Big Bend Landscaping has your Drainage Solution!

If you’re in the St. Louis area and you’re reading this because you suspect you have a drainage problem in your yard, you probably do. The good news is, you’ve come to the right place. No matter the cause, Big Bend Landscaping already has the best drainage solutions for St. Louis residents ready and waiting.

Water can be insidious. It doesn’t have to be a huge flood to cause big problems. In fact, at first, the damage probably won’t seem like a big deal. Just persistent puddles that never quite dry up between rains, causing sections of your lawn to turn yellow, creating shallow dips in your landscape, and the runoff slowly washing away the soil around the roots of your trees. Maybe the pavers in your patio, walkways, or driveway are shifting slightly or showing small stress cracks. Or you might notice that the soil around the foundations of your home is often damp with seepage or your footings are becoming more and more visible. If your yard slopes toward your home and you don’t have anything in place to prevent it, rainwater can collect around your foundation. Over time, it can cause it to shift, damaging the structure of your house or garage. This can result in thousands of dollars in expensive repairs. But you’re not out of the woods if you’re at the top of the slope. Steep slopes that don’t have a barrier of some sort at the bottom can cause run off—or worse—a mudslide, and damage to your driveway or neighbor’s yard.

You don’t have to wait for things to get worse to confirm your suspicions. Call Big Bend Landscaping today and we wcan walk you through our customized list of drainage solutions for St. Louis residents and help you choose the one that will prevent your small problem from blowing up into a larger one. Take a look at just some of our drainage solutions below.

French Drain installation

Drainage Solutions for St. LouisThere’s some debate about the origins of the French drain. It’s possible that they were inspired by drainage ditches in France. But it’s more likely that they’re named after Massachusetts judge and farmer, Henry French, who wrote about them. The idea was simple: since water travels the path of least resistance, preventing it from going where you don’t want it to go is as easy as carving out a space for it to run where you do. Regardless of where French drains may have originated, they are ideal drainage solutions for St. Louis homeowners from Paris to St. Louis.

At first glance, it looks like a subtle, but attractive landscaping feature. And it’s that too. But if you were to look beneath that attractive surface, you’ll find a simple, but elegant solution. A typical French drain system is made up of perforated drain pipes that are covered by landscaping material. Protected by this outer layer of covering, French drains are not susceptible to damage caused by soil and roots. Another feature of the French drain that makes it amenable to many homeowners is the option to cover the pipe with turf or decorative rock. These drains are often located near homes or other structures so they can catch water before it gets to the foundations. And sometimes they’re tied to a sump pump system that protects basements from flooding. It’s a nice, unobtrusive drainage solution for St. Louis residents who want a low-profile fix.

Channel Drains

You’ve probably seen channel drains near public swimming pools, in parking lots, or running alongside sidewalks, but didn’t know what they were called. They are often installed with pavement or pavers to prevent the damage caused by large amounts of rain. But they are for residential use too. If water pools around your swimming pool, patio, walkways, or drive, you may be a good candidate for a channel drain.  They also have the added benefit of being easily integrated into any subgrade drainage system.

Channel drains are great for preventing water from: A) flowing into your home or your garage. B) Collecting on patios and walkways. Once in place, it is an instant solution, immediately moving water from places it can cause damage.

This drainage solution works in other settings as well. When they’re installed in or near basements, they help collect water before it pools and channels it into a drainage system.

Dry Creek Bed or swale installation

If you want to avoid installing a comprehensive drainage system and your yard is a good fit for it, then a dry creek bed may be the drainage solution for you. Dry creek beds are dry in name only. They are a useful and attractive landscaping feature that works best in a yard with a slight slope and access to a place where run-off can go without creating problems for the homeowner or their neighbors.Backyard drainage solutions dry creek bed

If there is a section of your backyard that is consistently affected by flooding, then you may be able to avoid installing a comprehensive drainage system by digging a small channel and filling it in with large decorative river rock (think smooth stones). This will improve water absorption in the area, and it will provide your family with aesthetically pleasing dry creek bed to admire in your backyard.

It is easy to incorporate a dry creek bed with the rest of your landscaping—we sometimes use them alongside walkways and patios and at the bottom of slopes. We often combine them with larger landscaping improvement projects and other drainage solutions to protect the integrity of new patio and walkway construction. They integrate seamlessly and no one but the homeowner needs to know that it isn’t just an attractive landscaping feature.

Corrective Grading as a drainage solution

Many St. Louis lawns are inordinately flat. This can create just almost as many problems as a deep slope. When the yard has no incline at all, water collects, forming large problematic puddles that stagnate, saturating the soil and anything in the vicinity, including plants and trees. Though not common, in extreme cases, standing water like this can even cause sinkholes.

Big Bend Landscaping can help with this by correctly “grading” your lawn. This means we adjust the slope just enough to control water flow. This is often done around the foundations of homes and other structures. But it’s also used around trees and flowerbeds. It prevents erosion around the roots of both.

Having a landscaper grade your lawn so that it has a slope of at least one percent so can help you avoid many problems associated with poor drainage.

Once your lawn has been correctly graded, rainwater and other drainage will naturally flow away from your home.

 Retaining Walls as Attractive Drainage Solutions for St. Louis Homeowners

backyard drainage solutionsHomes built at the top or bottom of hills often come with inherent headaches. Not only do you deal with not being able to use all of your yard, mowing it and planting anything on it is a challenge. And then you deal with drainage issues too. To name just a few of the issues: Erosion, water accumulating around your home (if you’re at the bottom), flooding, mudslides, water damaged patios, and driveways.

When combined with other drainage solutions, retaining walls can resolve all the above. They are the most visually appealing, multi-purpose landscaping solution we offer. They can be built from concrete, wood, or pavers. And can be any size-from two feet to twenty or more. Big Bend Landscaping prefers pavers both for their longevity and their attractive appearance, such as UniLock, Pavestone, Keystone, Versa-Lok and Anchor. We only use pavers with lifetime guarantees.

Retaining walls can be combined with a corrected grade to give the homeowner more usable yard space and to protect the rest of their property from water damage. When combined with drainage tile and careful layering of stone and topsoil, they are an unbeatable solution.

When they align with an outdoor living space or patio, they provide extra seating space for gatherings or a nice surface to place outdoor decorations on. On especially steep hills, we can create terraced retaining walls that incorporate steps and other landscaping features. It is a great way to display flowering shrubs, perennials, and even trees.

Ready to call?

We solve problems like this for home and business owners every day. And we’re confident we can help you too. Why? Because we’ve been doing it for a long time and we know what we’re doing. Chances are good that we’ve seen your drainage problem before and will be able to present you with a set of carefully designed drainage solutions for St. Louis homeowners and businesses or combination of methods that you can choose from. It could be as simple as installing a French drain or you may need a retaining wall and a dry creek bed.

Whatever the cause, we can help.

Big Bend Landscaping has been serving the St. Louis area for more than 30 years. We love it here as much as you do and are well-familiar with the challenges of living here—especially during the rainy season. Many of our employees have been with us for more than ten years, which means both that we are proud to have them aboard and that they take pride in being a part of our company. And you benefit from this with experienced workers and staff who will give you the best we have to give every time. Big Bend Landscaping has a Level 1 Certification from the National Concrete and Masonry Association. This means everyone’s made an extra effort to make sure we have a clear understanding of how to handle the materials we work with. And we guarantee our work.

Feel free to contact us for an online estimate right now. We serve the following communities in the St. Louis and St. Charles County area: Kirkwood, Webster GrovesGlendaleBallwinChesterfield, Des Peresand Fenton.

Feel free to contact us for an online estimate right now.

We look forward to hearing from you today!

 

Big Bend Landscaping Drainage Solutions News

Five Backyard Drainage Solutions: When It Rains, It Pours

Five Backyard Drainage Solutions: When It Rains, It Pours

Despite the forecast, live like it's spring! -Lilly Pulitzer  It’s February in St. Louis, and that means spring is almost upon us. And with spring comes rain and lots of it. Storm water management is an important part of home and yard maintenance here. If you’ve been in the St. Louis area any length of time, then you know it’s easier to...

read more
Change Your Yard: Eight Reasons to Build a Retaining Wall and Add a Drainage System

Change Your Yard: Eight Reasons to Build a Retaining Wall and Add a Drainage System

This landscaping feature remains a popular solution to a lot of homeowner headaches. And these days, they’re built out of a variety of materials, including wood (timbers), masonry, poured concrete, and interlocking concrete blocks called pavers. They can just be utilitarian or they can be attractive AND utilitarian. Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’re either wondering if one of these will solve a problem you’re having or if it could prevent one you haven’t had yet.

read more
Drainage Solution Installed in St. Louis

Drainage Solution Installed in St. Louis

Drainage Solution All right, so we're out here on the drainage call. I was called out because water was coming down this hill and it was flooding the yard and it didn't really have a great way to escape. Building a Moat We lucked out here. We have all this water running in this direction and towards the street. So essentially what we've done is...

read more
Retaining Wall Replacement in Webster Groves

Retaining Wall Replacement in Webster Groves

Retaining Wall System This retaining wall used to be a railroad tie wall. It was the old creosote railroad ties, lasted about 20 years before they started to rot. We needed to replace them. This wall, the linear footprint and the height and everything. Very little change from the original. One thing we did do is we added steps, that I'll get to,...

read more

Big Bend Landscaping Drainage Solutions Gallery