Free tool
Drainage cost estimator
Choose the job, enter what you know about the yard, and see our typical range for it, line by line, with what would push your job toward the high end.
Describe the job
The range updates as you answer. Nothing is sent anywhere until you choose to send the form.
Our typical range for your answers
$1,750 to $4,200
- French drain70 feet at $25 to $60 per foot$1,750 to $4,200
What this covers
Trench, filter fabric, washed stone, perforated pipe, one catch basin and a solid run to an existing legal outlet. Read about this service.
Worth knowing for your yard
- A curb outlet is work in the public right-of-way, so it needs a city engineering permit. We arrange it as part of the job; the city sets the fee, and the written estimate shows it as its own line.
What moves this price
- Trench depth and length
- Clay, or chalk and limestone at depth
- How far the outlet is, and what kind
- Sprinkler lines and utilities in the path
These are our typical ranges applied to your answers: rate times quantity, line by line, with nothing scaled or discounted. They are not a quote. The site visit and written estimate set your price. This is a planning range, not a quote from Clay Plano Drainage Company.
How do we work out your range?
This drainage cost calculator applies the typical ranges we use at Clay Plano Drainage Company to your answers, one line per part of the job, the way we build a written estimate for yards across Plano and 20 nearby cities in Collin, Dallas, Denton and Rockwall counties. Each line is our rate times your quantity. Nothing is scaled by yard size, and nothing is discounted.
| Job | How the estimator works it out |
|---|---|
| French drain | Run length times $25 to $60 per foot, with one catch basin and a solid run to an existing legal outlet |
| Channel drain | Channel length times $60 to $150 per foot, with the saw-cut, concrete patch and outlet line |
| Catch basin | Basins times $500 to $1,500 per basin, each with up to about 20 feet of pipe |
| Underground downspout line | Downspouts times $300 to $800 per downspout |
| Side-yard drainage | Side yards times $1,500 to $4,000 per side yard |
| Whole-yard drainage system | $3,000 to $8,000 and up per project |
| Yard regrading | $1,000 to $4,000 per project along the house; larger areas $1.25 to $3.50 per square foot |
| Drainage around the slab | $2,000 to $6,000 per project |
| Cleaning an existing drain | $250 to $600 for the first line |
| Yard pump basin | Pump basins times $1,500 to $4,000 per pump basin; added as its own line when a lot has no fall to an outlet |
Three jobs have no range in the estimator, because the visit decides what they are. We price a broken section of an existing drain after a camera or flush test finds it, standing water as whichever fix it turns out to need, and commercial work from the site and its plans.
What pushes a job toward the high end?
The answers about access, soil and restoration never change the numbers. They tell you where in the range your job is likely to land:
- A tight side yard, a fence, a gate or an AC pad means more hand digging.
- Concrete to cross means a bore or a saw-cut and patch.
- Chalk near the surface, as in far west Plano near the Dallas North Tollway and in central Frisco, is slower to dig than clay.
- A long run to the outlet adds solid pipe, and every sprinkler line in the path is repaired as we go.
How do we set your actual price?
On the site visit we find where the water comes from, measure the fall and confirm a legal outlet. The written estimate prices that route: each run, basin and cleanout, the outlet, the restoration and any permit. That estimate sets your price. The Plano drainage cost guide covers each range in more depth, and the French drain cost guide works through example budgets.
What about permits?
A curb outlet, or any work in the parkway, is work in the public right-of-way. In Plano that takes the City's Engineering Permit for public infrastructure, and nearby cities have their own versions. We arrange the permit as part of the job, and the written estimate shows it as its own line; the city sets the fee. The service areas page lists the rule that changes the job in each city.
What isn't in the range?
- New sod over a wide area, rebuilt beds or a reworked sprinkler zone, which are priced as their own lines
- A new electrical circuit for a pump
- Foundation repair, which is a different trade
Not sure which job you need? Take the drainage assessment first.
Questions about the estimator
Why does the estimator ask for feet on a French drain?
Because a French drain is priced by the length of the run, and our typical range is $25 to $60 per foot. Depth, rock, the distance to the outlet and restoration decide where in that range your yard lands, which is why the site visit and written estimate set the final number.
Why is a whole-yard system one range and not a per-foot price?
A whole-yard system ties several downspouts, basins and runs into one route, so it is priced as a project. Our typical range is $3,000 to $8,000 and up, and large lots with several zones run above it. The estimator never scales a project range by yard size.
What happens to my estimator answers if I send the form?
They go with your request as part of the message, so the first conversation starts from what you already entered. If you do not send the form, the answers stay in your browser and in the page address.
Get an Exact Quote
Send the address and what the water is doing. We walk the yard, measure the fall and send a written estimate. Your estimator answers go with the request.