French Drain Installation
Coordinated by the same referral network across Shreveport, Bossier City, and Northwest Louisiana.
Northwest Louisiana · Caddo & Bossier Parish
Diagnose and repair failing drainage systems across Shreveport and Bossier City. Clogged French drains, collapsed pipe, failed sumps, silted catch basins. Request a callback for evaluation.
A significant chunk of our calls in Shreveport are repairs to drainage systems that were installed by someone else and stopped working. Most of the failures are predictable — cheap materials, missed slope, no discharge plan, no clean-outs. The good news is that many failed systems can be salvaged rather than fully replaced.
Before any repair work, the contractor figures out why the system failed. Common causes: (a) pipe collapse from clay pressure on cheap corrugated tubing; (b) fabric silted from missing or wrong geotextile; (c) roots invading pipe through gaps at joints; (d) discharge point plugged or backed up; (e) slope wrong from install day; (f) sediment blocking a catch-basin outlet; (g) sump pump failure. Camera inspection through a clean-out — if the system has one — pinpoints the location. Excavating at one strategic point tells you more than digging up the whole run.
If the pipe itself is intact (rigid PVC survives; corrugated black often doesn't), a hydro-jet from a clean-out can clear years of silt, root intrusion, and small debris. Adding clean-outs where none exist is the second half of the fix. This can salvage a system that would otherwise need full replacement — labor and material savings of $2,000-$5,000.
Corrugated black pipe under clay backfill collapses over 5-10 years, especially near driveways and areas that see traffic. If a camera shows the collapse is localized, an open-cut repair replaces just the failed section with rigid PVC and adds a clean-out. If the whole run has failed, full replacement is often more cost-effective than repeated repairs — but this time using SDR-35 or schedule-40 rigid pipe that will outlast the house.
Sump failures cluster around: (a) cheap pump seized or float switch hung up; (b) discharge line frozen or clogged; (c) check valve failed, causing back-siphon and short-cycling; (d) basin silted with sediment because of missing gravel base. Pump replacement is straightforward. Adding a battery backup at the same visit is the upgrade almost every unmonitored sump needs — see sump pump installation.
A catch basin that's overflowing usually has a plugged outlet pipe — sediment from a missing or filled sediment sump has migrated into the discharge line. Fix is to clean the sump, jet the outlet pipe, and put the client on a spring/fall maintenance rhythm. Sometimes the basin needs to be swapped for a larger unit or one with a proper deep sump.
A common failure mode is that the original discharge point was never legitimate — the pipe daylights onto a neighbor's yard, or into a low spot that has since flooded. Re-routing to a legal discharge (rain garden, dry well, permitted storm tie-in) is sometimes the whole fix. On tighter lots the answer is a sump-and-pumped-discharge instead of gravity.
Signs it's time for a full replacement rather than patch repairs: multiple clogs in the same season; pipe collapse in more than one section; no clean-outs and no way to install them without excavation; the original install used pea gravel and landscape fabric (not #57 stone + real geotextile); the discharge is fundamentally wrong. Replacement with proper materials is often only 30-40% more than a Band-Aid repair and lasts 20-30 years longer.
Camera inspection with clean-out and jet: $400-$800. Localized pipe collapse repair: $600-$1,800. Sump pump replacement: $500-$1,200. Full system redo: quoted per site, typically $4,000-$15,000.
Yes, this is a large share of our work in Bossier and Shreveport. We diagnose, quote a targeted repair vs. a redo, and don't upsell a full replacement if a jet-and-clean-out will hold.
Depends on the underlying materials. A repaired rigid-pipe system with new clean-outs can go 15-25 more years. A cleaned corrugated-pipe system typically buys 2-5 years before the next issue.
Not formal contracts, but seasonal maintenance visits (spring/fall basin cleanouts, sump testing) can be scheduled per property. Most systems only need attention twice a year.
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.
Tell a local coordinator what's going on. Free callback typically the same business day.
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