Drainage Guides for Collin County Homeowners

Start with the French Drain vs Yard Grading guide. It walks through how to tell whether you have a grade problem, which regrading fixes, or a sub-surface water problem, which needs a drain. Getting that call right is the difference between a few hundred dollars and a few thousand.

Because of the soil. The Blackland Clay guide explains it: Houston Black clay absorbs water at roughly a tenth of an inch an hour and changes volume by 25 to 40 percent between wet and dry. Standard French drain details written for sandy or loamy ground silt up in it within a few years.

Two decades or more when it is built for clay, and as little as three to five years when it is not. The lifespan article covers what actually shortens it, and the storm season checklist covers the annual maintenance that keeps a system performing.