Yard Drainage Contractor & French Drains in Greater Boston

Here's the thing 37 years on the job taught me: patios and yards around here don't fail because of the pavers. They fail because of water. Get the water right and everything lasts. That's why drainage isn't an add-on for us — it's the foundation of the whole job.

Signs you've got a drainage problem

• Standing water or puddles that sit for a day or more after it rains
• A soggy, spongy lawn or a mossy, always-wet corner
• Water in the basement, or damp against the foundation
• Mulch and soil washing out of beds and onto the walkway
• A patio that's heaving, sinking, or pooling water — almost always a base-and-drainage failure
• Downspouts dumping right next to the house

What we install

• French drains — a gravel-filled trench with perforated pipe that collects underground water and carries it to a safe outlet
• Catch basins & channel drains — to capture surface water at low spots, patios, and driveways
• Dry wells — underground reservoirs that let collected water soak away on site
• Downspout & gutter lines — piped underground and carried well away from the foundation
• Regrading & pitch correction — reshaping the yard so water runs away from the house, not toward it
• Drainage built into every patio & wall — proper pitch, a deep compacted base, and fabric on clay so the hardscape never traps water

Why NDS-certified matters

Anybody can dig a trench and drop in a pipe. Whether it actually works — and keeps working — comes down to reading the water, sizing the system, and outletting it somewhere that won't just move the problem ten feet over. Allan Spires is an NDS Certified Professional Drainage Contractor, trained on the engineering behind residential water management. Combine that with 37 years of knowing exactly how Greater Boston's clay soil and freeze-thaw winters behave, and you get a fix that holds.

The drainage-first difference on patios

Most contractors treat drainage as an afterthought. We start there. Every patio, walkway, and wall we build is set on a deep, compacted base with proper pitch and water management engineered in — which is exactly why our work doesn't heave, crack, or pool the way cheap installs do. If you've already got a failing patio that pools water, that's a drainage fix too, and we do those all the time.

The drainage problems we fix most around Greater Boston

After 37 years and a whole lot of wet yards, the same handful of problems come up again and again around here — because our clay soil, our tight lots, and our freeze-thaw winters all gang up to trap water. Here's what we see most, and how we fix it for good.

1. Downspouts dumping right at the foundation

The most common one, and often the cheapest to fix. Your gutters collect the whole roof and empty it in a puddle at the base of the house, soaking the soil right against the foundation. The fix: we pipe the downspouts underground and carry that water well away from the house — out to daylight or into a dry well — so it isn't sitting against your basement wall every storm.

2. A soggy lawn that never dries out

Greater Boston sits on heavy clay that holds water like a bathtub, so a low spot in the yard stays spongy for days after it rains. The fix: a French drain or a dry well to give that trapped water somewhere to go, usually paired with regrading the low area so it sheds water instead of collecting it.

3. Water in the basement after every storm

This is the one that costs real money if you let it ride. It's almost always the grade sloping toward the house plus saturated soil pushing water through the foundation. The fix: regrade to pitch water away, run a French drain along the foundation, and get the downspouts piped off — especially before a freeze-thaw winter, when trapped water expands and goes to work on your foundation.

4. Standing water on the patio or driveway

If puddles sit on your hardscape, it was built without the right pitch or on a base that traps water — and come winter that water freezes and heaves the whole thing. The fix: channel drains or catch basins to catch the surface water, re-pitching, and a proper compacted base with fabric over clay. This is where being a hardscaper and a drainage contractor pays off — we fix both at once.

5. Erosion — soil and mulch washing downhill

When water runs unchecked down a slope, it carries your mulch, soil, and beds right onto the patio or walkway. The fix: regrading and a swale or French drain to intercept the water up top — and where the grade's steep, a retaining wall with drainage built in behind it to hold the hill and move the water.

6. Ice sheets on the walk or driveway all winter

A New England special: water that pools from poor drainage refreezes into a sheet of ice every night — a slip hazard right where you walk. The fix: solve the drainage so the water never sits there to freeze in the first place. Fix the cause, and the ice goes with it.

How it works

1. Free on-site assessment. We walk the yard when we can, find where the water actually comes from and where it needs to go — not just where it's pooling.
2. A straight plan & written estimate. The right fix for your yard, in plain English, with the price in writing.
3. We install it clean. Trenching, piping, outlets, and restoration — done right and put back neat.
4. Your yard stays dry. Water goes where it should, and the problem's gone.

Serving Greater Boston

We solve drainage across Boston, Somerville, Cambridge, Medford, Brookline, Arlington, Belmont, Watertown, Winchester, Malden, Everett, and the surrounding towns — from tight city lots to larger suburban yards. Wet Somerville and Medford yards near the Mystic are a specialty — Medford is home base, and our hardscape contractor in Medford page covers what we build there.