Drainage work in Fallbrook costs $150 per hour with a 4-hour minimum, operator and fuel included. A 100-foot French drain or a swale that pulls winter runoff away from a foundation takes 4 to 6 hours plus pipe and gravel. Rebuilding an eroded slope with rip-rap and regrading runs 6 to 12 hours. We tell you the material list before we dig.
Fallbrook gets most of its rain in a few winter storms, and on a hillside lot that water arrives all at once. It runs down the driveway, pools against the house, cuts gullies through the grove and takes the slope with it. Drainage work gives that water a path: a swale that catches it, a French drain that carries it, a dry creek or rip-rap that slows it, and grading that sends it away from everything you care about.
We dig and install French drains and perforated pipe, cut swales and berms, build dry creek beds, set rip-rap at outfalls and on cut slopes, trench downspout lines to daylight, and regrade yards that drain toward the house instead of away from it. Erosion repair after a storm, filling the gullies and rebuilding the slope in compacted lifts, is a steady part of every January.
Good drainage is mostly grading. Before we lay a foot of pipe we walk the property in your boots, find where the water comes from and where it wants to go, and often solve half the problem by reshaping the ground.
What is included
- ✓Site walk to trace where water comes from and where it should go
- ✓French drains: trench, filter fabric, perforated pipe, drain rock, backfill
- ✓Swales, berms and dry creek beds cut and shaped on the slope
- ✓Rip-rap placed at outfalls, culvert ends and on eroding cut banks
- ✓Downspout and area drain lines trenched to daylight or a dry well
- ✓Regrading so the ground falls away from the foundation at least 6 inches in the first 10 feet
Typical hours and cost
Everything is $150 per hour with a 4-hour minimum. Here is what the common versions of this job usually take.
| Typical job | Hours | At $150 per hour |
|---|---|---|
| Install 100 feet of French drain along a foundation or slope | 4 to 6 | $600 to $900 |
| Cut a 150-foot swale above a house or pad | 4 to 6 | $600 to $900 |
| Build a dry creek bed with rip-rap to carry a seasonal wash | 6 to 10 | $900 to $1,500 |
| Regrade a yard that drains toward the house | 4 to 8 | $600 to $1,200 |
| Repair storm erosion and rebuild a slope in compacted lifts | 6 to 12 | $900 to $1,800 |
| Trench downspout lines to daylight | 4 | $600 |
Hours are typical ranges for normal ground and access. Rock, roots, steep slopes and tight gates add time. Material, haul-off and dump fees are quoted separately. 4-hour minimum applies.
The equipment
- Mini excavator for trenches, swales and placing rip-rap one rock at a time with the thumb.
- Bobcat T300 for regrading, moving drain rock and fill, and track-rolling repaired slopes.
- Perforated pipe, filter fabric, drain rock and rip-rap ordered from local yards and on site when we start.
Drainage in Fallbrook and North County
Decomposed granite drains well until it is compacted, and most Fallbrook yards are compacted. Water that would soak in on a sandy lot runs off a DG pad and heads for the lowest point, which is often the garage. The usual fix is a swale on the uphill side and a French drain along the foundation that daylights somewhere downhill, and that is a one-day job on most lots.
The cut slopes behind houses on Reche Road, Via Monserate and the Bonsall ridges are the other common call. A 2:1 DG cut holds for years and then lets go in one storm. We clean the slide, re-cut the slope at a gentler angle where there is room, place rip-rap or erosion fabric at the toe, and cut a swale at the top so water never gets a run at it again.