Custom Drainage Systems For Serious Drainage Issues

If you have had plumbing or drainage issues in your home, you know just how aggravating and costly they can be. Whether it is an on-the-job accident that has ruined your water line or you are suffering from a severe storm, there will come a time when you need to find a plumber to come out and repair or replace something. But where should you turn when you need reliable drainage companies in St. Louis for awful drainage issues? And what kind of drainage system installation is right for you? Luckily, finding the right custom drainage solution for your needs does not have to be difficult.

Drainage needs aren’t limited to a one-time issue — if there’s always a little water in your basement after it rains hard, or if there’s standing water pools in your yard that take a few days to drain after a storm, it’s time to look into finding a solution. A custom drainage system might seem like a drastic step, but it can resolve a wide variety of common issues. Here, we’ll break a few of them down.

Main Issues Requiring New Custom Drainage Systems

1. Wet Basements

A little bit of a damp basement might seem normal, but water in your basement can actually wreak havoc if left unchecked. That water can damage the foundation and cause mold to grow, which might worsen the air quality in your house. 

The good news is, if you are like most people and your basement leaks and fills with water, there are ways to avoid this problem and still have your basement waterproofed adequately. Good custom drainage systems can help alleviate the problem by directing water away from your home, providing you with a dry basement protected from future water leakage.

Drainage system installation can be the difference between a perfectly waterproofed basement and one that is full of sump pump holes, puddles of standing water, moldy walls, and damp ceilings. 

To prevent such an occurrence, you need a quality drainage system installation. Many drainage companies in St. Louis can divert water away from your basement, keeping it dry. While exterior solutions sometimes can’t stop all of the water from reaching your basement, they’re generally a good place to start. Resorting to interior solutions first can cause a lot of unnecessary headaches and rarely results in the desired outcome of a dry, comfortable basement.  

2. Inadequate Planning for Bed Design

Planning is the foundation of any successful gardening or landscape project. When designing and building a new garden, you should know what planting beds will become exposed to certain conditions, soil types, and drainage requirements. It can be incredibly frustrating to spend countless hours (and dollars) designing and planting your dream flower bed, only to have the plants constantly soggy from a poorly draining yard. Most plants are not adapted to overly wet soil, and they’ll encounter issues like root rot.

And there are other gardening complications that come from a consistently waterlogged lawn, too. When you walk on the wet yard, that can cause the soil to compact, which is detrimental to anything you’ve got planted. Plus, soil compaction can actually make the drainage issues even worse. When the problems start to compound like this, it’s a good idea to look into custom drainage systems to get everything sorted out. Any good drainage company should keep your landscaping in mind during your drainage system installation, and they’ll know the best way to make your yard hospitable to the kinds of plants you like.

There are also things you can do on the gardening side to make the best use of your yard’s water retention. Many plants thrive in a wet environment, and through a little research, you can find the ones best suited to the level of sun and water already present in your yard. These kinds of plants can improve your soil over time, but it will be far from a quick fix. And if these sorts of water-loving plants aren’t your style, this solution won’t be the right one for you. 

No matter what plants you’re planting, you want to make sure you’re doing it right. One of the most common planting mistakes is the improper planting of soil layers — you want to make sure you’re using soils that complement each other. For example, if your native soil is clay, you want to add a sandy soil to even it out, since clay tends to hold moisture and more sandy types of dirt drain easily. Improperly planted beds cause water to seep through the bed design, causing chaos in water management and overall plant health. Custom drainage systems can help solve these issues.

The soil layer should remain adequately planted at the correct depth and location. If not, the bed design will fail to provide an efficient water management system for the plantings. 

Proper drainage system design and construction are critical components to having a productive and beautiful garden. If you’ve been trying to build your dream garden each time spring rolls around only to have a soggy yard ruin all your hard work, it’s a good idea to look into custom drainage systems. 

3. Gutter Spouts Without Proper Exit

Since your roof displaces all the water that falls on it, your gutters have a lot of water to deal with. Gutter spouts without proper exit cause chaos and watery mess and are a very common reason for a gutter overflow. A clogged drainage system often causes this problem, but including the gutters as part of custom drainage systems can solve the issue. 

Clogged gutters usually form due to the accumulated sediment, leaves, debris, and other small items accumulated on the roof or the gutters. The debris gradually builds up pressure in the system, resulting in increased water flow and eventual overflow. If this spillover occurs, then proper drainage of the accumulated watery mess is essential. Clogging with an overflowing watery mess can ruin your house’s interior decoration and beauty and can make the home a veritable watery disaster.

As the water level increases, so does the risk of overflow. The gutter needs cleaning and clearing to prevent this buildup. Gutters often overflow right next to your foundation, which makes these issues extra problematic. Making sure your gutters are functional and directing water away from your home is an important first step to solving your drainage issues.

Drainage companies in St. Louis can extend your downspouts so that they don’t dump water right into your foundation. Instead, they’ll connect to a bigger custom drainage system. 

4. Bad Slopes

Issues with paved, sloped surfaces are usually caused by one of two things: Either you have an incline that slopes into your house (and therefore the water has nowhere to go except into your home), or you have a flawed drainage system in the area around the house. The latter of these two causes is a more significant issue. The good news is that custom drainage systems easily solve either problem. 

The right inclines in the right areas are crucial to keeping the water flowing away from your home and yard, but not all downward slopes are created equally. They can be too steep, too shallow, or run into obstructions like tree roots. If your yard is fairly flat or has inadequate slopes, any options you have for custom drainage systems will probably include a sump pump. Drainage professionals use these pumps to force water to go toward more favorable areas, even when there is no natural slope to encourage that movement. 

How do sump pumps work against the forces of gravity? Well, first they are placed into something (rather unfortunately) called a sump pit. Drainage companies dig these pits into the lowest-lying problem area, place gravel along the bottom, and put the pump on top. When the pit fills with water, there are mechanisms in the pump that sense that liquid and automatically turn the pump on. There are also kinds of sump pumps that you can activate manually, but their inconvenience makes them fairly uncommon. Both kinds of sump pumps, manual or automatic, typically use centrifugal force to draw the water out of the pit and push it up through the discharge pipe, successfully moving the water out of the problem area.

5. Standing Water in the Yard

If your yard is a muddy, puddly mess for days after it rains, that means the water doesn’t have a proper way to drain, leaving it sitting around where you want it least. These situations can require custom drainage systems. If they’re left untreated, they can cause lasting damage to your plants’ roots and the nutritional content of your soil. That water can also eventually reach your foundation, and you’re already well aware what kinds of major issues that can cause.

Have some drainage companies in St. Louis come out to look at your yard and assess whether the pooling is bad enough to require a drainage system installation. That way, you’ll know for sure what the issues with your yard are and how the experts recommend fixing them.

Some of the fixes they might suggest include surface and area drains or French drainage systems. These solutions carry water away from unwanted areas and toward better ones, or they can facilitate the absorption of the water into the soil. There are plenty of drainage companies in St. Louis who can implement these and other drainage solutions, so don’t lose hope — a dry, beautiful yard is absolutely attainable, even after a big storm.

Custom Drain Services

If your home or property in general is prone to any of the issues listed above, it’s a good idea to look into a custom drainage system. To learn more about drainage system installation and how they can take care of all your drain-related requirements, shop around the different drainage companies in St. Louis. You can find details about services, pricing, and availability on their websites. You can also see if there are any customer testimonials and comments on their services. If you need more information, don’t be afraid to contact several drainage companies in St. Louis to ask any questions you might have that the websites don’t cover. 

The drainage systems market is booming; there are many drainage companies in St. Louis coming up in the ranks, successfully competing to provide you with the best of their services. This leaves you with no choice but to compare all your options and select the best one available.

You may be hesitating, thinking this means having to part with a few dollars. A good custom drainage system is obviously not going to be free, but forgoing that solution and just hoping it won’t rain too hard and leaving your drainage issues unresolved can cause catastrophic problems later on, amounting to huge sums of money. Even if you’re on a tight budget, just taking a look at custom drainage systems is a good first step.

Don’t Wait: Contact Drainage Companies in St. Louis Today

When it comes to home improvement projects, various issues need custom drainage systems to ensure a successful outcome. From clogged drains to tree root infiltrations and sewer backups, if you do not get the proper drainage system set up throughout your home and yard, you will likely end up with an unfavorable outcome. Not only will this result in a higher than expected cost to repair or even replace your drains, but it may also pose a health risk to you and your family.

You shouldn’t have to wade through water several days after it rains just to get to the garage. Improperly drained lawns can be nearly unusable, and that’s unacceptable. Even though there are some steps you can take on your own, like planting bushes and flowers native to very wet environments, a professional could fix these issues with a lot less legwork from you.

If you have any questions about how a custom drainage system could solve one of your drainage problems, contact professional drainage companies in St. Louis specializing in drainage cleaning and maintenance.