Pricing
What a French drain costs in Liberty Hill, TX
No coupon floor and no invented per foot menu. Jobs around here often quote $2,800 to $6,500, and your written quote follows an inspection.
The range, stated plainly
$2,800 to $6,500 for typical residential work
That is what jobs in this corridor commonly quote for a standard exterior line. It is not a price list for every yard. A short run with an easy daylight lands under it. A long collector through rock with a pop up and full sod restore lands over it.
Anybody quoting your yard before seeing it is guessing, and the number moves when the trencher shows up. We inspect first, then write it down.
Line items
Seven things that move a bid
- Length
More linear feet means more trench, more rock, more pipe, and more restore. It is the single biggest lever on the bid.
- Clay vs rock
Blackland clay cuts steadily. A limestone shelf slows the machine, sometimes forces a shallower run, and occasionally changes the whole line.
- Depth
Depth is set by the outfall elevation, not by preference. A deep run to reach fall costs more than a shallow one that already has it.
- Downspout ties
Bringing gutters into the line adds fittings, sometimes a collector box, and usually a little more trench.
- Discharge
A clean daylight at a slope is the cheap case. A pop up emitter, a long run to a legal outfall, or a tie into existing structure all cost more.
- Access
A wide gate and a place to stage rock keeps labor down. Hand digging between a fence and a slab does the opposite.
- Restore
Sod, beds, irrigation heads to reset, and HOA surface rules all land in the finish line of the bid.
A word on cost per foot
Per foot pricing hides the expensive part
People ask for a per foot number because it sounds comparable between contractors. It is not. Two 80 foot drains on the same street can differ by thousands once you account for depth, rock, and where the water is allowed to come out.
The discharge end is where the money usually hides. Trench is trench. Getting a legal, graded outfall on a lot that does not obviously have one is the part that takes engineering judgment and time.
So we quote the job, not the foot. If you want a per foot figure to compare bids, ask every contractor what their number includes at the discharge end and watch how the answers diverge.
Watch out for
The $499 drain
If a company leads with a few hundred dollars for a yard drain, ask what that buys. It is usually a short length of corrugated pipe in a shallow ditch with no fabric, no washed rock, and no real outfall. It works for one season, silts in, and then the water comes back with your money already spent.
Start here
Tell us what the yard is doing
The form is how jobs start. You describe what you see after a storm, we walk the lot, then you get scope and price on paper. Nothing is priced over the phone.
Get a drainage quote
Tell us the city and what the yard does after a rain. We answer about an inspection and a written quote.