Experienced Drainage Service

Drainage

Where land is flat, soils are dense, or the water table is high, having a well-designed drainage system is a priority. Without proper drainage solutions in place, water may collect to undermine structures and drown plants, turning parts of your landscape into perpetually wet swamps. Drainage also causes issues with your home and hardscaping such as sidewalks, decks, driveways, and patios. We use tried and true methods to manage water and eliminate it as a threat to your home.

Because we have years of experience, we know it is often not just one factor that contributes to drainage issues. Shade, water flow, gutter placement, and poor soils can all come into play. We examine all the existing conditions to develop a solution to your erosion or drainage issues that you will be satisfied with for years to come.

Drainage has been an issue we have been solving for clients for decades. In many cases we replaced the work of other companies that failed too early due to lack of focus on drainage. It can be a simple fix such as running downspouts in PVC (not corrugated) pipe to get water away from the house and landscaping to more complex solutions like dry creeks, grading swales, and installing French drains. Proper drainage solutions can not only provide longevity for your landscape and hardscape projects but can also take pressure off your foundation and prevent current or future leaking into the basement. We are not foundation specialists; however, we have been able to stop water from coming in by making corrections outside the house that were more cost effective than the high price of foundation work.

If a drainage solution is your primary concern or you are thinking of another project around the exterior of your home, let one of our experienced estimators review your property with you to come up with a plan that fits your needs and budget.

Downspouts – running downspouts a minimum of 10’ from the house where possible alleviates the pressure on your foundation caused by saturated soil. We use only PVC piping for this and install clean-outs and pop-up emitters with a gravel base to allow full drainage of the pipe, preventing freeze damage in the winter and stagnant water in the summer. Using black plastic pipe is not recommended as this product will fail, allowing soil and roots to infiltrate the pipe and prevent proper drainage—and this pipe cannot be serviced effectively if there ever is a clog. 



Swales – in many cases the best remedy is to manage the water that moves through your property. Correcting grade and using swales to achieve this can be a very cost-effective drainage solution. We cannot control how the water gets to your property but proper management of it as it moves through can prevent headaches down the road and make your yard more usable after rainfall.

Dry Creek – like swales, dry creeks are a way to manage water as it moves from point A to point B. They serve an elevated purpose to a swale in that if the water flow is high, or growing grass is not possible to keep soil in place, a properly installed dry creek will allow a high volume of water with zero erosion. There are also aesthetic benefits from a dry creek by landscaping around it to make it look like a natural feature of your property. We can design dry creeks for many budget ranges and give you peace of mind knowing that the water moving through your property will not cause damage or erosion.

French drains – for difficult areas French drains are highly effective at capturing and moving both active water during a storm or standing water after a storm. French drains are constructed differently depending on the problem, and not all French drains are created equal. We recommend that you educate yourself about the process before choosing a contractor for this work. We often see what people were told are French drains that were not designed properly to solve the issue and often fail or clog quickly (if they work at all). When you schedule an appointment with one of our estimators, they can go over our process for French drains and show why Red Oak can create a lasting solution for your drainage problem.

Reach out today to get started.

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