding come with the job only if the contract includes them, so ask for them in your quote.
How much does a French drain cost?
The Grade & Drain package shows a fixed price on the website for three sizes, confirmed on a free 15-minute site walk. Longer runs, extra dry wells and more downspouts are priced in writing after we measure. The French drain cost guide has more on cost.
French drain or trench drain: what’s the difference?
A French drain is buried perforated pipe in stone that takes water out of the soil. A trench drain is a channel with a grate set flush with a driveway or patio to catch water running across the surface. We build both, along with storm pipe, culverts and dry wells.
How far from Lock Haven do you install French drains?
Our drainage work covers Clinton, Lycoming, Centre and Union counties, along with Danville, Selinsgrove, Milton, Watsontown and other towns close by. For towns farther out, travel is built into the package price. In Williamsport, see drainage and French drains in Williamsport.
Get your wet yard looked at.
Book a free estimate, and we’ll walk the yard with you, find where the water collects and price the fix in writing.