An exterior French drain excavates to the bottom of the outside basement wall, coats the wall with a waterproof sealant, and lays a gravel-filled drain at the footing to carry water away before it touches the concrete.
Can the outside still be dug, and is it worth it?
Work from the outside when the ground is available and the wall itself is the problem. This is the only approach that keeps water off the concrete rather than collecting it after it arrives, and on a wall that is actively taking water it is the more durable of the two.
Weigh what sits on top of the dig before anything else, because that is where the money goes. A lawn is cheap to open and put back. A patio, a concrete drive, a deck or a mature tree is not, and on a full basement the trench is 7 to 8 feet deep for its whole length. The pipe is the cheapest thing in it.
Do not dig when the existing footing drain is merely silted rather than crushed. A camera survey settles which it is in a morning, and jetting a blocked line costs a fraction of replacing it. Digging out a drain that could have been cleaned is the most common waste on this page.
That choice has a page of its own: Interior vs Exterior French Drain in Syracuse, UT.
The jobs this covers, and what each one costs to get wrong
Footing Drain Replacement
Excavating to the footing, removing the failed line, and rebuilding the drain and its filter layer. It applies when the original drain exists and has silted shut. Adding a second drain beside a blocked one repeats the failure.
What moves the price. How deep the footing is, and what sits on top of the dig. A patio, a drive, grown planting and a deck all come off and go back. The pipe is the cheapest thing in the trench.
When footing drain replacement is the wrong answer. A line that is silted rather than crushed can often be jetted for a fraction of the cost. A camera survey settles which it is in a morning. Digging out a drain that could have been cleaned is the waste seen most often here.
Window Well Drainage
A drain in the base of the well, tied to the footing drain or to its own outlet, plus a cover. It applies when a well fills and comes over the sill. A well is a hole against the foundation and it collects everything that lands in it.
What moves the price. Whether the well can tie into a footing drain that works, or needs an outlet of its own. And how deep the well is. A cover is cheap. An outlet dug from the base of a deep well is not.
When window well drainage is the wrong answer. A well that only fills when the gutter above it spills is a gutter job. Fitting a drain to carry off water that should never have arrived treats the spill and not the cause.
Get an estimate in Syracuse
None of this can be priced from a description. Three things decide it. What the ground does with water. How much fall the site has. Where the water may go at the end. All three are facts about an address, and none of them show up in a photograph. Send the address and what you are seeing. Someone who does this work in Syracuse takes it from there. If it turns out to be a cheaper job than the one you came here for, that is worth hearing before anyone digs.
Syracuse Utah French Drain drainage services.
Read what a Syracuse drainage job costs before calling anyone, and check the Syracuse Utah French Drain service area to see whether your street is covered.
Back to Syracuse Utah French Drain.
The ground under Syracuse
Where the water comes from decides which fix will work
The largest mapped soil here is rated for flooding: None
Flooding frequency is the USDA's rating for how often a soil is covered by water from a stream or a river overflowing. A rating of None means the survey does not expect that here, which points the diagnosis at grade, downspouts and ground water. Any rating above None means a watercourse belongs in the diagnosis too, and work on the house alone will not settle it.
USDA NRCS Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO), via Soil Data Access
What comes out of the trench decides what has to go back into it
Surface clay runs as high as 22% here
Clay content is the share of the soil made of the finest particles. Wet clay will not compact and dry clay does not drain, which is why an exterior drain is backfilled with imported granular material and washed stone rather than with the spoil that came out. Putting the same ground back around a new drain is what silts it shut.
USDA NRCS Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO), via Soil Data Access
Questions people actually ask
How deep does an exterior drain go?
To the bottom of the wall it protects, which on a full basement is 7 to 8 feet down. That depth is most of the price: it decides whether the trench needs shoring and how much spoil comes out and has to go somewhere.
What has to come off and go back?
Everything in the trench band, which runs 2 to 3 feet wide at the surface for the whole length of the wall. Lawn, planting, patio, drive, deck. Reinstatement is often the larger half of the quote and the half that varies most between two houses with the same wall. Get it priced as its own line.
Is the wall sealant enough on its own?
No. A coating keeps water out of the concrete; it does nothing about water standing against it. The stone drain at the footing is what removes the pressure, and it needs about 1 inch of fall every 8 feet to carry anything.
Can an exterior drain be dug in winter?
Frozen ground stops the work. The usual window runs about 8 months, opening once the frost is out and closing when it returns. Inside that window, book roughly 6 weeks ahead — an open trench against a foundation is not something to leave over a freeze.
When is cleaning the old drain cheaper than replacing it?
Whenever the line is silted rather than collapsed, which a camera survey settles in a morning. Jetting costs a small fraction of a 7 to 8 foot dig. Ask for the survey before the quote, not after.
Trusted across Syracuse, Utah and Davis County
What this site is good for
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Residential and commercial
A house with a wet basement and a site with standing water on a hardstanding are different jobs at different scales. Both are covered, and the pages say which is which.
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Free, and nothing attached
Working out which job you actually have costs nothing and commits you to nothing. There is no fee to you at any point, because this site is paid by the contractor and not by you.
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Your details are not for sale
An address sent here goes to a drainage contractor working in the area. It is never sold, and never passed to a second firm.
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Permits named, not glossed
The pages name the authority that issues the permit for this work and the inspection that goes with it, so you can ask to see one before the first cut.
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Every figure sourced and dated
Soil, rainfall and housing figures each name where they came from and when they were retrieved. Where a published estimate carries a margin of error, the margin is shown too.
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One town, covered properly
This site is about one place and the towns within a short drive of it. It is not a national directory with a city name dropped into a template.
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One run at four stages. The stone is the drain; the pipe is only how the water it collects gets out. -
Water standing at grade. Ground that sheds rather than takes is what puts it there. -
Pipe seated on the stone bed. Trench walls cut clean, so no soil falls back into the stone.
Ground that is saturated has nowhere to put the next storm, and water sitting against a wall keeps working on it.
What happens after you send an address
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The address first, and only then who you are
The first screen asks for the property address and checks that a contractor covers it. Only if one does does it ask for a name, a phone number and an email — there is no point taking your details to tell you nobody serves your street.
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Your details are not for sale
It goes to a drainage contractor working in Syracuse. The details are never sold, and never passed to a second firm.
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No cost, and nothing attached
There is no fee for sending an address and no obligation that follows from it. Deciding the work is the wrong work is a perfectly good outcome.
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Who does the work
An independent drainage contractor, not the publisher of this site. Who runs this site, and where every figure on it comes from, is set out on the about page.