Water is the thing that ruins property out here, and it almost never ruins it fast. It sits in the same low spot every summer, it runs down the drive and takes the drive with it, it finds the wrong side of a building and stays there. I cut swales, shape yards, set inlets and drain lines, and finish grade so the water leaves. If you are putting up a barn or a house and need a compacted elevation to build on, that is a building pad, not this page.
Free estimateCall (352) 932-3653
What I get called about
- Water standing in the same spot in the yard every wet season and nothing growing there
- Water running toward the house instead of away from it, or pooling against a slab or a block wall
- A yard that stays soft for days after a rain that the neighbor's yard shrugged off
- Downspouts dumping at the corner of the foundation with nowhere to go
- A drive that turns into a stream and rills out every summer
- A low corner of a pasture that has gone to muck and mosquitoes
- A new build where the lot was left flat and nobody thought about where the water goes
- A swale that was there once and has silted in, grown over, or been filled by somebody mowing it
- Ruts, tire scars and dead ground where equipment turned around
- Water coming across from uphill, off a neighbor's property or off the road
Why water stands here when the sand drains so fast
This is the question I get more than any other, and it has two answers.
Answer one: there is no way out. The ridge sand drains beautifully, straight down, until it hits something. A low spot with no outfall does not drain sideways, so the water sits there until it evaporates. Filling the hole does not fix it, it just moves the puddle to the next low point, usually somewhere less convenient. What fixes it is giving the water a route to somewhere it can legally and physically go.
Answer two: what is under your grass is not sand. East toward Astor and in the flatwoods pockets, the water table sits high and there is organic ground under the surface. Ground that has been driven over enough seals off and behaves the same way. And on lots where a builder spread whatever came out of the footer trench, there can be a layer of something that holds water sitting a foot under a lawn that looks fine.
The difference matters, because answer one is a shaping job and answer two is a shaping job plus removing what is holding the water. I can usually tell which one you have got by walking it and digging one hole.
And sometimes the answer is neither. Some of the calls I go out on are a fifty dollar downspout extension, not a two thousand dollar swale. I am going to tell you that.
Swales, and what one actually is
A swale is a shallow, wide, grassed channel shaped to carry water from where it collects to where it can leave. It is not a ditch. Built right it is a soft dip in your yard you can mow across without noticing it, and it moves a serious amount of water.
Three things make a swale work and all three get skipped.
Fall. It has to run continuously downhill to an outfall, with no flat spots and no reverse. That sounds obvious and it is exactly what gets missed, because over a two hundred foot run the eye cannot see it. This is the laser's job.
Section. Wide and shallow beats narrow and deep for the same volume, and it is the difference between a feature you can mow and a trench you have to steer around. Wide and shallow also runs slower, which means it does not scour.
Somewhere to go. A swale that ends in the middle of your yard is a longer puddle. It has to daylight, tie into an existing ditch or drainage way, or reach a spot that genuinely holds and infiltrates. Where it ends is the design decision, not where it starts.
A swale is usually a lot cheaper than a pipe system and it fixes the actual problem instead of hiding it. Where a swale will not fit, or where it has to cross a drive, that is when pipe earns its money.
The rest of what goes in a drainage fix
Drain inlets and grate boxes. A concrete inlet pad with a galvanized grate set into the low point of a swale, tied to a pipe run. This is the piece that lets water leave a spot that has no fall to give. I set the box, pour the pad and grade the swale into it, which means one person is responsible for whether the water actually reaches the grate. See concrete flatwork.
Pipe runs and French drains. Perforated pipe, stone and fabric where you need water to move through the ground rather than across it, and solid pipe where you just need it carried past something. The fabric is not optional and the stone is #57 for a reason: it has no fines in it, so it stays open. Skip the fabric and the sand migrates into the stone and the drain quietly stops working over a couple of years, with nothing on the surface to tell you.
Downspout and roof drain tie-ins. The cheapest drainage improvement most houses out here can buy. A roof is a big collection surface and dumping it at the corner of the foundation is the origin of a lot of standing water blamed on the yard. Pipe it out to daylight or into the swale, restore the ground over it, done.
Rip rap and rock lining, where a swale is steep enough or concentrated enough to scour, or at a pipe outfall where the water lands.
Regrading and finish grading. Reshaping the surface so it falls away from buildings, filling scars and ruts, and leaving ground you can sod, seed or mow. This is also the last step on almost every other job I do.
Culverts under a drive. If your drainage problem is a crossing, see driveways and access roads, where the culvert work lives.
Finish grading, and why the laser is on the trailer
A laser transmitter on a tripod, a receiver on a grade rod. Instead of eyeballing a slope I am reading an actual elevation anywhere on the site.
Drainage is the work where this matters most, because the fall you need is usually small and the distance is usually long. A quarter inch in ten feet is invisible to the eye and completely decisive to water. Over two hundred feet of swale, eyeballing it is how you end up with a low spot in the middle that holds water and a homeowner who paid for drainage and got a birdbath.
Most small outfits around here do not carry one. It goes out on every grading job.
Septic: what I will and will not touch
I will grade around a tank and a drainfield, carefully, and I am going to ask you to show me where both are before anything moves. Driving a loaded machine over a drainfield is how they get crushed, and that is a repair nobody enjoys paying for.
What I do not do is install, replace or abandon a septic system. In Florida that is work for a registered septic contractor and I am not going to pretend otherwise. What I do is the part around it: the site prep, the access, the grading afterward, and hauling in the sand for a filled or mound system. Several septic outfits around here use me for exactly that, because they would rather set tank and pipe than run a machine all day.
One thing worth knowing while you are planning: a drainfield needs water moving down through the soil, which is exactly why clay never belongs anywhere near one, and why regrading that sends more surface water across a drainfield is a bad idea even when it fixes your puddle.
Permits, and the neighbor question
I am not the permit office and I do not file applications for you. Confirm your own parcel with Lake County or your city before you commit, rather than taking anybody's word for it, mine included.
What I can tell you is roughly where the line sits. Small yard work, a downspout run, a short swale to daylight, usually is not an issue. Lake County can require grading and stormwater review when work adds impervious area or changes where water leaves a property, and that trigger surprises people because it is about the change, not the size.
And then there is the part no permit covers. Moving your water onto your neighbor is a problem regardless of what any office says. I will not build you a fix that solves your puddle by putting it in somebody else's pasture, and if that is the only available route I am going to tell you that on the walk instead of after the invoice. The good news is that the honest solution is usually cheaper than the one that starts an argument.
What it costs
I price a drainage job after I have walked it and looked at where the water is actually going, and the number I write down holds unless you change the scope.
There is no per-foot price for this work and anybody who gives you one over the phone is guessing at the two things that set the number: how far the water has to travel and whether there is anywhere for it to go at the end. A hundred feet of swale to an existing ditch and a hundred feet of swale to nowhere are not the same job.
What I will do instead is give you a real number the same day. Send me the town, a description of where the water sits and where you think it should go, and photos. Photos of standing water are worth more than any description, so if it is raining while you are reading this, go take them.
What makes it cheaper: an obvious outfall, dry ground to work on, open access, sod or seed you are handling yourself, and doing it while a machine is already on your property for a pad, a drive or clearing.
What makes it more: no available outfall, ground that has to come out before anything can be shaped, working around septic, wells, irrigation and mature trees, wet season, tight access for the machine, and restoration on a finished lawn where I have to be gentle with everything I drive over.
Good fit for me, and what to call somebody else about
Good fit
yard grading and regrading, swales, drain inlets and grate boxes, French drains and pipe runs, downspout and roof drain tie-ins, rip rap at outfalls, finish grading for sod or seed, fixing a lot the builder left flat, pasture low spots, driveway drainage, and drainage designed and built at the same time as a pad or a drive.
Call somebody else for
anything an engineer has to design and stamp, including a retention or detention pond on a permitted plan. Sub-slab or foundation waterproofing, which is a different trade entirely. Sprinkler and irrigation systems. Sod and landscaping, though I will grade and prep for whoever is laying it. Septic installation, repair or replacement. Anything that requires taking water into a public storm system or across a county right of way, which is a conversation with the county before it is a conversation with me.
When a job needs a trade I do not do, I bring in somebody I have worked with for twenty years and I stay the one you call about the dirt.
What usually comes next
Questions I get
Why does water stand in my yard when the sand out here drains so fast?
Two usual reasons. Either there is a low spot with no path out, so the water sits until it evaporates, or there is a layer under the surface that is not sand. The ridge drains beautifully. The flatwoods pockets east of here do not, and neither does ground that has been driven over enough to seal off. Fixing it is almost always about giving the water a route out rather than filling the hole, because a filled hole just moves the puddle.
What is a swale and do I need one?
A swale is a shallow, wide, grassed channel shaped to move water from where it collects to where it can leave. It is not a ditch and it is not ugly if it is built right, and you can mow it. If water runs toward your house, sits along a fence line, or pools in the same spot every summer, a swale is usually the answer and it is a lot cheaper than a pipe system.
Do I need a permit to regrade my yard?
Sometimes. Lake County can require grading and stormwater review when work adds impervious area or changes drainage, and moving water onto a neighbor is a problem regardless of what any permit says. Small yard work usually is not an issue. If we are reshaping a large area or changing where water leaves the property, call the county first.
Can you grade around my septic tank and drainfield?
Around it, yes, carefully, and I will ask you to show me where it is before anything moves. Working over a drainfield with a machine is how they get crushed. What I will not do is install, replace or abandon a septic system, because in Florida that is work for a registered septic contractor. What I can do is the site prep, the access, the grading afterward, and hauling in the sand for a filled or mound system.
What is laser grading and does it actually matter?
A laser transmitter and a receiver on a grade rod, so instead of eyeballing a slope I am reading an actual elevation across the whole site. It matters most on pads, arenas, and anywhere a small slope has to run a long way. Eyeballing a two hundred foot run is how water ends up on the wrong side of a building. Most small outfits around here do not carry one and it is on every grading job I do.
Will fixing my drainage push water onto my neighbor?
Not on a job I build. Water has to go somewhere, and "somewhere" cannot be the other side of your property line just because that is downhill. Every fix I quote ends at a real outfall: an existing ditch or drainage way, a spot that genuinely holds and infiltrates, or a point where it daylights and spreads without concentrating on anybody. If your property has no honest outfall, I will tell you that on the walk, because that changes what is possible and it is better to know before you have paid anybody.
Do you install French drains?
Yes, and the two things that decide whether one lasts are the fabric and the stone. Perforated pipe wrapped and bedded in clean #57, which has no fines in it and stays open, with fabric between the stone and the surrounding soil. Skip the fabric and sand migrates into the voids over a couple of years and the drain quietly stops working with nothing on the surface to warn you. A French drain also needs somewhere to discharge, same as everything else on this page.
Can you fix my driveway if the problem is really water?
Often what looks like a driveway problem is a drainage problem wearing a driveway costume, and no amount of rock will touch it. If your drive holds water, rills out every summer, or the base keeps disappearing, I would rather fix where the water goes and then rebuild the drive than sell you rock twice. Driveway construction lives on the driveways and access roads page and I do both, usually in the same booking.
Tell me where the water sits
Call (352) 932-3653, or send the form. The single most useful thing you can send me is a photo of the water actually standing there, so take it while it is wet rather than describing it when it is dry. Tell me the town, where it collects, and where you think it should be able to go.
Free estimate, on site, no pressure. Sometimes the answer is a downspout extension and I will say so.
Free estimateCall (352) 932-3653