Start Here, Not With a System
A 1,500 square foot roof sheds roughly 900 gallons in a one-inch rain. If that water leaves the downspout two feet from the foundation, it goes into the backfill zone next to your wall, which is exactly the place you least want it. Move that discharge ten or fifteen feet out.
It changes the volume reaching your foundation more than any interior system will.
This is the first thing we check and the first thing we recommend when it applies, because it is cheap, it is not disruptive, and it frequently makes the expensive options unnecessary. Contractors who skip straight to a perimeter system quote are not doing you a favor.
Buried Lines Fail, and This Region's Are Failing Now
Most subdivisions built from the 1980s through the 2000s put downspouts into buried corrugated pipe. That pipe crushes under traffic, separates at joints, fills with silt and roots, and eventually discharges nothing while looking perfectly fine at the top. Lee's Summit built 55.7 percent of its housing in exactly that window; Olathe built 43.7 percent between 1990 and 2009.
That means a large share of the metro's buried downspout lines are reaching end of life at the same time. When we camera one and find it packed, replacing it with solid smooth-wall pipe at proper fall often resolves a basement complaint the homeowner assumed was a foundation problem.
Regrading the First Ten Feet
The ground within ten feet of the foundation should fall away at roughly six inches over that distance. On houses twenty years and older it frequently does not, because backfill settles. Restoring that fall is straightforward work with a real effect, and on many lots it is done in a day.
Check the permit threshold before scoping anything substantial. Lee's Summit requires a land disturbance permit above 2,000 square feet of disturbance, Olathe requires one for grading generally, and Independence exempts under 50 cubic yards only where the work does not obstruct a drainage course.
Pricing
Buried downspout lines typically run quoted from a written scope depending on how many downspouts are being carried, run length and whether we are replacing failed pipe or installing new. Regrading is quoted by area and by how much material has to be brought in.
This is the work we most often recommend instead of something larger, and we will say so in writing when that is the honest scope.
Downspout & Grading Available In
- Kansas City, MO Jackson County, Missouri
- Overland Park, KS Johnson County, Kansas
- Olathe, KS Johnson County, Kansas
- Lee's Summit, MO Jackson County, Missouri
- Independence, MO Jackson County, Missouri
Drainage Questions, Answered
- How far from the foundation should a downspout discharge?
- Ten feet is a reasonable target, further on a flat lot with high-clay soil. Two feet, which is where most splash blocks put it, is inside the backfill zone and effectively at the wall.
- How do I know if my buried downspout line is failed?
- Run a hose into it and watch the outlet. If water backs up at the top or nothing arrives at the far end, it is blocked or separated. A camera confirms where.
- Is regrading enough on its own?
- Sometimes, and that is a good outcome. On lots with fall available and a clear cause, correcting grade and downspouts resolves the problem without a drainage system. On flat lots with a high seasonal water table it will not be enough by itself.