Yard Drainage
Systems
in Maryland

The Piedmont clay soils common throughout central Maryland have a permeability rate far below what most homeowners expect. When saturated, clay effectively becomes a barrier, water sits on top of it or moves laterally rather than infiltrating. Dry wells and French drains designed for sandy or loamy soils often fail within a few seasons in Maryland clay because there's nowhere for the collected water to go.

Effective yard drainage in Maryland requires either conveying water to a discharge point lower on the property where it can exit by gravity, or collecting it in a catch basin tied to a sump system that actively pumps it out. OBW assesses your specific lot, grade, and soil before recommending either.

A catch basin is a surface inlet, typically a grated box set at grade, that collects sheet flow and channels it into an underground pipe. We size the basin to the drainage area it needs to serve, connect it to rigid pipe sloped to daylight or to a collection sump, and set the grate at the low point of the affected area. Catch basins are particularly effective in paved areas like driveways and concrete patios where surface water can't infiltrate at all.

That's where a channel drain fits better than a single catch basin. For linear low points, along a fence line, at the base of a retaining wall, or across a driveway apron, a channel drain provides continuous surface collection across the full problem length. We set linear drain bodies in concrete or compacted gravel and connect them to an underground pipe system.

No, and the distinction matters for which fix actually solves your problem. This page covers catch basins and channel drains, surface collection systems for water that's already pooling on top of the ground. If the real issue is that your yard slopes toward the house rather than away from it, that's a grading and swale correction, covered on its own page. If groundwater is pushing against your foundation from below rather than pooling on the surface, that's a French drain. OBW assesses which one your yard actually needs before recommending anything.

We assess your specific lot, grade, and soil conditions on site. A paved driveway with nowhere for water to go needs a catch basin. A linear low spot along a wall or fence needs a channel drain. A yard that's simply sloped wrong needs grading. Every recommendation is backed by a written workmanship guarantee, terms vary by service, ask your inspector.