Standing Water?
We Solve It.

Drainage Contractor Serving Middle Tennessee Homeowners

Most of the calls I get start the same way: a soggy yard that never dries out, water creeping toward the foundation, a downspout dumping right beside the house, or a crawlspace that smells damp after every storm. The homeowner has usually already tried something — a splash block, a bag of gravel, a short piece of black corrugated pipe — and the water still comes back. With more than 20 years of excavation experience behind me, I've learned that drainage problems almost never fix themselves and rarely get better without understanding where the water is actually coming from.

What I Look For First

Before I recommend anything, I follow the water. I want to see where it starts, where it wants to go, and what's stopping it from getting there. When I walk a property I'm watching for a few specific things: the slope of the yard against the foundation, how the gutters and downspouts terminate, whether the soil is holding water or shedding it, and whether there's a low spot collecting runoff from a neighboring lot. I also look uphill — a lot of standing water in a Franklin or Spring Hill backyard is coming from somewhere the homeowner never thought to check.

I try to see the property during or right after a rain when I can. A dry-day walkthrough tells me what the grade is doing; a wet-day walkthrough tells me what the water is actually doing. Those aren't always the same story.

Why The Problem Is Happening

In my experience, most residential drainage problems in this area come down to three causes: surface water that has nowhere to go, subsurface groundwater saturating soils faster than they can drain, or roof runoff being dumped in the wrong spot. Our clay-heavy soils don't forgive standing water — once the ground is saturated, it stays saturated for a long time, and any water that keeps arriving has to go somewhere. If the grade around the house is flat or negative, that somewhere is your foundation.

Water is patient. It will find the smallest gap, the lowest point, or the least compacted backfill and work its way in. That's why I always say water should move around a house, not through it — and the way you make that happen is to give it a clear, gravity-fed path off the property before it gets a chance to pond.

Mistakes I Commonly See

The biggest one is treating a drainage problem like a pipe problem. Someone runs a French drain across the low spot without thinking about where the water is coming from or where it's going to exit, and two years later it's silted up and useless. Another common one is burying corrugated black pipe with no fabric, no bedding, and no outfall — it works for a season, then the corrugations trap sediment and it becomes a slow underground swamp. I've also pulled up plenty of downspout extensions that dead-end six feet from the house because someone ran out of pipe. That water was going straight back into the foundation.

The other mistake I've noticed is skipping the grading step. Grading and drainage work together — you can't pipe your way out of a yard that slopes toward the house. If the grade is wrong, no drainage system will keep up with a heavy Tennessee storm.

How I Usually Solve It

Once I understand the source, I pick the simplest solution that will hold up long term. Sometimes that's extending downspouts and correcting a negative slope. Sometimes it's a swale that moves surface water around the house before it becomes a problem. Sometimes it's a properly built French drain with clean stone, filter fabric, and a gravity outfall to daylight. And sometimes the honest answer is that grading alone will solve 80% of what the homeowner is dealing with — see our grading solutions page for how I think about that. Pipes are tools, not the answer to every problem.

Standing Water and Yard Drainage

Standing water is more than a nuisance. It kills grass, breeds mosquitoes, undermines walkways, and slowly migrates toward the lowest point on the property — which is usually the house. The right fix depends on whether you're dealing with subsurface groundwater, surface runoff, or both. I don't guess. I diagnose before I dig.

French Drains

A properly built French drain — sloped trench, perforated pipe, clean stone, filter fabric to keep silt out, and a real gravity outfall — is one of the most reliable subsurface fixes for our soils. Built right, it can quietly work for decades. Built wrong, it fails in a season.

Catch Basins and Surface Drains

For hardscapes, low spots, and heavy downspout flow, catch basins capture water at the surface and route it through solid pipe. I size these for our heavy summer storms, not for a calm afternoon — that's when they need to actually work.

Downspout Drainage

One downspout can dump hundreds of gallons against a foundation in a single storm. I bury the extensions, tie them into solid pipe, and daylight the water well away from the house. It's one of the highest-value drainage upgrades a homeowner can make.

Swales and Surface Grading

Sometimes the best answer isn't a pipe at all — it's a properly shaped swale that uses gravity to move water across the property before it ever becomes a problem. I like solutions that require less maintenance, and a well-cut swale is about as low-maintenance as drainage gets. Learn more on our grading solutions page.

Foundation Drainage and Crawlspace Moisture

The foundation is the most expensive part of the house, so it deserves the most careful drainage. I look at perimeter slope, downspout termination, any window wells or low entries, and — if there's a crawlspace — what humidity and standing water look like underneath. If I see efflorescence (that white powder on block), musty smells, or seepage stains, we're already past "hope it doesn't get worse." A real water management plan is almost always cheaper than the foundation repair it prevents.

What You Can Check Yourself

Not everything needs a contractor. Walk your property during the next hard rain — the wet walk tells you more than any dry-day inspection. Look for downspouts dumping within a few feet of the foundation, mulch beds sloped back toward the house, splash marks on siding, and any point where water is running as a stream instead of sheeting off. If you can extend a downspout six or eight feet with a temporary line and it noticeably helps, that's a strong hint about where the permanent fix belongs. Keep gutters clean, keep mulch below siding, and don't let landscaping build up higher than the original grade against the house. Those three habits alone will prevent a lot of the problems I get called out for.

When To Call Me

If water keeps coming back after every storm, if you see it against the foundation, if the crawlspace is damp, or if the same soggy spot has ignored your last three attempts to fix it, that's the point to have someone walk it with you. I'll come out, follow the water, and give you an honest opinion — even if the honest opinion is "you don't need what you think you need." Related services include erosion control, grading, and driveway drainage.

Request a Drainage Evaluation

If standing water, foundation moisture, or poor yard drainage is wearing on you, let's get eyes on it. Call 931-442-5060 or request a free on-site drainage evaluation. I'll walk the property with you, explain what's actually happening, and lay out a clear plan for fixing it for good.

Recent Drainage Project

See a recent Franklin TN drainage and grading project where we solved standing water around a Starnes Creek home using a downspout extension, regrading, and targeted French drains.

Or take a look at a recent Williamson County backyard grading and downspout drainage project where we corrected negative grading, replaced clogged buried downspouts, and installed a yard drain to help stop basement flooding.