Drainage Solutions in Springfield, MO

French Drains

For groundwater that's already in the yard.

A French drain is perforated pipe bedded in gravel and set below grade, so water in the soil moves into the pipe instead of sitting in your lawn. It's the right answer when the problem is saturated ground rather than roof runoff — a low spot that stays wet, a slope that drains toward the house, or a stretch of yard that stays soft long after everyone else's has dried.

The trench is cut on a consistent fall so water keeps moving, and the run ends where the water can safely leave: daylighted at a lower point on the property or brought up to an emitter well away from the foundation.

• Perforated pipe in a gravel bed
• Graded for continuous fall
• Outlet placed away from the foundation

Buried Downspout Drains

For roof runoff dumping at the foundation.

A roof sheds a surprising volume of water, and a downspout that ends at a splash block puts all of it into the ground within a few feet of your foundation. Burying the line carries that water underground and releases it at a pop-up emitter at least 8 feet out, so it leaves the house instead of soaking in beside it.

We run solid 4″ PVC rather than the flexible corrugated pipe often used for this. Corrugated pipe collects sediment in every ridge, clogs, and crushes under a vehicle or settled soil — and a buried drain that fails is worse than none, because nothing shows on the surface until water is back at the foundation.

• Solid 4″ PVC, not corrugated
• Pop-up emitter sits flush, mows right over
• Minimum 8 ft from the house, farther where needed

Trench Drains

For water crossing a hard surface.

A trench drain is essentially a long, narrow catch basin: a grated channel set flush with the surface that intercepts water across its entire length rather than at a single point. That makes it the right tool where water sheets across concrete or asphalt — a driveway running toward a garage, a patio draining toward a door, a low apron that collects everything above it.

The channel ties into corrugated pipe or PVC depending on what the site calls for, and carries the water to an outlet clear of the structure.

• Grated channel set flush with the surface
• Catches sheet flow across its full length
• Piped to an outlet clear of the structure