Free yard drainage tools

Water standing in the yard, and not sure how much it matters or what fixing it costs? These two free tools from Clay Plano Drainage Company help you plan before anyone visits. We plan and install yard drainage across Plano and 20 nearby cities in Collin, Dallas, Denton and Rockwall counties.

Which one should you start with?

Start with the assessment if you don't know yet how pressing the water is, or what kind of problem it is: water at the slab, a soggy low spot, water from next door, or a yard that is wet with no rain at all.

Start with the cost estimator if you already have a fix in mind and want a planning range for it. Each tool links to the other, and either result can go with your estimate request, so you only describe the yard once.

What will the cost estimator tell you?

It asks which job you want priced, the run length or the count, any extra basins or downspouts, where the water can leave, and what is in the way. Then it shows each part as its own line and adds them up.

• Our typical ranges. A French drain runs $25 to $60 per foot, a catch basin with a short pipe run $500 to $1,500 per basin, and an underground downspout line $300 to $800 per downspout.
• Rate times quantity, nothing more. A 70-foot drain is 70 times the per-foot range. Nothing is scaled up or discounted.
• What pushes toward the high end. A tight side yard, concrete to cross, sprinkler lines, chalk near the surface or a long run to the outlet add notes, not made-up numbers.

The Plano drainage cost guide explains each job's range and what sits inside it.

What does the assessment ask?

It asks ten plain questions about what you can see from outside: where the water collects, when it shows up, whether it has come inside, where the downspouts let out, which way the yard slopes, and whether anything is coming up, like a sale.

• Fixed rules. The answers run through rules in a set order, so the same answers always give the same result, with the reasons shown.
• Safety first. Rising water, a creek out of its banks or water around electrical equipment outranks every other answer.
• Nothing to dig or test. It never asks you to open a box, lift a grate or step into water.

It can't see underground, so it doesn't say what is wrong with a pipe or a foundation. The guide to fixing yard drainage problems covers how we find the source on a site visit.

Your answers stay in your browser

Both tools run in your browser. Your answers appear in the page address so you can share a link, and nothing is sent anywhere unless you choose to send it with the form. The privacy policy explains what the form sends.