Field catalog · From $1,900
Drainage & Erosion Control
Swales · French drains · terracing · live staking
For the crawlspace that smells like a creek, the yard you lose a little more of every storm, and the driveway culvert that gives up every July downpour.
$150 on-site consult — credited in full to the project.
How we do it
Mountain water problems are honest problems: gravity plus 47 inches of annual rain plus clay that stops perking the moment it's saturated. Water will find the path — the only question is whether you choose that path or your foundation does. Drainage is the least glamorous thing we build and the work we're most proud of, because it's the difference between a landscape that lasts and one you rebuild every five years.
Every drainage job starts with watching the water — sometimes literally, in the rain, with a notebook. Then we build the fix from the top of the flow down: broad grassed swales to slow and steer sheet flow, French drains on gravel beds where water has to cross, catch basins at the low corners, dry creeks that are real infrastructure dressed in river stone. On steep grades we terrace with dry-laid stone, turning one erosive slope into level shelves that hold soil and, conveniently, make the best planting beds on the property.
The part most drainage contractors skip: roots. A slope isn't stable until something is holding it, so we finish erosion work with deep-rooted natives — little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), switchgrass, live-staked silky dogwood along wet toes of slope. Year one the stone does the work. Year three the roots do. That system is why we can put five years of warranty on work most outfits won't guarantee for one.
Questions we hear about this
Drainage & Erosion, asked and answered.
How do I know if I need drainage work or just gutters?
Rule of thumb: if the problem shows up more than six feet from the house, gutters alone won't fix it. Standing water, a soggy strip that never dries, rills cutting the slope, or a musty crawlspace all point to grade and flow. The $150 consult sorts it out either way — and we'll say so if a $300 downspout extension is the honest fix.
What does drainage work cost?
Downspout tie-ins and a simple French drain run start around $1,900. Full-yard systems with swales, basins, and a dry creek typically land $4,500–$12,000. Terraced slope stabilization is quoted after we see the grade. Fixed price before we dig, always.
Will my yard be wrecked after the digging?
For about two weeks it looks like surgery, we won't lie. Then the trenches settle, the seed comes in, and by the second month you can't find the lines. We photograph everything before we open ground and restore grade to match.
Can you fix erosion on a really steep bank?
That's our favorite call — it's the closest thing to trail work in this trade. Terracing, live staking, erosion fabric under deep-rooted natives. Banks we stabilized in 2016 are holding through every storm season since.
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