Name the water path before you name a yard drain.

O’Fallon Quality Drainage plans yard drainage for O’Fallon clay lots as a small watershed file, not a catalog part. Sheet flow, roof dumps, and perched water need different tools. Compare French drain installation and catch basin installation before a review request.

Start with the water path, not a catalog part

Walk the lot during or right after rain

Walk the lot during or right after rain. Mark where water enters from roofs, neighbors, or driveways, where it sits, and where it already tries to leave. A photograph with a date is more useful than a memory of last spring. The first paragraph of a proposal should repeat that path in plain language.

Clay context still belongs in the file. Use Web Soil Survey as a lookup, not a substitute for watching the actual pond. A yard drain in the wrong low spot simply moves the puddle a few feet.

Surface collection versus a buried collector

When both tools belong on one lot

A basin can feed a buried collector if the grate sits at the true low spot and the collector has somewhere legal to go. Write both elevations.

Sheet flow on turf or pavement often wants a basin, channel, or swale. Water that stays below the surface along a wet foundation may want a French drain. Mixing those tools without a reason produces extra pipe and the same pond.

Start by identifying whether the water arrives as a sheet, a concentrated roof discharge, a groundwater-like seep, or a combination. A point inlet collects visible sheet flow. A surface regrade changes the sheet path. A perforated collector is for water entering from below grade. The scope should say why each proposed component matches one of those sources.

Where a yard drain belongs on a suburban lot

The inlet belongs at the low spot that actually ponds, not at a convenient walkway

The inlet belongs at the low spot that actually ponds, not at a convenient walkway. Grate elevation too high leaves a halo of water. Too low creates a trip hazard and a silt trap. Kids, mowers, and pets all use the same lawn, so the grate choice is a safety choice as well as a hydraulic one.

Connecting basins to a legal discharge

An inlet without an outlet is a buried bucket

An inlet without an outlet is a buried bucket. The run must daylight, pop up on high ground, or connect only where the city allows. Review O’Fallon Engineering when a storm connection or grading quantity is in play.

Before choosing an outlet, trace the route through gates, walks, easements, utilities, and the final low point. A path that looks open from a kitchen window may cross a private irrigation line or reach a corner that still ponds. Name the endpoint and the access needed to maintain it instead of relying on an arrow on a sales drawing.

Irrigation, sod, and soil conflicts after a rain

A leaked irrigation head can mimic a drainage failure

A leaked irrigation head can mimic a drainage failure. Turn the system off and watch a storm before assuming the soil is the only source. After construction, restoration that piles dirt against a foundation can recreate the original bowl. Ask who re-establishes finish grade.

When a whole-yard plan beats a single trench

One trench across a bowl can starve the rest of the yard of a coherent path

One trench across a bowl can starve the rest of the yard of a coherent path. Sometimes the cheaper complete answer is a short regrade plus one inlet, not a long buried run. Compare yard grading in the same conversation.

Sequence matters. Correct a roof leader or obvious surface reverse fall before pricing a deep collector that may be solving a symptom. If a basin is still needed after that work, its invert and outlet can be set against the finished grade instead of being buried at an arbitrary elevation and revisited after restoration.

Evidence a drainage review should record

Keep dated photos, a simple sketch of downspouts, notes on neighbor flow, and any prior pipe locations

Keep dated photos, a simple sketch of downspouts, notes on neighbor flow, and any prior pipe locations. Missouri 811 marks belong on that sketch before digging. Bring the same packet to contact so a provider is not guessing from a one-line form.

Add the intended outlet, any existing cleanout, gates or hardscape crossings, and the observations made after a named rain. This record lets a provider compare a regrade, basin, solid lateral, or French drain by the source each component addresses. A quote should separate excavation, inlet setting, outlet work, restoration, and post-storm review instead of offering one unexplained drain price.

A field sketch should also show which roof leaders are kept separate from surface collection, where a solid lateral begins, and whether a low point is a true inlet location or only a visible symptom. Measure from fixed features rather than from movable mulch or furniture. At acceptance, revisit the mapped inlet and outlet after a rain, note whether water bypasses an edge, and preserve photographs of restoration before turf fully covers access points. This does not certify every future storm outcome; it documents the path and maintenance access the installed scope actually provides. If the observation exposes a new source, price that separately rather than claiming the original scope included unseen roof, irrigation, foundation, or off-site flow work.

Keep the completed sketch, access points, and first-storm observations together so any later adjustment starts from a known water path rather than a generic drain label.

Town context lives on the St. Peters and Dardenne Prairie guides because adjacent plats often share the same clay and contractor travel. Census figures for O’Fallon explain density, not a price.