Yard Drainage Solutions
Coordinated by the same referral network across Shreveport, Bossier City, and Northwest Louisiana.
Northwest Louisiana · Caddo & Bossier Parish
Buried downspout extensions, catch basins for roof runoff, and pop-up emitter installation across Shreveport and Bossier City. Highest-leverage first pass for most yard drainage problems.
The single most under-rated drainage fix in Shreveport is buried downspout extensions. A roof gutter concentrates hundreds of gallons per hour to a 4-inch pipe. Splash blocks and short extensions send that water back at the foundation. A buried line to a legal discharge takes the problem completely off the property's stress list.
A typical Shreveport 2,000 sq ft roof has 5-6 downspouts. Each downspout drains 300-450 sq ft of roof. In a 1-inch-per-hour rain — a normal Louisiana summer thunderstorm, not an event — each downspout produces about 300 gallons per hour. That's 1,500-1,800 gallons hitting the ground around the foundation in an hour, coming out of a 4-inch tube two feet from the wall. No wonder the crawlspace is wet.
A buried extension is a 4-inch solid PVC or SDR-35 pipe connected to the downspout at grade and buried at least 12 inches deep, sloped 1-2% away from the house, discharging at a legal point at least 8-10 feet from the foundation. Longer runs — to a dry well, a rain garden, or a curb daylight — are common and often required to actually get the water off the property. The buried line lets you mow over the run and hides all evidence.
Options in order of preference for most Shreveport lots: (1) daylight outlet at the property line with an animal grate, if a legal downhill point exists; (2) rain garden or infiltration basin in a low corner of the yard; (3) dry well sized for the roof area and soil percolation; (4) pop-up emitter — a spring-loaded head that pops up under pressure and releases the water at the surface. Pop-ups are the cheapest and most reversible option but rely on being able to soak the water into the surrounding turf, which in tight NW Louisiana clay is only sometimes viable.
A pop-up emitter is a small green head that sits flush with the lawn when idle and opens under pressure from the downspout line. They work well when: (a) the ground around the emitter has good drainage, (b) the receiving area is downhill and won't puddle, (c) the run is short and doesn't hold water in the pipe between rains (which freezes in a cold snap). They fail when planted in the same low spot that started the drainage complaint. On heavy Caddo Parish clay, a rain garden or dry well is often the better choice.
A dry well is a buried perforated chamber (concrete, brick, or modular plastic) that holds runoff and lets it soak into the surrounding soil over hours. Sizing in NW Louisiana is aggressive: figure 50-70 cubic feet of chamber volume per 1,000 sq ft of connected roof, and always confirm with a percolation test. A dry well that saturates on the first big rain and stays full is a lawn ornament. A properly sized dry well fed by clean roof water lasts decades.
Standard 5-inch K-style gutters with 2x3 downspouts handle about 5,000 sq ft of roof at 1 inch/hour rain. Bigger roofs need 6-inch gutters with 3x4 downspouts — 3x4 downspouts have more than double the capacity of 2x3s and are the right choice for any Shreveport home over 2,500 sq ft. A gutter that overflows in a normal rain is under-sized, not clogged.
Buried downspout lines can drop into a shared catch-basin/French-drain trunk, discharge into a rain garden that also handles yard runoff, or feed a foundation sump when there's no gravity outlet. Sequence matters — the downspout line should be first in, so it discharges highest in the chamber and gets first shot at the outlet.
Simple: $200-$400 per downspout for a short buried run (10-15 feet) with a pop-up emitter. Longer runs to a shared drain, dry well, or daylight typically run $400-$900 per downspout depending on distance and destination.
In sandy or well-drained soils, often yes. In tight Shreveport clay, only if the receiving area doesn't already pool. If it does, spend the extra to run to a rain garden, dry well, or daylight instead — a pop-up over a saturated lawn just relocates the puddle.
Yes. It's more efficient to combine 2-4 downspouts into a single 4-inch or 6-inch discharge run than to bury one line per spout. Standard practice for whole-house downspout burials.
1% slope is achievable on almost any yard — that's 1 inch of drop per 8 feet of pipe. On truly flat lots, a small sump can move discharge water up-and-out.
Coordinated by the same referral network across Shreveport, Bossier City, and Northwest Louisiana.
Coordinated by the same referral network across Shreveport, Bossier City, and Northwest Louisiana.
Coordinated by the same referral network across Shreveport, Bossier City, and Northwest Louisiana.
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