Standing water in a North Texas yard is a grade and discharge problem before it is a pipe problem. We install french drains, surface drains, and swales that give every gallon a designed path off the property.
Credibility comes from how it's done, not from promises. Here's the order of operations on every drainage & french drains job.
We walk the lot, ideally while the last storm's stain and silt lines are still readable, and map where water enters, where it collects, and where it has to leave. The design starts at the discharge point and works backward to the trench, never the reverse.
Water sitting in the soil wants a french drain. Sheet flow across the surface wants a swale or a surface drain. Roof water wants buried downspout lines carried past the foundation. Most lots need a mix, and we tell you plainly which pieces you can skip.
A drain line only works when it falls continuously toward its outlet. We cut to a checked grade so the pipe drains its full length instead of parking water in a low belly that silts up and quits.
Perforated pipe, washed gravel, and a filter-fabric wrap that keeps Blackland clay fines from silting the system closed. Cleanouts go in wherever the run length means the line will need to be flushed later.
Trenches get backfilled, compacted, and dressed until the yard reads whole again. Then we run water through the system and watch it exit at the outlet before we call the job finished.
Most dirt-work outfits go quiet once the tractor leaves. We pick up the phone, show up when we say, and come back after the first hard rain if something needs a second pass. The follow-through is the difference.
An operator we know runs your job and a vetted crew does the work, managed by GradeWerx, one company accountable from the first walkthrough to the final grade check.
COI on file before the first machine unloads. The documentation that lets builders and commercial clients release payment and gives homeowners peace of mind.
Prepared subgrade, compaction in lifts, positive drainage away from every structure, and a laser-checked final grade. We earn trust through the process, not promises. On drainage & french drains, that starts with read the water before the pipe.
Expansive clay moves with every wet and dry cycle and sheds fines that choke a cheap drain from the inside. Fabric-wrapped gravel sections, pipe set on measured fall, and cleanouts you can actually service are what separate a working system from a buried pipe that stops draining in its second season.
Most french drain and swale projects here run between $1,500 and $8,000. What moves the number is the length of the run, how deep the trench has to go, whether equipment can reach the work or it has to be hand-dug near the house, the discharge solution at the outlet, and how much surface has to be restored afterward. We set the price after walking the property and seeing where the water is headed, not off a phone call we would only be guessing at.
If the ground stays soggy and holds water underfoot, that is subsurface water, and a french drain is the right call. If water sheets across the surface and ponds, a surface drain, a channel drain, or a regraded swale usually clears it for less money. We diagnose which one you have before we quote either.
To a legal, sensible outlet at a lower grade than everything feeding it, because a drain is only as good as the place it lets go. In practice that means daylighting the line where the ground falls away, tying into the street or curb where the city allows it, or running to a dedicated drainage easement. What we never do is aim water at a neighbor's lot or across a property line, which is both a bad-neighbor move and, in most North Texas jurisdictions, against the drainage rules. We settle the outlet on paper before the first trench is cut, because designing a drain from the discharge point backward is the difference between a system that empties itself and a pipe that just relocates the puddle. On a tight lot with no obvious low corner, finding that outlet is half the job, and sometimes the honest answer is a sump and a pump rather than gravity.
Usually flat or inverted grade, compacted clay that refuses to absorb, roof water dumping faster than the yard can shed it, or all three at once. The fix might be regrading, drainage, or both together, and the walkthrough is what tells us which.
A drain placed correctly intercepts water before it can sit against the slab, and on expansive clay it is that steady moisture cycle at the perimeter that keeps a foundation moving. We pair drains with surface grading so the grade itself is the first thing moving water away, and the pipe is the backup.
Most residential french drain and regrade systems are measured in days, not weeks. A single straight run in reachable ground can go in and get dressed back in a day or two; a lot that needs several lines, deep trenching near the foundation, or a good deal of surface put back together runs longer. What stretches a schedule is hand-digging where a machine cannot fit, hitting rock or old utilities, and the amount of sod, beds, and hardscape we have to restore at the end. You get a realistic window up front, not a vague soon, and a call the day anything shifts, because wet-season weather is the one variable we will not pretend away: saturated ground will not trench or backfill clean, so a storm week can push a start. We would rather move a day than churn your yard into mud that has to be redone.
We bring drainage & french drains to Burleson, Celina, Midlothian, Royse City, Weatherford, and more of the DFW metroplex. All service areas →
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Or call (817) 865-1077