Drainage, Culvert & Utility Installation

The work

What this actually involves

Culverts, tile, catch basins and utility trenching — moving water off the property and services onto it.

Find where the water is actually going

A wet yard is a symptom. The fix depends on whether water is running onto the property from somewhere uphill, sitting because the ground is flat and the soil will not take it, or coming off roofs and drives with nowhere to go. Central Indiana soils are the reason this is so common — Crosby and Brookston soils are clay-rich and drain slowly by nature, which is why so much of this county was tiled for farming in the first place. Guessing at the cause is how people end up with a French drain that does nothing.

Tile, catch basins and culverts

Perimeter and yard tile intercepts water before it reaches the wet spot; catch basins take the low point and give it a route; a culvert carries a ditch under a drive without damming it. All three only work with fall — pipe laid flat, or laid uphill because nobody shot grades, is a pipe full of standing water. Outlets need to daylight somewhere legitimate, and pipe going into a road right-of-way is the county's or INDOT's call on size and invert, not ours.

Trenching for services, and the tile nobody drew

Water, electric, gas and fibre all want depth, bedding and backfill that will not settle into a trench line across a finished lawn. Everything gets located through Indiana 811 before a bucket goes in the ground — two full working days' notice, and it is state law, not a courtesy. What 811 does not mark is old field tile, and on ground that used to be farmed it is everywhere and rarely mapped. Cut one and it gets repaired or rerouted, because the water it was carrying is now going into somebody's field.

Guide

Driveway culverts

What the pipe under a drive does, the signs it is failing, and who to ask when it sits under a county road or state highway entrance.