Is your old French drain still doing its job?
A drain that used to dry the yard and now doesn’t hasn’t simply aged out. Something has blocked water from reaching the pipe or leaving it, and finding that point decides whether a repair is enough.
Clay Plano Drainage Company repairs, cleans and rebuilds French drains across Plano. This guide covers what wears them out here, how to check yours, and the upkeep that keeps a new one working.
What sets a French drain’s life
Solid and perforated drain pipe in the ground isn’t exposed to sun or traffic, so the pipe itself is seldom what fails. A drain’s working life depends on four things staying open.
- The stone. Water has to pass through open stone to reach the pipe. Once clay fines fill those gaps, the drain stops collecting.
- The pipe. It has to keep its fall and its shape. A crushed or sagging section holds water and silt.
- The outlet. Water has to leave. A buried emitter or blocked curb opening stops the whole line.
- The inlets. Grates and catch basins on the same line have to stay clear of leaves and grit.
How the drain was built sets most of this on day one. Fabric that fully wraps washed stone, solid pipe from downspouts and cleanouts at every join and turn all lengthen a drain’s life; the guide to what happens during drainage installation shows where each goes.
What wears drains out in Plano
Houston Black clay is the main enemy. It’s about 54% clay by the USDA soil survey, and its particles are fine enough to travel with water into any gap in the fabric.
| Cause | How it shows up | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Clay fines in the stone | Ground over the trench stays soggy; little water at the outlet | Rebuilding that section with fabric and washed stone |
| Roots in joints or perforations | Slow flow near trees; a camera shows root mats | Cutting roots in solid pipe; replacing pipe and stone where roots fill it |
| Crushed or sagging pipe | Water surfaces partway along the route; a sunken line in the lawn | Digging up and relaying that section to grade |
| Buried or blocked outlet | Water backs up from the end of the line | Raising, clearing or moving the emitter or curb opening |
| Leaves and grit through grates | Basins full of debris; slow drains after fall | Clearing grates and flushing the solid line |
| Roof water in the stone | The trench floods in storms and stays full | Moving downspouts onto their own solid line |
Fall is the season to watch for leaves, and spring is the test: May and October are Plano’s two wettest months in NOAA’s climate normals, at about 5 inches each.
How to check your own drain
You can learn a lot with a garden hose and a dry week. Start at the outlet, since a blocked one stops the whole line.
- Find the outlet. Look for a pop-up emitter in the front lawn, an opening at the curb or a pipe end at a swale. Clear any grass, mulch or leaves off it.
- Find the cleanouts. These capped standpipes sit where lines join or turn. A walk-through drawing from the install helps.
- Run a hose into the highest cleanout or inlet for several minutes.
- Watch the outlet. Water that arrives quickly is a good sign. Slow, weak or no flow points to a blockage.
- Walk the route while the water runs. A wet spot or bubbling partway along marks the trouble.
If water reaches the outlet freely but the yard still stays soggy over the trench, the stone may be silted, which a hose can’t fix. Soggy ground with no rain at all is a different problem; see a soggy yard without rain. A camera run through the line shows what’s inside before anything is dug.
Upkeep that keeps a drain working
Most upkeep takes minutes and costs nothing. It’s also the part owners are responsible for: Plano asks residents to keep drainage ditches on their property free of debris and vegetation, and McKinney’s manual says the owner maintains private drainage on a lot.
- After big storms: clear grates and check that the outlet opened and closed.
- Through leaf season: keep leaves off grates, emitters and the side-yard swale the outlet feeds.
- In spring: run a hose test before the wet months.
- When you edge or mulch: keep soil and mulch off cleanouts and emitters, and don’t let turf grow over the outlet.
- When you plant: keep new trees and large shrubs back from the drain route.
- When you add paving or turf: check that the new surface doesn’t send water into the stone.
Flushing, repair or rebuild?
Each is a different job with a different price, and the right one depends on what the camera or hose test finds.
- Flushing or jetting moves grit and leaves out of solid pipe and clears a blocked outlet. Our typical range for cleaning the first line is $250 to $600 per visit; the site visit and written estimate set yours.
- A section repair replaces a crushed, sagging or root-filled length of pipe and stone. We price it after a camera finds it, since depth, length and what sits on top set the cost.
- A rebuild makes sense when the stone along most of the run is sealed with clay, or when the drain was never in the right place. Our typical range for a new French drain is $25 to $60 per foot.
Drain repair and cleaning covers that work in detail. The guide to French drains in clay soil explains how a rebuilt drain is designed to last here.
Before you replace a drain that quit
A drain that never worked may have the wrong job, not a defect. If it was set to catch surface water, a catch basin or regrade may be the better fix; the guide to French drains or catch basins compares them.
If the outlet was the problem all along, where yard drain water can go explains the options in Plano. To have someone test your drain and tell you what failed, call (469) 551-8518 or send photos of the outlet through the form below.