Rain on a slope. Water at the house.
A curtain drain cuts off water on the high side of the house. Pipe in stone intercepts clay-held water and daylights it downhill around the foundation. A French drain sits under a soggy patio and collects water that already ponded. A swale is an open ditch that silts in and only moves water you can see. Clay next to a house needs the curtain. Wallaby Land Works, FWF Construction LLC, GC #75052. Call 629-231-1117. Hermitage and Old Hickory Lake.
Middle Tennessee has had a lot of rain. If your lot falls toward the house, that water does not stay in the yard. It walks downhill and sits on the foundation.
A curtain drain is a cutoff. We trench on the high side of the house, set pipe in stone, and send the water around the building instead of through it.
This is not a French drain under a soggy patio. It is not a swale. A swale is an open ditch. It takes yard, it silts in, and it only moves what you can see. A curtain drain catches water in the soil before it hits the wall.
If the water already ponded in a yard or under a patio, that is a French drain. See French drain Nashville.
Why a curtain drain, not a swale
A swale needs room and a clean grade you keep mowing. Next to a house you usually do not have that room. The water is already in the clay. You need pipe and stone that intercept it and daylight it downhill.
How we build one
We walk the lot and find where the water wants to go. Then we cut a trench on the high side of the house, often around a corner so the flow cannot sneak past.
Fabric goes in first so clay stays out of the stone.
Stone goes in, then a perforated pipe, then more stone.
We wrap it, backfill, and seed or sod the scar.
The pipe has to daylight. If it dead-ends, you just moved the wet spot.
If the yard is wet after every storm, or you can see water tracking to a corner, call or text (629) 231-1117. We quote on site. No published prices. A real number for your lot. What we measure on that walk is on drainage-walk.html.
One crew for the whole job
French Drains
A French drain collects water already ponded in a yard or under a patio and daylights it downhill.
See details →Drainage Walk
Length, daylight, and clay. Curtain, French, or regrade. What we measure before we write a quote.
See details →Retaining Walls
Nashville clay holds water behind a wall. Techo-Bloc SRW with a drain so the water leaves.
See details →Grading
Wet spots, uneven ground, or a pad that needs to be dead level, we grade it and move the water where it belongs.
See details →Forestry Mulching
Got a lot choked with brush, saplings, and overgrowth? We clear it in a single pass and grind the material into mulch that stays on the ground.
See details →Site Prep
GCs and developers, get your lot cleared, graded, and build-ready on schedule.
See details →Serving Nashville & Middle Tennessee
Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, and Sumner counties and the surrounding area.
Tell us about your property
Send a few details and we'll set up a free on-site quote, a real number, not a guess. Most quotes booked fast.
Wallaby Land Works · A division of FWF Construction LLC
Serving Nashville & Middle Tennessee
Phone / Text: (629) 231-1117
Hours: Mon–Sat 7am–6pm · Sun closed