Paid $300 for a french drain that flooded my crawlspace anyway

Hired a guy off Nextdoor to install a french drain around my foundation. He charged me $300 for materials and labor, dug a trench, put in the pipe, and covered it up. First heavy rain in Decatur and water was pooling under my house worse than before. Has anyone else here had luck with a specific drainage company around Atlanta that doesn't just throw pipe in the ground?

2 comments

2 Comments

felix981mo ago

Yeah $300 for a french drain sounds way too cheap to do it right. Did you watch him work or just leave him to it? I'm wondering if he even put a sock or filter fabric around the pipe before backfilling with gravel. That or he might have just laid pipe in dirt and called it done which is basically useless. Also where exactly did he route the outlet for the water to drain out to? If it just dumps into the same clay soil next to your foundation that water has nowhere to go but back under your house.

caseyfox23d ago

You mentioned the water has nowhere to go but back under the house, and that's a big deal most people miss. I talked to a guy from a hydroseeding company who said the real issue is often the soil grading around the foundation, not just the pipe. If the ground still slopes toward your house, all that pipe does is give the water a faster route back to your crawlspace. Maybe check if your yard is sloped away from the foundation before you pay for another drain. @felix98 is right about the clay soil being a total nightmare here in Decatur.