French Drain Installation in Columbus

Transit & Flow Group installs French drains across Columbus and Central Ohio to move standing water away from foundations, low yards, and soggy side lots. Because our clay soil barely absorbs water, the fix is a graded gravel-and-pipe path to somewhere better. Sketch your problem area in the Estimate Builder for a preliminary online estimate, or book a drainage assessment.

Is this what you’re seeing?

Drainage problems announce themselves. The common Columbus versions:

• A swampy strip between houses. Side yards on 40-and-50-foot lots in older neighborhoods collect roof runoff from two houses with nowhere to send it.
• Standing water for days after rain. Puddles that vanish overnight are normal. Water still standing two or three days later means the clay beneath has quit absorbing and needs a piped exit.
• A damp basement wall on one side of the house. Often traceable to surface water ponding against that wall, not a foundation defect. The cheapest fix starts outside.
• A backyard you cannot mow until Thursday after a Saturday rain. Common in newer developments in Lewis Center and Dublin, where construction regrading compacted the clay subsoil.
• Downspouts dumping into a low spot. Gutters are doing their job and delivering all that roof water to the worst possible place.
• Mulch and soil washing out of beds along a slope, cutting small channels every storm.

A French drain solves interception and conveyance problems. It does not fix negative grading against the house or a broken underground downspout line, and if one of those is your actual problem we will say so and quote the right fix instead.

How pricing works

French drains are priced per linear foot, with the site setting the rate. What moves the number:

• Trench length and depth. A shallow yard-drying drain costs less per foot than a deep drain protecting a foundation.
• Digging conditions. Machine-accessible open yard is the base case. Hand-digging in tight side yards, working around mature tree roots in Clintonville or Upper Arlington, and cutting through landscaping all add labor.
• The outlet. Every drain needs somewhere lawful and functional to send water: daylight at a slope, a dry well, or a curb connection where the municipality allows it. Outlet type changes the scope meaningfully.
• Discharge accessories. Catch basins, downspout tie-ins, and cleanouts are individually priced line items.
• Restoration level. We backfill and rough-grade as standard; sod or seed restoration is quoted as its own line so you can decide.

The Estimate Builder lets you enter approximate length, the wet area, and photos for a preliminary online estimate. Final scope and price subject to verification after we walk the grade with a level. Permits and inspections may be required, especially for right-of-way or storm sewer connections, and we confirm utility locates through OUPS before any digging.

What’s included

• On-site grade assessment with measured elevations, not eyeball guessing
• Utility locate coordination before excavation
• Trench excavation to the designed depth and slope
• Perforated pipe wrapped in filter fabric, bedded in washed gravel
• Fabric-wrapped gravel envelope to slow clay silting, the main killer of French drains here
• A functioning outlet, tested with a hose before we backfill
• Backfill and rough grading of the trench line
• Photos of the open trench so you have a record of what is buried where
• All workmanship is backed by a 1-year labor warranty on labor, parts, and equipment covered per manufacturer terms.

What’s not included

• Foundation repair, crack injection, or interior waterproofing
• Sump pump work, unless bundled (see Sump Pump Replacement)
• Full landscape restoration beyond rough grade, unless added
• Regrading of the whole yard, quoted separately when that is the true fix

Why Central Ohio yards need French drains

The short answer is clay. Much of Franklin and Delaware County sits on dense, slow-draining clay soils, and water that cannot soak downward moves sideways or just sits. Two local patterns make it worse. In the older neighborhoods, Clintonville, the Hilltop, Whitehall, and similar streets built from the 1920s through the 1970s, lots are narrow, houses sit close together, and a century of settling has flattened whatever swales once carried water between them. Two roofs can drain into one ten-foot-wide side yard with no exit.

In the newer developments of Dublin, New Albany, and Lewis Center, builders stripped and regraded the topsoil, leaving compacted clay just under a thin lawn layer. These yards can pond in a way that surprises owners of five-year-old homes. Add Central Ohio’s freeze-thaw cycles, which heave and reshape surface grades a little each winter, and yards that drained fine a decade ago quietly stop draining. None of this is a defect in your house. It is the ground it sits on, and it is fixable with a properly sloped drain.

Our process

1. Describe the problem online. Where the water stands, how long it lingers, and photos go into the Estimate Builder for a preliminary online estimate.
2. Drainage assessment on site. We shoot grades, find the water’s source and its best exit, and design the run. Final scope and price subject to verification here.
3. Approve the plan. You get a simple drawing: trench route, depth, outlet, and any basins or tie-ins, with each priced.
4. Utility locates, then excavation. OUPS marks first, always. Then we trench to designed slope.
5. Install and test. Fabric, gravel, pipe, gravel, fabric, then a hose test at full flow to the outlet before backfill.
6. Backfill and walkthrough. Rough grade restored, trench photos delivered, restoration options reviewed.

Our crews are Bonded & Insured Professionals.

Related services

Sump Pump Replacement | Gutter Replacement | Gutter Guards

Water always wins against clay unless you give it a better path. Start a preliminary online estimate in the Estimate Builder, book a drainage assessment online, or call Transit & Flow at (614) 382-0000 while the problem is still visible in your yard.