Where it shows, when it runs, and whether the soil slopes to the house. A French drain is a designed pipe with a place for the water to go. It is not a trench of gravel with hope in it, and this page will not sell you one from a dropdown. HyreYard does not drain yards.
Not a producttake the observations to someone who will look at the lotWalk the lot in rain. Where it ponds, where downspouts dump, and whether the soil slopes to the house beat a product page. Outfall is the job. A kit is not.
Pick where the water shows, when it runs, and what you know about grade. The verdict is always the same: not a product. On the default path (yard, after rain, grade unknown) the questions are to walk the lot in rain, watch ponds and downspouts, and remember that a French drain needs an outfall. If the water is in a basement, that is a foundation and grading question as much as a yard question: look at HyreFoundation for the wet-wall problem. There is no HyreFoundation calculator for this yet, so this page will not send you to a tool that 404s. HyreYard does not drain yards.
Where, when, grade
Three observations. No product. Nothing is emailed.
—Verdict
—What to look at
—What this page will not do
What this assumed—
Diagnostic questions, not a drainage design. HyreYard does not drain yards.
Start here
Most wet yards are a conveyance problem, and conveyance is free
Before anybody excavates anything, the question worth asking is not "how do I drain this soil" but "where is this water arriving from, and why is it arriving there". Very often the answer is a downpipe, and very often the fix costs nothing.
A roof is a rainfall concentrator. Every square foot of roof collects rain and delivers it to two, four or six points at ground level. Those points then receive rain at many times the rate the sky is delivering it. A soil that copes perfectly well with rainfall will pond under a downpipe, and that is not a soil failure — it is arithmetic.
Our own soil research is blunt about this. Its list of things that are explicitly not a soil-drainage finding begins with downspouts discharging onto the lawn: "Roof water concentrated at two or four points will pond a well-drained soil. That is a conveyance problem, not a map-unit problem."
The rest of that list is equally uncomfortable. A lot regraded for the slab, leaving a bowl or a reverse slope. Compaction from construction traffic destroying soil structure in the top six inches. A neighbour’s yard, a sidewalk or a street shedding onto you. An irrigation clock still running after rain. None of these is fixed by a trench of gravel, and all of them get one sold to them.
That last one is not a small category. US Environmental Protection Agency, WaterSense states that "as much as 50 percent of this water is wasted due to overwatering caused by inefficiencies in irrigation methods and systems". Standing water the morning after a scheduled watering is an irrigation controller problem with a landscaping price tag attached.
So the order of operations is: look, then extend, then grade, then — only if all of that fails — excavate. Each step is an order of magnitude cheaper than the next, and the expensive one is the one that gets recommended first by anyone whose income depends on excavation.
Causes that are not a soil-drainage finding
Taken from HyreYard’s own soil research. This list is editorial and labelled as such there — it is our analysis of what routinely gets misdiagnosed, not a published taxonomy. The last column is what to do about it.
What is actually happening
Why it is not a soil problem
The cheap first move
Downspouts discharging onto the lawn
Roof water concentrated at two or four points will pond a well-drained soil. That is a conveyance problem, not a map-unit problem.
Extend the discharge well away from the house and away from the wet area, to somewhere it can spread out. Solid pipe, adequate fall, and a check that it is not simply relocating the pond.
The lot was regraded for the slab
Cut-and-fill around a new house often leaves a bowl, a reverse slope toward the foundation, or compacted fill that no longer matches the survey map unit.
Establish the actual fall with a string line and a level rather than by eye. Regrading a small area to restore fall away from the house is earthworks, not drainage, and it is usually the correct fix.
Compaction from construction or traffic
A well-drained map unit can still perch water in the top six inches if the structure was destroyed. Aeration treats compaction; a French drain does not.
Core aeration and organic matter, repeatedly, over seasons. Slow and unglamorous. A French drain does nothing for compaction and the research module says so explicitly.
A neighbour’s yard, a sidewalk, or a street that sheds onto you
Off-site water is a grading / drainage-easement question. The soil survey describes the soil, not the neighbour.
Establish where the water enters your boundary and in what volume. This is a grading and drainage-easement question before it is a construction one, and it may not be yours to solve alone.
An irrigation clock that runs after rain
Standing water the morning after a scheduled watering is not a drainage class.
Turn it off, then fix the schedule. A rain sensor or a WaterSense labeled controller stops it recurring. This is the cheapest fix on the list by a wide margin.
If any of these describes your yard, the diagnostic above will still take your answers and still describe what you told it. It cannot see a downpipe. That is why this table is on the page.
What a French drain actually is, and when it is the answer
The phrase has come to mean "a trench with gravel in it", which is not what it is and is why so many of them do nothing. A French drain is a designed system with three parts, and the third part is the one that gets left out.
Illustrative. Work down this list, not up it. The two cheapest interventions resolve a large share of wet yards and neither requires anyone to be hired.
Part one: a perforated pipe. Not gravel alone. Gravel stores water; it moves it very slowly. The pipe is what actually transports the water, and a trench without one is a linear soakaway that fills and stops.
Part two: open-graded stone and a geotextile. The stone keeps voids open around the pipe so water can reach it. The fabric keeps the surrounding fine soil out of those voids. Omit the fabric and the stone silts up — typically within a few years — and the system quietly stops working with no visible sign.
Part three: an outlet, at a lower elevation, that goes somewhere. Daylight on a slope, an approved storm connection, or a sized infiltration structure. This is the part that is most often absent, because on a flat lot there is nowhere obvious for it to go — and a drain with nowhere to go is a buried tank. It will hold water for a while, then fill, then the surface will be wet again.
So the honest question is always "where does the water go?" Ask it first. If the answer is vague, the system will not work, however well it is built, and no amount of stone changes that. On a genuinely flat lot with no legal outlet, the answer may be that a French drain is not available and the correct solution is regrading, a dry well sized to the soil’s actual infiltration rate, or accepting a wet corner and planting for it.
And it must not be pointed at the house. Moving water toward a foundation to get it out of a lawn is a trade that converts an inconvenience into a structural problem. If the water ends up nearer the building than it started, the design is wrong.
What the free soil lookup tells you
If the cheap fixes have been tried and the yard is still wet, the next step is still free. USDA NRCS publishes the mapped soil at your address and two properties that directly answer "is this ground the problem".
An ordinal scale, drawn as ranks. Which group you are on decides whether "let it soak away" is a plan or a wish.
Drainage class
NRCS classifies soils on a scale from excessively drained to very poorly drained. Our research module records the official descriptions: "Somewhat poorly drained" means "Water is removed slowly so that the soil is wet at a shallow depth for significant periods during the growing season. Wetness markedly restricts mesophytic crops unless the soil is artificially drained."
And "Poorly drained" means "Water is removed so slowly that the soil is wet at shallow depths periodically during the growing season or remains wet for long periods. Most mesophytic crops cannot be grown unless the soil is artificially drained. The soil is not continuously wet directly below plow depth." If your mapped soil sits at that end of the scale, the ground genuinely is part of the problem — and that is useful, because it changes the conversation from "fix the drainage" to "what does this site support".
Hydrologic soil group
The runoff version of the same question, in four groups. "Group A" is low runoff: High infiltration when thoroughly wet. Deep, well drained to excessively drained sands or gravelly sands. High rate of water transmission.
"Group D" is high runoff: Very slow infiltration when thoroughly wet. Clays with high shrink-swell, a high water table, a claypan near the surface, or soils shallow over nearly impervious material. On a Group D soil, water that lands on the surface largely stays on the surface, and any plan that assumes infiltration is going to disappoint.
What it does not tell you
Web Soil Survey is a survey map. It describes the soil as mapped over an area, not the soil in your specific bed after a builder cut, filled and compacted it. Our research module is explicit that a map unit is not a determination about one address.
It also cannot see the downpipe, the regrade, the compaction or the neighbour. Those are the causes above, and they are more common than the soil.
The test that beats the map for your own yard
Dig a hole about a foot deep in the wet area. Fill it with water and let it drain completely. Fill it again and time how far the level drops over an hour or two.
If the second fill is still standing several hours later, you have measured your own infiltration rate in the exact spot that matters, which is better evidence than any survey map unit. If it drains readily, the soil is not your problem and the cause is on the list above.
What you build changes where the water goes
A drainage problem is often created by the last project, and the next one can create the following problem. This is worth thinking about before the excavator arrives rather than after.
The mechanism, from EPA. In developed areas, "much of the land surface is covered by buildings, pavement and compacted landscapes. These surfaces do not allow rain and snow melt to soak into the ground which greatly increases the volume and velocity of stormwater runoff". The EPA page states the mechanism and does not publish a runoff percentage. We do not publish one either.
Every patio, path, driveway and shed base is a new impervious surface. The water that used to soak in where it fell now runs off, faster, and arrives somewhere else. That somewhere is a design decision you are making whether or not you think about it.
Compaction does the same thing without any hard surface. Construction traffic, or years of mowing a wet lawn, destroys soil structure in the top few inches. The map still says the soil is well drained; the top six inches no longer behave that way. Our research module lists this explicitly as a cause that is not a map-unit finding, and notes that aeration treats it while a French drain does not.
And downstream is somebody else’s yard. Solving your water by delivering it to a boundary is a solution with a legal dimension. Where the water goes is a question worth answering honestly before the work rather than in a conversation over the fence afterwards.
The generous version of this is worth doing. A rain garden, a planted swale, or simply a downpipe discharging onto a wide planted area rather than a narrow strip of lawn, all reduce the peak rate rather than only relocating it. They are cheaper than excavation and they do not depend on finding an outlet.
How to diagnose it yourself, in order
Six steps, in increasing cost. Most yards are solved in the first three, and every one of those three is free.
1
Go outside during heavy rain and watch
This is the single most informative thing available and almost nobody does it. Where does water arrive from, where does it pond, how fast does it appear, and how long does it take to go? Ten minutes in the rain beats any amount of speculation afterwards.
2
Follow every downpipe to its discharge point
All of them, including the ones behind shrubs. Note where each one lets go and where that water then travels. A surprising number discharge within a few feet of the wall, straight onto the area that is wet.
3
Check the fall away from the house with a string line
Not by eye — ground slope is very hard to judge visually and a reverse slope of an inch or two is invisible and consequential. A line level and a tape settle it in a few minutes.
4
Turn the irrigation off for two weeks and see what changes
Free, reversible, and it removes an entire category of cause from the investigation. If the wet area dries up, the problem was the schedule and you have just saved yourself an excavation.
5
Look the soil up, then dig a test hole
Web Soil Survey gives you drainage class and hydrologic soil group free, and our study of where yards flood and what the soil survey already knew explains what those eight classes mean before you look yours up. Then dig your own hole in the wet spot and time it. The map describes the neighbourhood; the hole describes your yard.
6
Only now, price a designed solution — and ask where the water goes
By this point you know the mechanism, and you can brief a contractor rather than being sold a product. The first question to any bidder is where the outlet is. If they cannot point at it, the system will not work.
What to ask before anybody excavates
The highest-value section on this page. A contractor who answers these well is worth having; one who deflects them is selling a product rather than solving a problem.
Where exactly does the water go, and what is the fall to it?
A named destination and a gradient. Daylight on a slope, an approved connection, or a sized infiltration structure. "It will drain away" is not an outlet and a system without one is a buried tank.
What did you rule out before proposing this?
Downpipes, grade, irrigation, compaction. A diagnostician has an answer. A product salesman does not, because they did not look.
Is there a geotextile in the specification?
Without it the stone silts up and the system stops working within a few years, invisibly. It is a small item that determines whether the expensive item lasts.
What happens to this water in a genuinely heavy storm?
A system sized for ordinary rain and overwhelmed in a storm is fine if the overflow route is deliberate and safe. It is not fine if the overflow route is your foundation.
Are there permits or easements involved?
Connecting to a storm system, working in an easement, or discharging across a boundary can all be regulated. Establish this before, not after.
Anyone who proposes a solution without having seen it rain
Yard water is an intermittent phenomenon and its cause is usually only visible while it is happening. A diagnosis made on a dry day from a dropdown, ours included, is a description rather than a finding.
A trench of gravel with no pipe and no stated outlet
It will absorb water until it is full and then stop, which typically takes one season. It is the most commonly sold non-solution in this trade.
The vocabulary
French drain
A perforated pipe in open-graded stone, wrapped in geotextile, falling to an outlet. All four elements. A trench of gravel is not one.
Daylight
Where the pipe reaches the surface and discharges. If nobody can point at it, the system is not finished, whatever has been buried.
Dry well / soakaway
A void below ground that stores runoff and lets it infiltrate. Only works where the surrounding soil actually accepts water, so it needs an infiltration rate, not an assumption.
Drainage class
The NRCS classification of how readily water is removed from a soil, from excessively drained through to very poorly drained. A free lookup at your address.
Hydrologic soil group
Groups A to D by runoff potential. Group A takes water readily; Group D sheds nearly all of it. The property that decides whether infiltration is a plan.
Perched water table
Water sitting on top of a slowly permeable layer above the true water table. Explains a yard that is wet at the surface with dry soil below, and it is why a hole tells you more than a map.
Positive drainage
A continuous fall away from a structure so surface water leaves rather than collects. The cheapest form of drainage and the one most often lost when a lot is regraded.
Swale
A shallow, broad, planted channel that conveys and slows surface water. Cheaper than a piped system, needs no outlet structure, and works with the fall rather than against it.
Rain garden
A planted depression that receives runoff and lets it infiltrate over hours. Reduces the peak rate rather than relocating it, which is a different and often better goal.
Impervious surface
Any surface rain cannot pass through. Every hardscape project adds some, and where the displaced water goes is a decision even when nobody makes it.
What this diagnostic cannot do
The diagnostic takes three observations you made and describes what they suggest. It is a structured way of thinking, not a finding.
It has not seen your yard and it has not seen it rain. Yard water is intermittent and its cause is usually visible only while it is happening. Three dropdowns cannot substitute for ten minutes outside in a storm.
It cannot see a downpipe, a regrade or a compacted layer, and those are the three most common causes. The table above exists because the form cannot ask about them usefully.
It will not specify a product. No French drain from a dropdown, no pipe diameter, no trench depth. Those follow from a design, a fall and an outlet, and none of the three is in this form.
It does not address water inside the building. Water in a basement or crawl space is a foundation and building-envelope question, and an insured interior loss is a restoration question. Both are outside this site’s scope and both are more urgent than a wet lawn.
And it is not a soil test. We point at the free NRCS lookup and at a hole you can dig yourself. Neither is a geotechnical investigation, and where one is needed — a structure, a wall, a slope — that is engineering. Figures verified 5 September 2026.
How this calculator works
There is no multiplication. The engine maps three choices onto a short list of questions, then repeats the same refusal:
verdict = not a product; take observations to someone who will look at the lot
questions = lines that fire for basement, neighbour, "always wet," grade toward the house, or unknown grade
never = this page will not sell you a French drain from a dropdown
Every path also appends that a French drain is a designed pipe with a place for the water to go, not a trench of gravel with hope in it. That sentence is tested. A SKU would be a lie about the lot.
Basement water names HyreFoundation as a different question (foundation and grading, wet from the soil side). HyreFoundation is a live site. It does not yet have a tool for this, so the only link this page offers is the homepage, not a calculator path that would 404.
HyreYard does not drain yards, does not waterproof basements, and does not install French drains.
What each input means
Inputs on this tool, in the order they appear on the form.
Input
What it is actually asking
Where
Yard, basement, or onto the next lot. Three different jobs. A wet lawn is not a wet footing, and neither is a civil dispute.
When
With rain, or even when it is dry. Dry-weather water is a leak, a spring or irrigation. A storm drain will not find it.
Grade
Unknown, toward the house, or away. Unknown is valid and common. Toward the house is the cheap first question, with downspouts a close second.
Worked examples
Including one where the naive answer misleads, which is the example most calculators leave out.
Yard, after rain, grade not yet walked
Where: yard. When: storm. Grade: unknown. Verdict: not a product. Questions: walk the lot in rain; ponds, downspouts and slope to the house beat a product page; a French drain needs an outfall. That is the default path this engine is tested against. The useful next step is a storm walk with a camera, not a cart of pipe.
Basement, always wet, grade toward the house
The questions stack: water in a basement is a foundation and grading question as much as a yard question (look at HyreFoundation if the wall is wet from the soil side); water that runs when it is not raining is not stormwater; grade toward the house is the first cheap question and downspouts at the foundation are the second. Still not a product. Extend downspouts and check slope before anyone talks about interior drain tile. Interior work is not a HyreYard job.
The one where a French-drain dropdown misleads
A tool that asks "flooding?" and returns "you need a French drain, 40 ft, add to cart." No outfall, no soil, no "is it rain," no neighbour. That is a wet trench. This page has no such SKU. If the water is already leaving your lot onto theirs, the honest line is: do not add a drain that outfalls onto their lot. If you came here for a kit, the refusal is the result.
What changes the result
Where, when and grade only change the questions, never the verdict. The verdict is always "not a product." That is intentional. A national "you need X linear feet of drain" would be a design we cannot see.
Downspouts are the cheapest lever on a lot of houses. A roof dumps thousands of gallons in a storm onto whatever the elbow points at. Pointing that water into a bed against the foundation is a common own-goal. Extensions, splash blocks and a legal place to send the water come before a trencher.
Soil decides whether infiltration is even available. Heavy clay, compaction from construction, and a high water table all make "just let it soak" a slogan. NRCS Web Soil Survey is a start. A perc test or a hole with a watch is better. A product brochure is not a test.
Local considerations
Stormwater rules, whether you may connect to a municipal drain, and whether a grade change needs a permit are local. Some cities treat any work that changes drainage as a permit. Some HOAs forbid visible downspout extensions. Ask before you trench.
Climate changes how often the walk in rain teaches you anything. A desert lot and a clay lot in a wet metro are not the same diagnostic. We do not ship a city table of products. The lot, in rain, is the local data.
When not to use this
Do not use this as a drainage design, a bid, or a shopping list. It cannot see soil, outfall, utilities, or a municipal connection.
Do not use it to buy a French drain. There is no French drain on this page. If a salesperson starts with the product, ask where the water goes after the pipe.
Do not use it as a basement waterproofing plan. Interior drain tile, crack injection and sump work are a foundation conversation. HyreFoundation is the network site for that. It has no tool on this subject yet.
Do not use it to justify sending water onto a neighbour’s lot.
HyreYard does not perform drainage work. Matching is still being built. The enquiry form is not a dispatch line.
Related on this site
Start below groundStanding water after rain is a grading problem, not a fertiliser problem.
Usually because water has nowhere useful to go: grade toward a low spot, downspouts dumping at the foundation, compacted soil, a high water table, or a neighbour’s lot shedding onto yours. The first cheap questions are grade, downspouts and whether it only happens when it rains. A product page is a later question, if it is a question at all.
Do I need a French drain?
This page will not say yes. A French drain is a perforated pipe in washed stone, wrapped so soil does not fill it, sloped to an outfall that is legal to use. A trench of gravel with no pipe, or a pipe with no outfall, is a wet ditch. Take observations to someone who will look at the lot. Do not buy a kit because a dropdown offered one. This dropdown does not.
What should I look at first?
Walk the lot while it is raining, or just after. Where it ponds. Where the downspouts dump. Whether the soil next to the house slopes toward the wall. EPA Soak Up the Rain advice starts with the same walk. Photographs in a storm are more useful than a dry-day guess.
The basement is wet. Is that a yard job?
Sometimes grading and downspouts are enough. Sometimes the wall is wet from the soil side and the question is foundation drainage, cracks, or hydrostatic pressure. That is a different trade. HyreFoundation is the network site for wet basements and foundation movement. It does not yet have a diagnostic tool, so treat it as a different question, not as a calculator link.
Water runs even when it is not raining. What is that?
Not stormwater. A supply leak, a sewer or septic issue, irrigation left on, or a spring. A rain-only drain will not find a leak. Fix the source. A plumber, a well person or an irrigation tech may be the right call, not a landscaper with a trencher.
The water goes onto my neighbour’s lot. Can I add a drain?
Do not add a drain that outfalls onto their property. Sending your water next door is a civil problem, not a nicer lawn. The legal outfall is a municipal system, an on-lot infiltration that actually soaks, or a recorded easement. Ask before you trench.
Will a rain garden fix it?
Sometimes, for roof water you can redirect, in soil that actually infiltrates, sited away from the foundation. EPA describes rain gardens and downspout disconnection as ways to soak rain on the lot. A rain garden in a spot that already ponds is often a pond. Soil and setback from the house still matter.
Is standing water after rain a plant problem?
Usually no. Planting into a pond repeatedly is expensive. The homepage on this site already says standing water after rain is a grading problem, and that it is a common cause of repeated plant loss. Fix water, then plant.
Can I just add soil and regrade myself?
Regrading next to a house is how people reverse the slope the wrong way, bury siding, or dump water toward a neighbour. Small downspout extensions are cheap and often the first fix. Moving earth against the foundation is not a weekend guess. Check local rules for grade changes.
Is this a design?
No. It is a list of questions. Pipe size, slope, outfall, soil infiltration and whether a municipal connection is allowed are a site visit. HyreYard does not drain yards.
Does HyreYard install drainage?
No. HyreYard is an information and matching layer. Matching is still being built. The enquiry form is not a dispatch line.
Sources and methodology
Figures dated 26 August 2026. Last reviewed .
Soak Up the Rain: what you can do (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, retrieved 2026-08-26. Cited for walking the lot in rain, downspout direction, and on-lot practices. Not a product selector and not a French-drain specification.)
Green infrastructure and stormwater practices (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, retrieved 2026-08-26. Swales, rain gardens, permeable pavement and infiltration as designed practices with an outfall or a soak path. A gravel trench with no outlet is not on this list as a SKU.)
Web Soil Survey (USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, retrieved 2026-08-26. Soil at the lot. Infiltration is a property of that soil, not of a kit.)
HyreFoundation (wet basement as a different question) (HyreFoundation, retrieved 2026-08-26. Network site for foundation and wet-basement questions. No HyreFoundation diagnostic tool exists yet; this is a homepage, not a calculator.)
Related
Drainage and gradingHow to tell which of six different problems you actually have before anyone quotes a fix.
Retaining wall calculatorIf the "fix" is holding soil, drainage behind the wall is a line, not a hope.