YARD DRAINAGE — FRENCH DRAINS, DRY WELLS, AND REAL SOLUTIONS

Utah yards don't drain the way yards do in sandier climates, and the reason is the same thing that makes our excavation work slow: soil. The Wasatch Front sits on a layer of hard clay mixed with cobble rock — glacial till from the last Ice Age — and clay is the worst possible substrate for surface drainage. Water that hits well-graded sandy soil percolates down at 2-4 inches per hour. Water that hits our clay percolates at 0.1-0.5 inches per hour. That's why a half-inch spring rain turns into a week of standing water, and why your neighbor's yard three states east drains fine on the same slope.

The second factor is snow melt. Utah gets serious snowpack from November through March, and the first warm week in April dumps what amounts to 2-3 months of rainfall onto already-saturated clay in about 10 days. That's when basement walls start weeping, window wells start filling, sump pumps start running constantly, and yards that were fine in October reveal their drainage problems.

The third factor is older Utah construction. Homes built before 1985 in SLC, Ogden, Provo, and the Wasatch foothills often have no perimeter foundation drain at all — no drain tile, no footing drain, nothing to intercept subsurface water before it hits the basement wall. Building code didn't require it until the 1990s in most municipalities. The result: 40% of the foundation drainage calls we run are retrofit installs on homes that never had anything below grade to begin with.

The four drainage problems we solve

1. Surface standing water. Puddles in low spots after every rain or snow melt. Usually fixed with surface regrading plus a collection system — catch basins at the low spot, tied to a perforated or solid discharge line running to a dry well, a curb outlet, or a graded daylight discharge point downhill.

2. Saturated lawn. The whole yard stays spongy for days after water events. The fix is subsurface drainage — a French drain system running parallel courses across the yard at 12-24 inch depth, collecting infiltrating water and discharging to a receiver. French drains shine in clay soil because they create a permeable path where the clay doesn't have one.

3. Wet basement wall or crawl space. Water weeping through the foundation wall, especially in spring. Retrofit solutions include perimeter foundation drain (dug from the exterior, installed against the footing, backfilled with filter fabric and gravel), interior drain tile with sump pump discharge, or a combination if the exterior install isn't possible. This work requires coordination with waterproofing and sump system install.

4. Downspout and roof runoff. Gutters dumping water against the foundation or flooding a section of yard. The fix is usually buried downspout extensions — 4-inch solid PVC running 10-20 feet from the downspout to a pop-up emitter, a dry well, or a graded discharge point. Simple, cheap, huge impact.

The three systems we install

French drain. Perforated pipe (4-inch corrugated or rigid PVC) laid in a gravel-packed trench, wrapped in filter fabric, sloped at 1% minimum toward a discharge point. The gravel provides a high-permeability path where the clay doesn't, the fabric prevents silt infiltration, and the perforated pipe collects and moves the water. Typical residential French drain: 40-120 linear feet, 18-24 inches deep. Cost: $35-$75 per linear foot installed. Lifespan: 20-30 years if properly sleeved and protected from root intrusion.

Surface swale and regrading. Where the yard has high spots sending water the wrong direction, we regrade. A swale is a shallow, broad surface channel — 6-12 inches deep, 3-5 feet wide — that directs surface flow to a designated discharge point. Often combined with French drain work where the swale handles surface water and the French drain handles subsurface. Cost: $2,400-$8,500 depending on regrade scope and lawn restoration. Lifespan: indefinite if maintained.

Dry well and sump discharge. When there's nowhere legal or practical to daylight the discharge, a dry well is the answer. A 4-10 foot deep, 3-5 foot diameter pit packed with gravel or prefabricated plastic infiltration crates, wrapped in fabric, and connected to whatever feeds it (French drain, downspout, sump pump). Water percolates out through the clay matrix over hours to days. Sized based on expected peak volume and local soil percolation testing. Cost: $1,850-$6,500.

Why Utah installs need specific care

Frost depth matters on drainage work just like it does on water and sewer. A French drain discharge that freezes in January is a French drain that backs up into the basement wall in February. We either bury discharge lines below the 30-inch frost line, sleeve exposed runs in closed-cell insulation, or install auto-drain valves that drop line contents when temperatures approach freezing. Contractor installs that don't account for Utah winter fail within two years.

Cobble rock slows the dig and complicates trench grade. We use mini-excavators with grade control lasers, not hand-shaved trenches, on any French drain over 40 feet. Hand-shaved trenches in cobble end up with low spots that defeat the system.

Municipalities in Salt Lake County vary on whether a drainage permit is required. SLC, Sandy, and West Jordan require permits for any work involving foundation excavation or storm-water discharge to city property. We pull the permit where required. Some unincorporated county work doesn't require a permit but still requires Blue Stakes 811, which we file on every job.