Norfolk floods. Some of it is the tide, some of it is eight inches of fall across a whole back yard, and a lot of it is fixable. We find where your water is actually coming from before we dig anything.
Why Norfolk Yards Hold Water
Three things stack up here. The city sits at or barely above sea level, so there is very little elevation to move water with. The water table is shallow, which means a trench can fill from below rather than from above. And the housing stock is old enough that whatever grade the builder left in Larchmont, Colonial Place or Lafayette Winona has quietly settled flat or backward over sixty or seventy years.
On top of that, Norfolk gets heavy rain in short bursts and parts of the city deal with tidal backflow through the storm system. Not every drainage problem in this city is solvable, and we will tell you plainly if yours is a tide issue rather than a grading issue. Most are not.
What We Fix in Norfolk
- Back yards that stay soggy for days after rain
- Wet crawl spaces and damp basements
- Ground that pitches toward the house instead of away
- Downspouts dumping at the foundation
- Water coming across from a neighbor or from new construction next door
- Driveways and walks that wash out
- Drains someone else installed that never worked
What We Install
- French drains and curtain drains
- Footing and foundation perimeter drains
- Drywells and infiltration pits where the soil will take water
- Catch basins, yard inlets and solid pipe runs to daylight
- Downspout extensions and sump discharge lines
- Swales and surface regrading so the ground feeds the system
- Restoration with sod, seed or stone over the work
The Discharge Problem
In a city this flat, the hardest part of a drainage job is often not the trench, it is finding somewhere legal and practical for the water to go. On a tight Ghent or Park Place lot the options might be a street inlet, an alley, a low corner or a drywell, and each one has different rules and different odds of working. We work that out first. Installing pipe before you know the outlet is how people end up paying twice.
Grading Usually Comes First
A drain only handles the water that reaches it. If your ground pitches toward the house, the pipe is fighting the grade the whole time. Most of our Norfolk drainage jobs include regrading the surrounding area, and on plenty of properties the grading alone does most of the work.
Norfolk Drainage Questions
My whole back yard is a swamp after it rains. Is that fixable?
Usually. It comes down to whether there is somewhere to move the water to. We walk it, look at the fall you have, check the likely discharge points and tell you honestly what is achievable before you spend anything.
Is my water problem the tide or my yard?
Both happen in Norfolk. Tidal backflow usually shows up on a predictable schedule and in specific low areas. Yard water shows up after rain and stays. The pattern tells us a lot, and we ask about it on the site visit.
Will a French drain work with a high water table?
Sometimes, and sometimes a drywell is the wrong answer entirely because the ground is already saturated. That is exactly why we look before quoting rather than selling the same system to everyone.
Can you work in a small city back yard?
Yes. Compact equipment gets through a standard gate, and most of our Norfolk work is behind houses.
How much mess is there?
Trenching disturbs a strip of yard. We restore with sod, seed or stone depending on what you want, and we sweep the street behind us.
Other Work We Do in Norfolk
- Excavation in Norfolk, VA
- Land clearing in Norfolk, VA
- Drainage across Hampton Roads
- Grading and regrading
- Pool removal and fill in
- Demolition
Standing water in a Norfolk yard? We will come look and tell you what is going on. Call (757) 239-0707.