Lexington sits on Ordovician limestone under a foot or two of silt loam and a thick band of clay. Rain that would soak away somewhere else sits on that clay, runs toward the house, or vanishes into a sinkhole you would rather it avoided. We trace where the water is coming from, where it can safely go, and build the French drain, swale, or catch basin system that gets it there.
Tell us what's happening at the Lexington property and we'll come take a look.
Fayette County is Inner Bluegrass country. The Kentucky Geological Survey describes the county's bedrock as the Ordovician-age Lexington Limestone, with gently rolling topography above it and a landscape shaped by springs, sinkholes and sinking creeks. That limestone is easily dissolved by groundwater, so underneath many lots there are solution channels and voids that either swallow water quickly or refuse it entirely, depending on where the soil is thin and where it is thick.
The soil on top of that rock is the real reason your yard stays soggy. The USDA-NRCS official descriptions for the Maury and McAfee series, the two signature soils of the Inner Bluegrass, show a silt loam surface only about 7 to 9 inches deep over a subsoil of silty clay loam, silty clay and clay. Maury runs to roughly 53 inches of that clay; McAfee sits on hard phosphatic limestone at just 20 to 40 inches. Water moves through the topsoil fine and then hits the clay and stalls. On a compacted subdivision lot where the topsoil was scraped and regraded, the clay is often right at the surface.
Then there is the rain. NWS Louisville's 1991-2020 normals put Lexington's annual precipitation at roughly 50 inches, with May the wettest month at about 5.4 inches and a wet stretch running from March through July. Spring storms land on clay that is already saturated from winter, which is when most people first notice a pond in the side yard or a wet spot along the foundation.
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government's storm sewer system carries runoff from roofs, yards and streets straight to creeks with no treatment, and every developed parcel pays a Water Quality Management Fee to maintain it. But the public system stops at the curb inlet. What happens on your lot, from the downspout to the property line, is a private drainage problem, and that is where a properly built French drain or regraded swale earns its keep.
Every job starts with a walk-through while the problem is fresh in your mind. We want to know where the water pools, how long it sits, whether it shows up after every rain or only the big ones, and what is downhill of it. If you have photos from the last storm, bring them. If it is raining when we arrive, even better.
Then we read the lot. That means checking grade with a level from the foundation out to the property line, finding where the downspouts discharge, probing for the depth to clay, and looking for any depressions that could be an old sinkhole taking water. Fayette County lots often have a legitimate outlet nearby - a curb, a rear swale, a storm inlet - and the whole design turns on getting water to it with fall the entire way.
You get a written plan that names the system, the route, the pipe size, the outlet and what the yard will look like afterward. No pressure to sign anything on the spot. If the honest answer is that a cheaper fix like downspout extensions and regrading will solve it, that is what the plan says.
Lexington is part of our the Bluegrass service area. Free on-site estimates, no obligation.
Send a few photos and a description of when it floods, and we will call you back to set up a free on-site look.
Request a free estimate Call (859) 484-8850