Before & After Photos

Installing French drains, also known as curtain drains, is one way to handle water in a yard with grading issues.  Here is an example from our customer in Lee's Summit, MO.

Installing French drains is an option in circumstances where excessive surface water must be managed.

Water management can take on many forms.  In most cases, a home is built so that the yard can be graded to properly drain water away from the foundation.  Swales are even graded into the landscape to provide a path for water to drain away from structures and toward storm drains.  In some cases, though, grading is not correct or has to be changed.  Sometimes a neighboring property will change their landscape and change the original drainage that was planned for the neighborhood.

When grading is done well, and gutters and downspouts are installed correctly, water will shed away from the foundation helping to prevent wet basements and bowing basement walls.  When those problems persist, and interior French drain, draintile, or another form of interior drainage is the usual recommended solution.  However, if there are major grading issues, they must be addressed outside.  Not addressing the pooling water can lead to extreme flooding or excessive pressure that can push a foundation wall in causing cracks and other structural issues.

The best approach to solving grading issues is to regrade in a way that water can runoff of the yard naturally and without pooling in the yard.  Unfortunately, there are rare cases where that isn’t possible.  That is when a change in landscape design should be considered.  One tool in the landscape toolbox is the exterior French drain or curtain drain.

For this customer in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Thrasher was able to work with them on both their yard drainage issues and dealing with the water that was already getting into the basement.  An exterior interceptor drain was installed in this home’s back yard.  Since the yard was not naturally sloped to move water away from the home, it was collecting in areas close to the foundation.  While an interior waterproofing drainage system may have kept the basement dry, the pooling water still had a chance to cause structural damage.  The homeowner also did not like having a muddy mess in their backyard after ever rainfall and even after watering the lawn.

Thrasher Foundation Repair prides itself on working with homeowners to find the best solution for their circumstances.  Even in situations where we cannot perform all the work ourselves, we will make recommendations to the homeowner that they can do themselves or hire a landscaper to perform.  If you aren’t sure what you need to do to solve your problem, we are happy to provide a free inspection to help you figure it out.

“From start to finish, I received total professionalism and up-to-date progress. The crew respected my property and cleaned up after the job was completed. Thrasher Foundation Repair came highly recommended to me and I see why. My neighbors are interested in having work done. My brother and mother have also used Thrasher. Top notch company. In today’s world, it is hard to find great customer service.” – R. R., homeowner

This homeowner owner wanted to protect their driveway for years to and trusted Thrasher's products and solutions.

Our team came out and determined that filling the joints with our NexusPro Sealant would keep water out to prevent the driveway from becoming unleveled and damaged.

Shelly is a proud homeowner and noticed a musty smell in her bedroom.  Since we were there looking at her garage wall, we also conducted a thorough inspection.

Our System Design Specialist, Zach, was able to identify the reason for the smell was due to high humidity and lots of mold in her crawlspace.  We were able to transform her space with full encapsulation and added our SaniDry humidifier.  This brightened up the space, removed the smell, and she can comfortably use it for storage.

Kenneth Rozell reached out to Thrasher to help turn his vacation home, into a permanent one. The house is located at the bottom of a hill, where water constantly runs down and into the foundation of Kenneth's home. Because of this, there was water coming through the cold joints and flooding the new addition that was added on. Working with Kenneth, we came up with a solution to help waterproof his home, and prevent the dreaded sound of water coming in. By installing clean space and water guard along the wall as well as a sump pump system, we were able to give the Rozell family some peace of mind. 

These homeowners have lived in their forever home since 1994. They had problems with water getting into their basement, so they thought a new gutter system was needed. After years, they still had this problem of water in their basement. They suspected that there could be cracks in their foundation, however they could not find any when they had it inspected. Unsure of where the water's source was, they called us because of our good reputation.

We sent System Design Specialist Tom Studer to assess what was causing this water to flood into the homeowners' basement. Tom found that water was not from foundation cracks, but cracks in the walls and thought the cold joints. The homeowners' basement needed a permanent solution, so Tom and his team got to work to install our WaterGuard Interior Drainage System, our CleanSpace Basement Wall Vapor Barrier, and a TripleSafe Sump Pump System.

With these installations, the homeowners no longer have to worry about the water in their basement happening repeatedly. the homeowners were very happy with their dry basement and they are excited to start using it without worry. Check out their basement transformation!