You stop seeing standing water around your foundation after every storm. Your crawl space doesn’t smell like mildew anymore. The humidity drops, your HVAC doesn’t work as hard, and your energy bills reflect it.
That’s what proper landscape drainage solutions do. They redirect water before it pools, before it seeps, before it creates the kind of problems that cost thousands to fix later.
North Carolina’s clay soil expands when it gets wet and contracts when it dries. That constant movement puts pressure on your foundation. A French drain installation handles both surface drainage and subsurface water, keeping soil stable and your home structurally sound. You’re not just moving water—you’re protecting what you’ve invested in.
We’ve spent three decades helping homeowners in Sedgefield and the Greensboro area deal with moisture issues that affect indoor air quality and structural integrity. Rick and Noah Watson are NADCA-certified professionals who understand how water moves through North Carolina soil and what it takes to stop it.
We started with crawl space encapsulation and air duct cleaning. French drain installation became a natural extension because water control and air quality go hand in hand. When your crawl space stays dry, your home stays healthier.
We know Sedgefield’s soil. We know the rainfall patterns. We’ve seen what happens when drainage fails, and we’ve fixed it enough times to know what actually works long-term.
We start by walking your property to see where water collects and where it needs to go. Every yard drains differently. We’re looking at slope, soil type, existing drainage, and how your downspouts discharge.
Once we map the flow, we trench along the problem areas—usually around your foundation, near crawl space vents, or along low spots in your yard. The trench gets lined with landscape fabric, filled with gravel, and fitted with perforated pipe that captures water and moves it away from your home. We make sure the slope is right so gravity does the work.
The system gets covered and graded so it blends with your landscaping. Water flows into the trench, filters through the gravel, enters the pipe, and gets carried to a safe discharge point away from your foundation. You won’t see it working, but you’ll notice the difference when the next storm rolls through and your crawl space stays dry.
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You get a system designed for your property, not a one-size-fits-all trench. We account for Sedgefield’s clay soil, which doesn’t drain like sand or loam. Clay holds water, so the system has to be deep enough and graded correctly or it won’t work when you need it most.
We integrate downspout drainage so roof runoff doesn’t dump next to your foundation. That’s one of the biggest mistakes we see—gutters doing their job but discharging right where water causes the most damage. A proper French drain repair or installation ties everything together so water moves in one direction: away.
You also get a system built to last. We use the right materials, the right depth, and the right discharge planning. North Carolina gets intense rainfall, and your drainage system has to handle it without backing up or eroding. When we’re done, you have a system that works through hard rains, not just light drizzle. And because we specialize in crawl space moisture control, we’re thinking about your home’s air quality and structural health, not just surface water.
Most French drain installations in the Sedgefield area run between $20 and $60 per linear foot, depending on depth, soil conditions, and how much grading or discharge work is involved. A typical residential system covering foundation perimeter and key drainage areas usually falls between $3,000 and $10,000.
Clay soil costs more to trench than sandy soil. If we’re tying in downspout drains or running pipe to a distant discharge point, that adds footage. If your yard needs regrading or we’re working around landscaping, that affects labor.
We give you a clear estimate after walking your property. No surprises, no upselling. You’ll know what the system includes, why it’s priced that way, and what you’re getting for the investment.
A properly installed French drain can last 20 to 30 years or more if it’s built right from the start. The pipe itself doesn’t wear out. What fails is poor installation—wrong slope, cheap materials, or no landscape fabric to keep soil out of the gravel.
In North Carolina, clay soil and heavy rainfall put more stress on drainage systems than in drier climates. If the trench isn’t deep enough or the discharge point isn’t planned correctly, you’ll see problems within a few years. That’s why installation quality matters more than the materials themselves.
We install systems that handle this area’s conditions. That means proper depth, the right gravel, and discharge planning that accounts for how water moves during heavy storms. You’re not replacing this in five years if it’s done right the first time.
Yes, and that’s one of the main reasons homeowners in Sedgefield install them. If water pools around your foundation, it seeps into your crawl space. That raises humidity, encourages mold growth, and makes your home smell musty. A French drain stops water before it gets that far.
We see this all the time—crawl spaces with standing water, wet insulation, and air quality problems that start with poor exterior drainage. You can run a dehumidifier and encapsulate the crawl space, but if water keeps coming in from outside, you’re treating the symptom, not the cause.
French drain installation combined with crawl space encapsulation gives you a complete moisture control system. Water gets redirected outside, and your crawl space stays dry year-round. That’s how you protect your home’s air quality and structural integrity at the same time.
A French drain is buried and handles subsurface water—it captures water that’s soaking into the soil and redirects it underground. A trench drain sits at ground level with a grated top and handles surface water, like runoff from driveways or patios.
Most homes in Sedgefield need French drains because the issue is water saturating the soil around the foundation. Trench drains work better for hardscaped areas where you need to catch water before it flows toward the house or pools on concrete.
Sometimes you need both. If you have a sloped driveway that sends runoff toward your foundation, a trench drain at the bottom catches surface flow, and a French drain handles what’s already in the ground. We assess your property and recommend what actually solves the problem, not what’s easiest to install.
It depends on the scope of work and local regulations in Sedgefield and Guilford County. Most residential French drain installations don’t require permits if you’re keeping the work on your property and not altering stormwater flow into public systems or neighboring lots.
If the system ties into municipal drainage or affects shared property lines, you’ll likely need approval. Same goes if you’re doing major grading or excavation work that changes how water flows off your property.
We handle this during the planning phase. If permits are needed, we’ll let you know upfront and make sure everything’s filed correctly. The last thing you want is a drainage system that works great but violates local codes. We keep it compliant so you don’t have issues down the road.
You can, but the most common problems we fix are DIY installations that didn’t work. The trench needs the right slope—at least 1% grade, ideally more—or water won’t flow. The pipe has to be perforated correctly and positioned holes-down so water enters from the gravel, not the top. And the discharge point has to be lower than the trench or the system backs up.
North Carolina clay soil makes this harder. It doesn’t drain naturally, so if your gravel layer isn’t thick enough or you skip the landscape fabric, soil clogs the system within a year or two. We’ve dug up plenty of DIY French drains that stopped working because the pipe filled with sediment.
If you’re handy and the job is small—like a 20-foot run along a garden bed—you might pull it off. But if you’re protecting your foundation or crawl space, the cost of getting it wrong is way higher than the cost of professional installation. We’ve been doing this for 30 years. We know what works in this soil and this climate.
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