Drainage Solutions & Repair for Wet Yards & Basements

It depends on whether you have somewhere to send the water. A French drain intercepts water and carries it to an outlet — it needs a place to daylight or tie in. A drywell is for when there's no outlet: it stores water and lets it soak into the soil. Many yards need one, some need both, and some need neither — just a regrade. We figure out which on site.

No — and it's the core of how we work. Sometimes the right fix is a $1,500 regrade, not a $9,000 system, and we'll tell you straight. We diagnose where your water actually comes from before quoting, and we quote the smallest fix that genuinely solves it. The decision stays yours.

Because drainage is water management through earthwork, not a product you bolt on. Solving it means reading the site's water flow, knowing the soil profile, digging deep, running a surveyed slope, and backfilling with engineered material. That's iron-and-earth work — a landscaper with a rented trencher can't regrade to plan or solve a foundation drain the way an excavation crew can.

Over time, yes — standing water at the wall is what leads to cracks, settling, and mold, and it's the most expensive problem to ignore. The good news is the fix is well understood: get roof water away, regrade the first 6 to 10 feet to fall away from the house, and intercept groundwater with a perimeter drain. The sooner it's handled, the cheaper it stays.

We're based in Plymouth and handle drainage across Plymouth, Barnstable, Bristol, and Norfolk Counties — from the South Shore down to the Cape and over to the South Coast.

Exterior yard French drains typically run about $10 to $65 per linear foot, so a full-yard project usually lands somewhere in the few-thousand to low-five-figure range depending on length. What drives your number: the length and depth of the run, your soil (ledge and hardpan add cost, and we have both here), whether there's a gravity outlet or a drywell is needed, machine access, and restoration scope. The estimate is free and we quote the smallest fix that solves it.

An installed drywell typically runs about $1,350 to $4,255 depending on size and depth — and the size comes from an infiltration calculation against your actual soil, not a guess. We'll also tell you honestly whether your site even needs one, or whether there's a daylight outlet that's a cheaper path.

Sometimes — it depends on where the work is. If your property is within a wetland buffer zone (typically 100 feet of a wetland or 200 feet of a perennial stream, which is common in this area), any earthwork falls under the Wetlands Protection Act and needs Conservation Commission review before you start. Commercial lots may have MS4 stormwater obligations. We handle the filings, the Order of Conditions, and the town-submittal package as part of the job.

Yes — we do it all the time. First we diagnose why it failed, because most failed drains were bad installs: no filter fabric, the wrong stone, no slope, or no real outlet. Sometimes the existing run can be saved with a new outlet or a cleaned, re-fabricked section; sometimes it's faster and cheaper to reroute it correctly. Either way, you get the honest reason the last one failed so you know this one won't.

Built right, a French drain should last decades — we back ours with a 10-year workmanship warranty. They clog when fines migrate into the gravel because there's no filter fabric or the wrong fabric was used, when rounded stone packs tight and loses its void space, or when there's no slope so sediment settles. Prevent those at install and the drain keeps working. That's why how it's built matters more than that it exists.

Drainage work means trenching, so the lawn gets opened — but we finish what we dig. Backfill gets compacted, then we loam and seed (or sod where it makes sense) so the yard looks finished, not like a job site. Restoration is part of the job, not an afterthought — from first scoop to final seed, we handle it.

Sooner is better, because every storm makes a wet-foundation or eroding-slope problem worse. We work year-round; frozen ground in winter adds some effort but rarely stops the job, and getting on the spring schedule before the heavy rains means you're dry when you'd otherwise be bailing. If water's reaching your foundation, don't wait for the perfect season.

Yes. Parking-lot ponding, building-perimeter drainage, erosion on a lot, and catch-basin systems are core work for us. We handle the engineering, the infiltration calcs, the dig with our own crew, and the documentation — as-builts and compaction tests — so your owner, lender, or the town gets paperwork they'll accept. As a Town of Plymouth Approved Utility Contractor carrying $2M liability, we're built for work that has to be documented.

Yes. If the town is enforcing an MS4 stormwater obligation or your project counts as land disturbance, we assemble the compliance paperwork and the town-submittal package, size infiltration to your soil, and document the install. One accountable vendor doing the engineering, the permitting, and the dig — instead of you coordinating an engineer, a permit consultant, and a separate crew.