Drainage Solutions

Standing water in the yard is a nuisance. Water moving toward your foundation is a problem with a price tag. Greenscapes VA diagnoses drainage issues across the Roanoke Valley and installs solutions that actually move the water somewhere it can go.

Why This Is So Common Here

The Roanoke Valley is a difficult combination for drainage: hilly terrain that concentrates runoff, and heavy clay soil that will not absorb it. Clay sheds water rather than taking it in, so what would soak away in sandy soil instead runs downhill and collects wherever the grade stops. If your yard stays soggy for days after rain while your neighbor's dries out, that is usually grade and soil, not something you did wrong.

What We Install

• French drains — perforated pipe in gravel, buried, collecting subsurface water and carrying it to a discharge point
• Surface regrading — reshaping low spots and re-establishing fall away from the house, which is often the whole fix
• Dry creek beds — rock channels that handle surface runoff and look deliberate instead of like a drainage project
• Downspout extensions and buried pipe — getting roof water away from the foundation instead of dumping it at the corner
• Catch basins — collection points where volume is high enough to need one

Diagnosis Before Digging

The same wet spot can have different causes, and the fix differs for each. Water sitting in a low area is a grading problem. Water appearing partway down a slope is often subsurface and needs a French drain. Water against the foundation is frequently just downspouts discharging two feet from the wall — the cheapest fix on this page, and the one we check first.

We walk the property, ideally after rain when the evidence is visible, and tell you which one you have. Installing a French drain where the problem was a downspout is an expensive way to not fix anything.

Where the Water Goes

Every drainage system needs a discharge point lower than its intake, and that constrains what is possible. On a flat lot with nowhere downhill, the honest answer is sometimes a dry well or regrading rather than pipe. We will tell you if your lot does not support what you were hoping for, and we will not route water onto a neighbor's property to solve yours.

Serving the Roanoke Valley

Drainage work in Roanoke, Salem, Vinton, Cave Spring, Daleville, Troutville, Botetourt County and Smith Mountain Lake.

Call (540) 798-4479 or email prettylawn@greenscapesva.com for a free drainage assessment. If you can, call while the ground is still wet — the problem is far easier to read then.