Drainage & French Drains in Mount Laurel, NJ

Three kinds of property, three kinds of problem

Mount Laurel's housing covers a wide span, and drainage problems follow the type of property:

• 1960s ranches and split-levels on generous lots, where decades of settling and later patios have flattened the original grade
• 1980s townhome courts with shared drives and shallow utility easements, where one unit's downspouts end up in the next unit's yard
• Newer homes on engineered pads, where the lot drains well but the yard behind it collects from a larger area

Diagnose before we dig

We look at the property after rain when we can, follow the water from where it starts to where it stops, and note downspouts, low spots, neighbor runoff and any old swale that has silted in. On flat clay ground the cause is rarely one thing, and the right fix depends on which source carries the most water.

French drains that actually move water

A French drain is a fabric-lined trench of clean stone with perforated pipe set to a continuous fall. In clay, the drain does its work by giving perched water an easier path than the soil around it — but only if the pipe keeps falling the whole way to the outlet. On land this flat, we set grade with a laser and adjust depth along the run to hold pitch.

Where surface water is the main problem, a drain may be paired with catch basins at the low points so runoff gets into the pipe quickly instead of soaking through the lawn first.

The outlet decides the design

Clay doesn't absorb water, so dry wells rarely work well in most of Mount Laurel. The drain has to discharge somewhere lower — daylight at the back of the lot, a swale, or a connection the township allows. We identify that outlet first and design the run backward from it. Discharging onto a neighbor's property is never the answer.

Roof water and regrading

A roof sheds a lot of water in one storm, and downspouts that empty against the foundation pour it straight into the clay next to your basement wall. Running downspouts through buried solid pipe to the outlet is often the single most effective change. Regrading the soil beside the house so it falls away for the first several feet keeps surface water from collecting there.

We compact fill in lifts so the new grade doesn't sink back, then topsoil and leave it ready to seed.

Townhome and shared-yard drainage

In townhome communities, drainage crosses property lines and often involves an association. Shallow utility easements behind the units leave little room for a deep trench, so we locate every line before digging and design shallower collection where needed. We're glad to work with the association or a neighbor when the fix serves more than one unit.

Wet basements

Water coming through a basement wall after rain is usually a symptom of what's happening outside. Getting roof water and surface runoff away from the foundation is the right first move. If the basement is taking on sewage instead of ground water, that's a sewer problem and needs a different response.

What a finished job looks like

A finished drainage job should be close to invisible. The trench is backfilled and compacted, topsoil is graded to the new pitch, and the lawn is ready for seed or sod. Downspout lines end at a clean outlet or pop-up emitter, catch basins sit flush with the grade, and any concrete we opened is restored. The test is the next heavy storm: water should move off the lot within hours, not sit for days. If something isn't working the way we said it would, we come back and look.

Restoration and nearby work

If a drainage run crosses a walk, patio or driveway, we cut it cleanly and self-perform the concrete restoration. Utilities are marked before every dig; the Mount Laurel Township MUA serves most of the township's water and sewer, and if your original lateral is failing we can repair it while the ground is open.