Hear from Our Customers
Standing water isn’t just an eyesore. Left alone, it works against your foundation, softens your soil, and turns a yard you paid good money for into something you avoid. Once the drainage is right, that changes you get your outdoor space back, and you stop watching the weather with dread.
A lot of Broomall’s homes were built in the 1950s, and the original grading that came with them is now 65 to 70 years old. Soil settles. Landscaping gets changed. Patios get added. And slowly, the slope that used to push water away from your foundation starts directing it somewhere you don’t want it. That’s not a homeowner mistake it’s just what happens over decades, and it’s exactly the kind of problem a proper grading and drainage assessment catches.
Broomall also sits within the Crum Creek watershed, where stormwater from surrounding neighborhoods flows through with very little room to slow down or absorb. That means your yard isn’t just managing what falls on your lot it’s managing what runs off your neighbors’ lots too. A drainage system designed with that in mind handles real-world conditions, not just a moderate rain on a good day.
We’re based in Aston, PA right here in Delaware County and have been working throughout Broomall and the surrounding area for over 15 years. That means the same soil conditions, the same township codes, and the same freeze-thaw winters that affect your property in Broomall are conditions we work with constantly.
We handle grading and drainage together, under one crew, from start to finish. No subcontractors handed your project off mid-job. The same team that walks your property and diagnoses the problem is the team that installs the solution and restores your yard when the work is done. That matters more than most people realize until something goes wrong.
We’re familiar with Marple Township’s grading and drainage requirements including Chapter 159 and we know how drainage work needs to be handled when it affects neighboring properties or connects to the local stormwater system. If you’re in Lawrence Park, Rose Tree Woods, or anywhere else in the 19008, we’ve likely worked near you.
It starts with a site visit. Before anything gets recommended, we walk the property and read how water actually moves across it where it enters, where it pools, and where it’s getting too close to the foundation. In Broomall, that assessment almost always involves looking at how the original grade has shifted over the decades and whether the existing slope is still doing what it was designed to do.
From there, we build a plan. That might mean regrading a section of the yard to reestablish proper slope, installing a French drain to intercept and redirect subsurface water, adding a catch basin to handle surface runoff, or some combination of all three. The solution depends on what your property actually needs not a preset package. We also consider Marple Township’s stormwater requirements during the design phase, so nothing gets installed that creates a compliance issue down the road.
Once the work is done, we restore what was disturbed. Lawn areas get put back. Cleanup is part of the job. And because we use materials and pipe specifications built for Pennsylvania’s freeze-thaw cycles, you’re not looking at a system that starts failing after two or three winters.
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The drainage services we provide in Broomall cover the full scope of what yard and foundation drainage actually requires. French drain installation is one of the most common solutions a perforated pipe set in a gravel bed that intercepts water before it reaches your foundation or pools in low areas of the yard. But a French drain installed without correcting the surrounding grade is a partial fix at best. We address both together.
For properties where surface runoff is the primary issue driveways, patios, or sloped lots that send water sheeting toward the house catch basin installation gives that water a controlled exit point. Dry wells are another option when the goal is to manage downspout discharge or slow-draining areas without routing water to the street. In Broomall, where clay soil limits natural percolation and impervious surfaces are dense, dry well placement and sizing matter a lot.
Every project we take on in the 19008 gets designed around the specific conditions of that lot the soil, the slope, the existing hardscape, and how the property sits within the broader neighborhood drainage pattern. Broomall homes near the Crum Creek corridor or in lower-lying sections of Lawrence Park face different pressures than properties on higher ground, and the solution reflects that.
The most common reason is a combination of clay soil and grading that’s no longer doing its job. Broomall’s soil is clay-heavy, which means water absorbs slowly and sits on the surface or just below it long after a rain event ends. That’s not unusual for this part of Delaware County it’s just the nature of the soil here.
The grading issue compounds it. Most homes in Broomall were built in the 1950s, and the original slopes that directed water away from the house have often been disrupted over the decades by landscaping changes, added patios, soil settlement, or tree roots. When the grade no longer pushes water away from the structure, it has nowhere to go but down and out, and in clay soil, “out” is a slow process. A proper drainage assessment looks at both factors together, because fixing one without the other usually doesn’t hold.
A French drain is a trench filled with gravel and a perforated pipe that collects subsurface water and redirects it away from problem areas usually toward a lower point on the property, a dry well, or a street-level outlet. It works by giving water a faster, easier path to travel than through dense clay soil.
You likely need one if water is consistently pooling in the same area of your yard after rain, if the ground near your foundation stays soft and saturated, or if you’re seeing moisture intrusion in a basement or crawl space that doesn’t have an obvious surface-water cause. In Broomall, French drains are one of the most frequently used solutions because the clay soil profile limits natural drainage so significantly. That said, a French drain alone won’t solve a grading problem if the surrounding slope is still directing water toward the issue area, the drain will be fighting an uphill battle from day one.
It depends on the scope of the work. Marple Township’s Chapter 159 the Grading, Drainage and Erosion Control ordinance governs any modification, filling, excavation, or regrading of land within the township. Work that affects neighboring properties, alters drainage patterns in a way that could impact adjoining land, or involves significant earth disturbance may require township review and approval before it starts.
Marple Township also has a Stormwater Management ordinance under Chapter 257, which applies to regulated activities that involve earth disturbance or changes to how stormwater leaves your property. For most standard residential drainage projects a French drain, a catch basin, minor regrading the permit requirements are manageable, but they need to be checked before work begins. We handle the permit evaluation as part of the project planning process so you’re not left guessing.
For most residential properties in Broomall, a French drain installation typically falls in the range of $5,000 to $9,000, though more complex systems longer runs, multiple drain points, or projects that require significant regrading can reach $12,000 to $18,000 or higher. The biggest cost driver is labor, which makes up the majority of the total, and that’s where contractor experience directly affects the outcome.
In Broomall specifically, clay soil adds a layer of complexity that affects both installation time and material choices. Clay doesn’t drain the way sandy or loamy soil does, so the gravel bed sizing, pipe perforation pattern, and outlet placement all need to account for how slowly water moves through this soil type. A system that’s undersized for clay conditions will back up. Getting that design right the first time is what makes the investment hold up over the long term and with Broomall home values sitting well above $400,000, the math on protecting your foundation with a properly installed drainage system is straightforward.
Most residential drainage projects in Broomall take between one and three days to complete, depending on the size of the system, how much grading is involved, and site conditions. A straightforward French drain on a single problem area is typically a one-day job. A project that combines regrading, multiple drain lines, and catch basin installation will take longer.
Timing also matters in Delaware County. Spring is the busiest season for drainage work because that’s when frozen ground thaws and homeowners discover problems that built up over winter. If you’re dealing with standing water in March or April, you’re not alone and scheduling earlier in the season gives you more flexibility. Fall is also a good window if you want to get ahead of winter freeze-thaw cycles, which are hard on drainage systems that weren’t installed with Pennsylvania’s climate in mind. We build our systems with that in mind from the start, using materials and slope specifications that hold up through repeated freeze and thaw.
Yes and it’s one of the more expensive problems to fix once it’s taken hold. When water consistently sits against or near your foundation, it creates hydrostatic pressure that works on the structure over time. In Broomall’s clay-heavy soil, that pressure builds faster than it would in more permeable ground because the water has fewer places to go. The result is often cracking, bowing, or moisture intrusion that starts subtle and gets worse each season.
For homes in Broomall where the median home value is well above $400,000 and most of the housing stock is 60 to 70 years old foundation issues are not a small-ticket repair. Water damage remediation, foundation repair, and mold mitigation in a finished basement can run $15,000 to $30,000 or more depending on severity. A drainage system that prevents that from developing in the first place is a fraction of that cost. The split-levels in Lawrence Park and the flattops in Rose Tree Woods are solid homes, but they were built in an era when drainage engineering wasn’t what it is today. Keeping water away from those foundations is one of the most practical investments a Broomall homeowner can make.
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