How much does a French drain cost?

It comes down to length, depth, and where the water has to go. A short run to dry out one low spot is a different number than draining a whole back yard. I bid it in person so the price matches the actual job.

Are French drains worth the money?

If your yard floods every spring or water sits against the house, yes. A properly routed French drain protects your foundation and gives you your yard back. A cheap one that dumps water nowhere is a waste, which is why routing matters more than the trench.

How do I fix bad drainage in my yard?

First we figure out where the water comes from and where it needs to go. Sometimes it's a French drain, sometimes it's a re-grade, often it's both. I'll show you the fix when I come bid the job.

What is the golden rule of drainage?

Move the water away from the house and give it somewhere lower to go. Every drainage fix I build follows that. If a drain doesn't have a real outlet, it just moves the puddle.

God Guides, We Grade.

When the yard's too flat to drain, I bury a French drain to carry the water out

If your lot's flat or the low spot has nowhere to run, grading alone won't cut it — the water needs a pipe to follow. A French drain is a gravel-and-perforated-pipe trench that catches the water underground and routes it out to the street, the ditch, or a daylight spot at the edge of the property. In Lincoln County clay, it's often the difference between a dry basement and a wet one.

Book a Bid for this job Call (573) 754-2482

Brandon Bange, owner. I bid every drainage job myself.

The damp basement is the tell

By the time water shows up on the inside, it's been pooling against the foundation on the outside for a while. Clay-heavy hardpan doesn't soak it up — it holds it right there at the footing until it finds a crack. If your neighbor put in a drain last year and now theirs is the dry yard on the street while yours still ponds, that's not luck. That's a pipe doing its job.

How I put one in

Find where the water's going to go. A drain is only as good as its outlet. I figure out the low point — street, ditch, swale, or a daylight spot — before I dig the first foot.
Trench it on grade. I cut a clean trench that falls consistently toward the outlet so water actually moves through it instead of sitting.
Pipe, gravel, fabric. Perforated pipe in a gravel bed, wrapped so the clay doesn't silt it up and clog it in two years.
Cut a swale where the surface needs to carry it. Sometimes the fix isn't a buried pipe at all — it's a shallow, graded swale that channels surface water around the yard to a safe outlet. I build those too, and I'll tell you when a swale does the job a drain doesn't need to.
Backfill and finish. I close it up and grade the surface back so you'd hardly know I was there — except the water's gone.

Most residential drains are a day or two depending on the run. We don't just move dirt here — we solve the water problem, whether that's a French drain, a swale, or both working together.

Same yard draining properly after the French drain was installed — Wet-yard drainage fix on a Lincoln County property

Wet yard with standing water before a French drain was installed — Wet-yard drainage fix on a Lincoln County property

Real reviews from real neighbors are on the way.

I post them with a first name and a town as folks send them in — I don't run made-up quotes. Want to be the first? Book a bid and I'll earn it.

Stop guessing and get it bid

I'll come out, find out where your water actually wants to go, and tell you whether it's a drain, a regrade, or both — with a real number attached.

Book a Bid for this job Call (573) 754-2482

French Drains & Water Routing questions I hear

French drain or regrading — which do I need?

If there's a lower spot nearby for water to run to, regrading is often the simpler, cheaper fix. If the yard's flat or the water's trapped, a French drain is what carries it out. I'll tell you straight when I bid — I don't push the bigger job to pad the invoice.

Will it clog up in a couple years?

Not the way I build them. The pipe gets wrapped and bedded in gravel with fabric so the clay can't silt it up. The drains that fail are the ones somebody buried bare in dirt to save a few bucks. I don't cut that corner.

How much is a French drain around here?

It comes down to the length of the run and where the outlet is — a short drain to a close ditch is a different number than a hundred-footer out to the road. I'll give you a real figure when I see it, not a vague "depends."

Can you get to it soon?

I bid most jobs the week you call, work usually two-to-three weeks out, weather permitting. Want a faster read? Call (573) 754-2482 or text me a photo of where the water sits.

Want a ballpark fast? Text us a photo of the problem to (573) 754-2482.

Towns I do french drains & water routing in

This is some of my most-asked-for work across Lincoln County and the St. Charles County line. Here's where I do the most of it — tap your town for the local details.

See every town I serve →

Worth a read before you call

Book a bid for your drainage fix

Four fields. Under a minute. No sales runaround.

Name, phone, your town, and a sentence (or a photo) of where the water pools. Email's optional. I come out and look at every job myself — no commercial site work, no landscaping pitch, just honest dirt work for homeowners. Bid this week, work usually in the next two-to-three.