# French drain repair and cleaning in Plano, TX

> French drain repair and cleaning in Plano, TX: we flow-test the line, find the failure with a camera and dig only where it failed. Get a written estimate.

URL: https://clayplanodrainagecompany.com/drainage-repair/

Finding why an existing French drain, yard drain or downspout line stopped working, then cleaning it, repairing the failed section or redesigning what never worked.

Last Updated: November 11, 2026

- **Catch:** downspouts, low spots, side swales
- **Carry:** solid pipe at a steady fall
- **Release:** to the street, never the neighbor

## French drain stopped working?

A drain that used to handle storms and now lets the yard flood has failed somewhere between its inlet and its outlet. The hard part is finding where without digging up the whole line.

[Clay Plano Drainage Company](https://clayplanodrainagecompany.com/) repairs and cleans French drains, yard drains and [downspout lines](https://clayplanodrainagecompany.com/downspout-drainage/) in Plano and nearby cities, including systems someone else put in. We test the line, find the failure and fix only what failed, unless the design itself was the problem.

## What happens on the first visit

We trace the system end to end before touching it. If you know where the outlet is, or have a sketch from the install, that saves time.

- **The outlet.** We find it first, because everything upstream depends on it. A buried, crushed or clipping-packed outlet stops the whole system.
- **Inlets and cleanouts.** Grates, basins and any cleanout caps along the run.
- **Flow test.** We run water into the highest point and watch where it goes, where it stops and how long it takes to reach the outlet.
- **Surface clues.** A sunken strip over the line, a wet spot partway along, or water bubbling up out of a grate.
- **The original design.** Whether the drain had real fall and a real outlet to begin with.

If cleaning will fix it, the estimate says so. If the flow test points to a break, the camera goes in next.

## What goes wrong with drains in Plano clay

Drain failures fall into a handful of kinds, and each one shows up differently in the yard. Matching the symptom to the cause tells us where to look.

| What failed | What you notice |
| --- | --- |
| Outlet buried, blocked or crushed | No water at the emitter or curb, and the yard floods along the whole line |
| Silt and clay fines in the pipe | Slow drainage that backs up in big storms |
| Filter fabric clogged with clay | The trench fills and stays wet even though the pipe is clear |
| Roots in the pipe | Slow flow near trees, worse each year |
| Crushed or separated pipe | A wet spot or a small sinkhole partway along |
| A belly, or low section, in the pipe | Water stands in one stretch and silt builds up there |
| No fall or no outlet from day one | It never really worked |

Houston Black clay is more than half clay-sized particles, and those fines are what migrate into stone and pipe when fabric is missing, torn or the wrong kind. The guide to [French drains in clay soil](https://clayplanodrainagecompany.com/guide/french-drains-in-clay-soil/) explains how a drain is built to resist it.

May and October are the Plano area’s wettest months, at about five inches each. A storm in either month is a good time to notice which part of the yard a drain has stopped serving.

## Cleaning: snaking or jetting

A line that is sound but slow needs cleaning, not digging. We clear it from an inlet, the outlet or a cleanout, whichever reaches the clog.

- **Snaking** pulls roots and packed debris out of a short line.
- **Jetting** uses a high-pressure nozzle to scour silt off the pipe walls and wash it out the outlet, and suits longer runs.
- **A flow test** afterward shows whether the line now runs freely.

Cleaning clears the pipe, but it can’t reach clay packed into the stone around a French drain’s pipe. If water still won’t move after a clean line tests clear, the trench itself has clogged, and that section needs rebuilding.

## Repairing a section

A camera shows the inside of the line: the crushed joint, the root mass, the belly. Then we dig only there.

1. **Locates.** Texas811 marks buried lines before we open anything.
2. **Open up.** We cut and set aside the sod over the failure and keep the dig as short as the damage.
3. **Replace.** New pipe goes in where the old one failed, with new stone and fabric where those are clogged too.
4. **Fall.** We reset the section to the line’s fall, so it can’t hold a belly.
5. **Test and close.** Water runs through the whole line before we backfill and put the sod back.

Each section repair is priced after the camera finds it, because its depth, its length and what sits on top, whether sod, beds or flatwork, aren’t known until then.

A camera view of roots through a pipe joint, found before anything was dug.

### When repair isn’t the answer

New pipe alone won’t fix a drain that had no outlet, ran uphill, or was laid where the water wasn’t. If the visit shows that, we say so. The fix is then a properly planned [French drain](https://clayplanodrainagecompany.com/french-drain-installation/), or a different tool, such as a [catch basin](https://clayplanodrainagecompany.com/catch-basins/) for surface water or [regrading](https://clayplanodrainagecompany.com/yard-grading/) for a yard that tilts the wrong way.

## Still wet after a new drain?

A drain that has left the yard wet since the day it went in has a design problem, not a worn part. The fix starts with finding which one.

- **Wrong collector.** A French drain under surface runoff, or a grate where the water is in the soil.
- **Outlet too high.** The outlet sits above the wet area, so the line holds water instead of releasing it.
- **Too short a collection zone.** In slow clay, a short trench only drains the soil right beside it.
- **Water from somewhere else.** A sprinkler zone or a neighbor’s runoff the drain was never meant to take.

## Adding cleanouts

A drain without cleanouts can only be reached from its ends, which makes every clog harder to clear. While a line is open for repair, we add cleanouts where lines join or turn.

After that, the next cleaning is a hose or a jetter at the cleanout, not a shovel. Several lines tied together are easier to keep up as one [yard drainage system](https://clayplanodrainagecompany.com/yard-drainage/) with cleanouts at every junction.

## What drain repair and cleaning cost

Our typical range for cleaning the first drain line is $250 to $600 per visit. That covers snaking or jetting one existing line, up to about 100 feet, with a flow test; camera inspection and digging are extra.

A section repair is priced once the camera has found the failure, from where and how deep it is, how much pipe gets replaced, what sits on top, any root intrusion, and whether the original slope or outlet has to be redone.

- The [drainage cost guide](https://clayplanodrainagecompany.com/guide/drainage-cost-plano/) puts repair beside new work.
- The guide on [how long a French drain lasts](https://clayplanodrainagecompany.com/guide/how-long-does-a-french-drain-last/) covers what wears a drain out.
- If the water was never the drain’s to fix, the [standing water](https://clayplanodrainagecompany.com/standing-water-in-yard/) page starts from the source.

## What's included

- A visit that traces the existing system from its inlets to its outlet
- A flow test with water at the highest inlet or cleanout
- Snaking or jetting from an inlet, the outlet or a cleanout
- Camera inspection where the flow test shows a blockage or break
- A written estimate for any section repair, based on what the camera found
- Texas811 locates before digging
- Excavation only at the failed section, with sod cut and set aside
- New pipe, stone and fabric where the section failed
- Cleanouts added where the line had none
- Water run through the whole line before backfill, and a walk-through of what we found

## Clean it, repair a section or replace it?

|  | Clean | Repair a section | Replace or redesign |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Fits when | Silt, leaves or roots slow a line that is otherwise sound | One crushed, separated or sagging section | The outlet never worked, the line sits in the wrong place, or the stone is clogged end to end |
| How we find it | Flow test | Camera inspection | Flow test, camera and a look at the original design |
| Digging | None | Only at the failure | A new trench or a new route |
| How it's priced | Per visit, first line | After the camera finds the failure | As a new installation |

## Related resources

- [Learn**How long does a French drain last?** A drain's life is set less by the pipe than by what gets into the stone and what blocks the outlet. The signs one is failing, the upkeep that keeps it going, and when to repair rather than rebuild.](https://clayplanodrainagecompany.com/guide/how-long-does-a-french-drain-last/)

## How we run a job

### Call

You tell us what you see, where it pools and when.

### Look

We walk the yard, measure the fall and find a legal outlet.

### Mark

We call Texas811 for locates and paint our route in white.

### Build

We trench to grade and set stone, fabric, pipe and outlet.

### Test

We run water through the system before any backfill.

### Restore

We put back sod and beds and repair crossed sprinkler lines.

## What this work looks like

Garden hose running into a lawn grate while water trickles out of a pop-up emitter farther down the yard

Jetting hose fed into a drain cleanout fitting in a back lawn, muddy water washing out around it

Short excavated section of a yard drain showing a flattened length of corrugated pipe in clay

New white cleanout riser with a cap set flush in the lawn where a repaired line turns

## Drain repair and cleaning: questions

### Should my drain be snaked or jetted?

It depends on what's in it and how long it is. Snaking suits a short line packed with roots or debris. Jetting scours silt off the pipe walls and flushes it out, which suits longer runs. Either way we flow-test afterward, and a line that still won't run gets a camera.

### Can a French drain clog with clay, and how fast?

Yes. Clay fines move into the stone and pipe wherever the filter fabric is missing, torn or too tight a weave for the soil. How fast depends on the fabric, the stone and how much silt the water carries, so there's no single number. Cleaning clears the pipe, not clogged stone.

### Why doesn't any water come out of my drain's outlet?

Either the outlet itself is blocked, buried or crushed, or the line upstream has a break, a belly or a clog. We check the outlet first, then run water in at the top and follow it. If it vanishes partway along, a camera shows where.

### My old drain stopped working. Repair it or start over?

Repair it if the drain was designed right and one part failed: a crushed section, a root mass, a clogged outlet. Start over if it never had real fall, ends without an outlet, or its stone is clogged along the whole run. The flow test and camera tell us which.

### Can you work on a drain someone else installed?

Yes. We trace it from scratch whoever built it, so a drawing isn't needed. An install sketch, old photos or knowing where the outlet is will speed up the visit, and the flow test fills in the rest.

## Related services

- [Service**French drains** A trench of washed stone and pipe that collects water held in the soil and carries it to a legal outlet at the street side of the lot.](https://clayplanodrainagecompany.com/french-drain-installation/)
- [Service**Catch basins** A grated box set at the lowest point of a lawn, bed edge or patio that takes in surface water and sends it through solid pipe to an outlet.](https://clayplanodrainagecompany.com/catch-basins/)
- [Service**Standing water** Working out whether a puddle comes from rain, sprinklers or soil that can't drain, then matching the fix: a downspout line, a basin, a drain, a regrade or a pump.](https://clayplanodrainagecompany.com/standing-water-in-yard/)

## Get an estimate for drain repair and cleaning

Tell us where the water stands and when. We walk the yard, measure the fall and send a written estimate.