You stop worrying every time the forecast calls for heavy rain. Your basement stays dry, even during the storms that used to send water pooling around your foundation.
The crawl space stops turning into a swamp. No more musty smell creeping up through your floors. No more mold growing on your floor joists because the humidity finally drops below 60%.
Your foundation stops taking a beating from hydrostatic pressure. The clay soil around Alamance expands when it gets saturated, then shrinks when it dries out. That cycle cracks foundations and causes settlement. A properly installed french drain keeps that water moving away from your house instead of sitting there doing damage.
You’re not mopping up water or running dehumidifiers constantly. The space under your house becomes what it should be—dry, stable, and not costing you money in repairs.
We’ve spent over 30 years solving moisture problems for homes in the Greensboro area, including Alamance County. We’re BBB accredited with an A+ rating, and our owner Rick Watson holds ASCS and CVI certifications through NADCA.
We know what Alamance properties deal with. The Haw River and the creeks that run through this county weren’t designed for the amount of water we’ve been getting. Your infrastructure can’t handle it, and your home pays the price.
We’ve seen what happens when water sits around foundations here. The clay soil, the flooding from tropical storms, the basements that turn into pools. We install french drains that actually work when you need them—not systems that fail the first time you get three inches of rain in an afternoon.
We start by looking at where your water problem actually is. Not every property needs the same solution. We’re checking your grading, looking at where water pools, figuring out the best path to move it away from your foundation.
Then we trench. We use contractor-grade equipment to dig the path your drain needs to follow. Depth matters here—we’re going deep enough to catch water before it reaches your foundation, but not so deep we’re creating new problems.
We lay perforated pipe wrapped in filter fabric, then surround it with graded gravel. The fabric keeps soil from clogging the pipe. The gravel creates a channel for water to flow into the pipe and get carried away from your house. We’re not cutting corners on materials because cheap installations fail within a few years.
The water gets directed to a safe discharge point away from your foundation. Could be a drainage ditch, a dry well, or another location where the water won’t come back to haunt you. Most installations take one to two days depending on how much linear footage you need.
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You’re getting a system designed for North Carolina’s wet climate and Alamance’s soil conditions. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all trench drain. We’re accounting for your property’s specific drainage issues.
The installation includes proper grading around the trench, professional-grade perforated pipe, filter fabric that won’t clog in our clay soil, and enough gravel to keep water flowing even during heavy rain. We’re also making sure your discharge point actually works—there’s no point moving water 20 feet if it’s just going to flow back toward your house.
Alamance County took the worst of the flooding during Tropical Storm Chantal. Residents who’d lived here 51 years had never seen water like that. Your property needs surface drainage that can handle those extreme events, not just normal rain. A properly installed french drain works even when you’re getting several inches in a short window.
We also handle french drain repair if you’ve got an older system that’s failing. Sometimes the pipe collapses, sometimes tree roots invade, sometimes the whole thing just clogs up with sediment. We’ll assess whether repair makes sense or if you need a full replacement.
Most french drain installations run between $20 and $60 per linear foot depending on how deep we need to go, how difficult the terrain is, and what materials your property requires. A typical residential system covering 50 to 100 linear feet usually falls between $3,000 and $10,000.
Your cost depends on your specific situation. If we’re just handling surface drainage around one side of your house, you’re on the lower end. If we’re installing a full perimeter system with multiple discharge points because you’ve got water coming from several directions, the price goes up.
The clay soil common in Alamance adds to installation difficulty compared to sandy soil. We need to account for that when we’re trenching and selecting materials. Cheaper installations fail here because they don’t use the right approach for our soil conditions.
A properly installed french drain lasts 30 to 40 years if you maintain it. That lifespan assumes we used quality materials, installed it at the right depth, and you’re keeping your gutters clean so the system isn’t overwhelmed with roof runoff.
The filter fabric and gravel are what determine longevity. Cheap fabric clogs fast in clay soil. Low-quality gravel compacts and stops draining. We use materials that hold up to Alamance’s soil conditions because a system that fails in five years didn’t save you any money.
You’ll want to inspect the discharge point occasionally to make sure it’s not blocked. If you’ve got trees near the drain line, roots can eventually find their way in. But those are minor maintenance issues, not system failures. A well-built french drain should outlast most other home improvements you make.
Yes, if the flooding is caused by surface water or groundwater saturating the soil around your foundation. A french drain intercepts that water before it reaches your basement walls and redirects it away from your house.
If your basement floods because of a high water table pushing up from below, you might need an interior drainage system with a sump pump instead. If it’s because your foundation has cracks that are letting water through, you need both waterproofing and drainage.
Most basement flooding in Alamance happens because water pools around the foundation during heavy rain. Our clay soil doesn’t absorb water quickly, so it sits there building up hydrostatic pressure until it finds a way into your basement. A french drain solves that by giving the water somewhere else to go. You’re not fighting the water anymore—you’re just moving it before it becomes your problem.
Yes, but it requires a different approach than sandy soil. Clay doesn’t drain well on its own, which is exactly why properties in Alamance need french drains in the first place. The installation has to account for clay’s tendency to expand when wet and shrink when dry.
We use more gravel in clay soil installations to create a larger drainage channel. The perforated pipe needs to be surrounded by enough gravel that water can flow freely even when the clay around it is saturated. We also use heavy-duty filter fabric that won’t clog with fine clay particles.
The trench depth matters more in clay soil too. We’re going deep enough that the drain stays effective even when the clay expands during wet periods. Shallow installations fail here because the clay soil movement disrupts them. This is one of those situations where experience with local soil conditions makes the difference between a system that works and one that fails within a few years.
If your gutters are dumping water right next to your foundation, fix the gutters first. Extending your downspouts 10 feet away from your house solves a lot of water problems and costs a fraction of what drainage installation runs.
But if you’ve already got working gutters with proper extensions and you’re still getting water in your basement or around your foundation, you need a french drain. You’re dealing with groundwater or surface runoff from your yard, not just roof water.
Many Alamance properties need both. Your gutters handle roof runoff, but they can’t do anything about water that’s flowing across your yard from higher ground or seeping up from saturated soil. A french drain catches that water before it reaches your foundation. Think of gutters as your first line of defense and french drains as your second. Both matter, but they solve different problems.
Most residential french drain installations take one to two days depending on how many linear feet we’re installing and how difficult your terrain is. A simple 50-foot run along one side of your house might be done in a day. A full perimeter system with multiple discharge points takes longer.
Weather affects the timeline too. We can’t trench effectively if your yard is already saturated from recent rain. The clay soil in Alamance turns into a muddy mess when it’s wet, which makes proper installation impossible. We’d rather wait a day or two for conditions to improve than rush a job that won’t perform correctly.
You’ll see results immediately once we’re done. The next time it rains, water flows into the drain and away from your foundation instead of pooling around your house. No curing time, no waiting period. The system works as soon as it’s in the ground.
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