Frequently asked questions

A French drain is the general term: a fabric-lined trench with washed stone and perforated pipe that collects water from the soil and carries it downhill. A curtain drain is a French drain placed to intercept water moving toward a house, usually a few feet out on the uphill side. A footing drain is a French drain at the base of the foundation wall, at footing depth, protecting a basement directly. A trench drain, also called a channel drain, is something else entirely: a slotted channel set flush in a hard surface like a driveway that catches surface water. The first three deal with water in the ground; the last deals with water on top of it.

It is the first decision on every job and it is made on site with a level. The candidates are a curb outlet to the street gutter, an existing rear or side swale or drainage easement, a daylight point where the pipe can exit on a slope, a pop-up emitter in a lower area of lawn, or, when none of those is lower than the water, a sump and pump. The outlet has to be lower than the collection point by enough to give the pipe fall the whole way. In Fayette County we also rule out two options other places might use: discharging onto a neighbor's lot, and discharging into any depression that takes water, which on Inner Bluegrass limestone is a sinkhole.

Downspout extensions, cleaning gutters, and adding a few inches of clay fill against the foundation are all reasonable homeowner jobs. Trenching a French drain is possible with a rental trencher, and the failures we see on DIY drains are not about effort; they are about fall that was never checked, fabric that was skipped, corrugated sock pipe, and no real outlet. If you want to do it yourself, the assessment is still useful, because the plan tells you the route, the depth and the outlet, which is the part that is hard to get right.

Yes. Kentucky 811 locates public utilities before any excavation, and it is required by law. It does not mark private lines such as irrigation, low-voltage lighting, a gas line to a grill or an old septic line, so we ask about those and probe carefully where they might be.

A walk of the property with you, ideally while the problem is visible or right after rain. Shooting grades with a level from the foundation to the possible outlets. Checking where each downspout discharges. Probing to find the depth to clay and, on shallow soils, to rock. Looking at any depression for signs that it takes water into the ground. Then a written plan that names the system, the route, the outlet and the restoration. It is free, and it does not commit you to anything.

Because Lexington is built on the Lexington Limestone, and the Kentucky Geological Survey describes the Inner Bluegrass as one of Kentucky's two largest karst regions, with springs, sinkholes and sinking creeks. Many yards have a depression that drains fast. Using it as an outlet sends unfiltered water into groundwater that feeds springs, in Georgetown's case a public water supply, and washes soil into the void below, which is how cover-collapse sinkholes start. So our designs route water to surface outlets and never into the ground through a depression. If a depression on your lot is deepening, KGS asks that it be reported through their online sinkhole tool, and it deserves a geotechnical look before any digging nearby.

Usually, and often it is the whole fix. Most water at a Lexington foundation came off the roof and landed within a few feet of the wall on clay that could not absorb it. Taking downspouts underground and away, rebuilding positive grade against the foundation, and intercepting yard water with a curtain drain removes most of the source. If water still enters low at the floor-wall joint after that, it is coming from below on perched clay water, and an interior drain and sump are the next step.

Any time the ground is workable. Spring shows the problem clearly but the ground is wet and heavy; late summer and fall are drier for trenching and fall is a good seeding window for restoring turf. Winter work is possible when the ground is not frozen. The one thing to avoid is waiting for the next wet spring to make the call, because that is when everyone else calls too.

Trenches are narrow, typically 12 to 18 inches for a French drain and less for a downspout line. Grading work disturbs a wider area but only a few inches deep. Everything disturbed gets topsoil and seed or sod at the end; sod hides a trench immediately, seed takes a season. Beds along the route are discussed before work starts and replanted afterward where a line has to pass through.

A little. Downspout basins and catch basins should be opened and cleaned of grit and leaves once or twice a year. Pop-up emitters should be checked that they open and are not buried by mulch or grass. A sump pump should be tested yearly by pouring water into the basin, and the discharge outlet checked before winter. French drains built with cleanouts can be flushed if they ever slow down. A system with none of those access points, which describes many older Lexington installations, cannot be maintained without digging, which is why we add them.

Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government owns and maintains the public storm sewer system - the inlets, pipes and outfalls in streets and easements - funded by the Water Quality Management Fee on every developed parcel. If a public inlet is clogged, a street floods, or a pipe in a drainage easement has failed, that is the city's, and you can report it through LexCall 311. Water on your lot between your roof and the curb, including runoff arriving from a neighbor, is private. The city does not regrade back yards.

Yes. The service area runs through the Inner Bluegrass towns of Nicholasville, Georgetown, Versailles, Midway, Wilmore, Paris, Stamping Ground and Millersburg, and out to the edge of the Outer Bluegrass in Winchester, Richmond, Frankfort, Lawrenceburg and Sadieville. Each has its own page describing what is different about drainage there. Ground changes across that range - shale hills replace limestone plain toward the edges - and the plan is always drawn on site for your lot.