Our requests and projects for this range from the residential to the commercial. We get calls where water can be gathering near a home or it is actually entering in and the people are experiencing a bad situation and needing immediate relief from the entering water.
We receive more requests for help with drainage problems than we can respond to quite often and will provide at least a rough starting estimate for those in our Palm Beach County, Florida service area with some information. If interested in an estimate to provide relief from an exterior home or building water flooding problem, we have some information we request which can help us expedite these requests. To submit a request for a drainage quote – click on the link here to outline the information we ask for to be submitted with the request.
Our drainage systems primarily are to help remove water that is either gathering near a home or building and getting it away from the home or building.
If Water is entering the home or structure from outside the property
If water is entering the home or structure from the property, it is the same goal, to help remove water from entering that compromised home or building that is experiencing flood damage from rain or storm water.
There are precautions that can help and steps that can be taken immediately at times to those experiencing flooding damage such as waterproofing the exterior of the foundation of the home or building and part of the exterior wall at times. There is no guarantee that waterproofing can help provide immediate protection from the entering water, but it can often help in many instances as flaws or cracks in the foundation or exterior walls may be present in many instances of water entering into a home or building we have found.
If Rain or Storm water is entering the home or building, recommend waterproofing the foundation
For more information on how you might immediately work to protect yourself and your home or building with waterproofing for those who may be able to do this work themselves, we provide more detailed information in an article here : article on waterproofing to be linked
When it comes to problems with flooding from rain storms that are affecting your home or structure, the experiences can vary widely as noted with small puddling, flooding of an area or in the more unfortunate conditions, entering into the home, building or structure.
The grading of the property itself, as well as the influence of neighboring properties can have an effect on the challenge and are needing to be understood and addressed sometimes in the solution.
Drainage System Designs should be able to answer 3 Simple Questions
We advise that anyone experiencing a flooding or drainage problem to work to get multiple quotes. Here are 3 simple questions that should be asked and properly answered we would advise:
- How is the water to be collected?
- How is the water to be moved out of the area?
- Where is the water to go?
If these 3 questions are not answered well, we would not put much faith into that solution.
To briefly highlight other notable marks of a proper drainage solution is in the approach, the design (answering the 3 questions noted) and in the materials to provide a durable, lasting system that will work.
French Drains, their purpose and our definition of them
As to the approach, people will often ask for a french drain. Our definition of a french drain is not a solution for most storm water problems.
Our definition of a french drain is a hole in the ground, typically can be 1 to 2 feet deep by 1 or 2 feet wide by a length at 4 to 6 feet in length. The hole is lined with a fabric and filled with stone. The fabric can be a cloth or similar synthetic fabric, anything from a septic field liner to a weed cloth barrier to help separate soil from outside the hole, keeping it from seeping into the stone that fills the basin of the excavated hole.
The purpose of the french drain, in our definition, is to help dry out areas that are often damp, wet or muddy. The underground basin helps to allow surface water to immediately drain into the stone basin and not remain on the surface. Typically the ground is very dense, with clay or marl often present and is not conducive to good draining, looser, more permeable soils.
The size of the french drains are determined by the size of the area that needs help with the dampness or wet ground. Please Note : checking how often the irrigation is running should be one of the first things one does with this ground dampness problem. Reducing irrigation watering long term to twice a week as a goal, or less is a recommendation and we have more information on this in the watering instructions of our Landscape Care Notes (insert link to Landscape Care Notes – Watering instructions here)
During a storm, french drains are not a typical solution as once a drain basin is full, similar to a bath tub, it can not accept more water until it drains.
Drainage Systems need to be able to continuously evacuate rain water during storms
During a storm, a system that will take collected water and continuously move it out of the immediate area of a home or building, no matter how long it rains, is the need.
To have a system that can work to remove storm or rainwater for an extended period of time even during a power outage is the ideal solution for many. For these systems, we have photos on our website here (insert link to drainage photos) and articles as well that show how our systems work.
We require the home or building to have gutters for us to tie into for the underground drainage systems that we would install. The gutters help to collect the roof water during a storm and quite often, collecting this water and moving it away from the home or building is a major aid in improving the drainage conditions of a property.
These systems we install also allow for collecting ground water through collection drains we can and do install, and again, more photos are available of drainage systems and projects we have installed on our website here.
To speak of the strength and durability of the systems, we recommend if people use or services in our area or not, to avoid using black corrugated piping. The black drainage piping is easily compromised by tree roots, plant roots or hedges quite often. The root systems of a landscape become stronger as the landscape matures and can crush the pipe and from that event, not allow the drainage system to work properly any longer.
Other challenges to systems are to clean out the underground piping and drains, which can begin sometimes with gutter maintenance as well. We have more information in drainage articles on our site with this as well.
See our Drainage Gallery
We hope any might find this information helpful and if you are in our service area, we do charge for inspections to come out to inspection drainage problems, but we would first work to assess your drainage problem for free. We can give a free opinion oftentimes, and a rough or more accurate estimate if you can send us some helpful photos, videos and information by email. For more information on the angles and specific photos and videos angles of the property to help us evaluate the situation, please refer to the instructions here on our drainage estimates information request page.