French Drain Installation in Granite Bay

A French drain is a simple idea done right: a gravel-filled trench with a perforated pipe running through it, sloped so water that collects in the soil drains into the pipe and gets carried away to a safe spot. No pump, no moving parts — just gravity doing the work for years.

Signs you need a French drain

• A lawn area that stays soggy or squishy for days after rain while the rest dries out.
• Water collecting along a wall, fence line, or the uphill side of the house on a sloped lot.
• A low spot that ponds every time it rains and takes forever to drain.
• Water seeping toward the foundation or into a crawlspace — a French drain intercepts it before it gets there.
• A retaining wall holding back saturated soil (French drains behind walls relieve the water pressure that cracks them).

How we install one

We start by reading your property — where water comes from, where it collects, and where it can safely go. Then we dig the trench on a proper slope (the whole system depends on getting the fall right), lay filter fabric to keep silt out, set the perforated pipe in clean gravel, and route it to a safe discharge: the street, a suitable outlet, or a dispersal area on your property. Done correctly, it disappears into the landscape and just works.

The part cheap jobs skip

A French drain lives or dies on two things: slope and keeping silt out. Too little fall and water sits in the pipe; no filter fabric and the gravel clogs with fines over a few seasons. We do both right, because a drain that fails in three years isn't a bargain. If you've got an older drain that stopped working, that's usually why — see our drainage repair page.

Not sure whether you need a French drain or a catch basin? We'll tell you straight — here's how the two differ.