Drainage & Site Solutions
Standing water, a wet basement, a washing-out slope. We find where the water comes from, where it sits, and where it needs to go, then build the grading and drains that send it there for good.
Drainage & Stormwater Work
A wet yard, a flooded basement, and a slope that keeps washing out are all the same problem. Water is collecting somewhere it should not and has no path away from your home.
Murray General Contracting builds and repairs drainage across the Lehigh Valley, from Allentown and Bethlehem to Easton and out to Breinigsville. The clay-heavy soil and the freeze-thaw winters here are hard on grading and underground structures, so a fix that ignores either one does not last. We read the slope, the soil, and the way runoff actually travels, then build the right combination of grading, swales, and buried drains to carry the water off the property.
This is the construction and repair side of drainage. If a catch basin or culvert is sound but clogged, that is a cleaning job for our sewer jetting and drain cleaning truck. You get one local crew from the first walkthrough to the final grade, and a free estimate within 48 hours of sending us the details.
Drainage Services
How We Work
We walk the property in the worst-case direction, uphill from the wet spot, and track where the water enters, what it crosses, and why it stops where it does.
Before anything else we settle where the water will daylight, a swale, a ditch, the street, or an emitter, so the system has somewhere real to drain.
We cut the slope and dig the trenches at a steady fall so water moves by gravity, setting the spoil aside to put the yard back together clean.
Stone, pipe, fabric, basins, and culverts go in to spec, then we backfill, restore the grade, and walk the finished flow with you.
Why It Holds Up
A patch over the wet spot floods again next storm. We trace the water to its source and cut off the supply, not just the symptom.
Drains move water by gravity, so we set a continuous pitch from the inlet to the outlet. No flat spots where silt settles and the line backs up.
Pennsylvania ground freezes 36 to 42 inches down. We set structures and outlets to keep them working through the freeze-thaw instead of heaving.
We dig only what the fix needs and leave the yard regraded, not torn up. You see the water has somewhere to go before the crew leaves.
Drainage Work We Do
Need a basin or culvert cleaned out rather than rebuilt? That is handled on our sewer jetting and drain cleaning page. When drainage work needs deeper digging or full site prep, our excavation and site work crew handles it, and the same trenching can run alongside soft digging from our hydrovac services.
Did a fantastic job. Fast. Trustworthy. Honest. On time. Everything you want in a contractor.Jeffrey Ulle, Google review
Drainage Questions
If water pools in one low spot or sits against the foundation, regrading and a swale often fixes it without a buried pipe. If the ground stays wet long after the rain or water seeps in near the footing, a French drain pulls that water out and carries it away. We look at the slope, the soil, and where the water actually goes before we recommend one over the other.
Most standing water comes from a yard that slopes the wrong way, dense clay soil that drains slowly, or downspouts that dump right next to the house. Freeze-thaw winters also shift the grade over time so old drainage stops working. We trace where the water enters, where it sits, and where it needs to go, then fix the grade and add drains where the slope alone cannot move it.
This page covers the construction and repair side, rebuilding a collapsed catch basin, resetting a sunken inlet, or replacing a failed culvert. If the structure is sound but clogged, that is a cleaning job handled with our jetting truck on the Sewer Jetting & Drain Cleaning page. We can do both on the same visit when a basin needs cleaning before we can see what is broken.
It has to daylight somewhere lower than the problem, usually a swale, a ditch, the street, or a pop-up emitter at the edge of the yard. We never tie drainage into a spot that floods a neighbor or backs up at the outlet. Planning the discharge point is the first thing we settle, because a drain with nowhere to go is just a buried pipe full of water.
Yes. Erosion is almost always a water problem, so we slow the flow and redirect it with regrading, swales, stone, and drainage instead of just patching the washed-out soil. On steeper ground we add structure to hold the bank and catch runoff before it cuts a channel. Fixing the cause is what keeps the repair from washing out again the next storm.
We dig only the trenches and grade only the areas the fix needs, and we set the spoil aside so the yard goes back together cleanly. Most drainage work is one local crew on site for a few days. We walk the finished grade with you so you can see the water has somewhere to go before we leave.
Keep Exploring
Free estimates on French drains, grading, and drainage repair across the Lehigh Valley and Eastern Pennsylvania.