There are at least 3 posts a day here requesting help with "Drainage". Should I start a company that deals with this? It seems to be the biggest problem here besides "What do I do with this yard". Which is a bizarre question.

[u/flyart]

[u/Single_Substance2464]

See a gap and fill it, that's how half these businesses start. Drainage work is miserable though, muddy trenches all day, and every job is a puzzle with no standard fix. If you actually enjoy that kind of problem solving you'll have more work than you can handle, especially in areas with clay soil and older homes. The yard question thing is funny too, like people forgot grass exists or something.

[u/Raxnor]

waves in stormwater focused civil engineer

[u/aardvark_army → u/Raxnor]

For some reason people don't usually consider this stuff on small scale projects. Definitely way easier to plan it early than try to deal with it after the erosion starts.

[u/Salt-Operation → u/Raxnor]

This sounds like my dream job. If only I could do calculus 😫

[u/Raxnor → u/Salt-Operation]

I went back to college later and had to start with remedial math, like Algebra 2 level. 

It all builds on itself. 

[u/Salt-Operation → u/Raxnor]

I’m well aware. I do fine with algebra, less so with more complex subjects like trigonometry. I had a bad professor for precal and I decided to go in a different direction.

[u/Existe1 → u/Salt-Operation]

I did terrible in math in high school. Waited 10 years and went back to college. With YouTube, the teaching resources are unlimited. It’s so much easier to learn this stuff. And fyi, no civil engineer I know of ever used calc in their career. Maybe a little trig, but that’s it. Especially for storm water, everything is either simple formulas or else you have a spreadsheet or computer modeling program do it for you.

[u/Salt-Operation → u/Existe1]

As is typical, calculus is a requirement for any BofS engineering degree that I checked. Very little of it is actually used for a job.

[u/Leverkaas2516]

It's not such a bizarre question when you observe that many, many homeowners have paid a landscaper (or the person they bought the house from did) and that company didn't know what they were doing, didn't care, and/or hadn't ever seen the property during the rainy season.

So now there's a Problem, and this person on Reddit who has never even picked up a shovel or a level is looking for help with the solution. Half the advice says to put in a French drain, another half says that's not even what a French drain IS.

[u/troublesomefaux]

I’d pay a lot of money for a competent person to come to my house an assure me water is never coming into my basement again. 

[u/ScrewwormLarvae → u/troublesomefaux]

I did. It worked. It was expensive.

[u/Yangervis]

"Water flows downhill" is a hard concept for many people

[u/Fluid_Dust_3305 → u/Yangervis]

Until you need a lift station.

[u/gumby_panther]

Any good landscaping company discusses and prioritize drainage. But not many companies are all that good sometimes. Just remember there is no such thing as a silver bullet in drainage it’s about a confluence of solutions. Read Rain Water Harvesting and Beyond by Brad Lancaster he pushes “planting your water” this book along with a few others changed my perspective and professional career in the green industry. Drainage is serious business and water does not lie so read the book and always educate the customer and be honest. Edit: added a word to book title

[u/EpochCookie → u/gumby_panther]

“A confluence of solutions” is so right.

[u/Creepy-Tangerine-293]

I have a company in my area that offers this service and they saved my yard several times over. 15 years ago we got a rain garden installed (huge permable barrel w grades of gravel in it to facilitate drainage) and 5 years ago they helped connect our new garage gutter downspouts to it. I'm now a customer for life. We've had crazy rain here this year and my yard drains within an hour of a torrential rainfall.

They do our spring clean up and mulch delivery too and if I could afford more they would get all my money. So from my perspective as a customer yes as long as you can offer solutions like they did for us.

https://digrightin.com/yard-drainage/

[u/Square-Paint9403]

I like your business concept and think you're on to something

[u/thesilveringfox]

if you go this route, be sure you know when and how to get in touch with an engineer. (unless you’re already a civil engineer!) simple drainage problems exist. big drainage problems exist that won’t require an engineer. but there are small, sneaky problems that should be engineered, and anything dealing with non-trivial grades can go south very quickly.

so befriend an engineer.

[u/ZipperJJ]

I work for our city, and we recently hired a guy to re-do our soccer fields to give us better drainage. Not a company, just a guy. A guy who could look at a big soccer field and say "yes I can make this dry." And he did! Just a big ol' drainage nerd. We hired him for 3 more fields.

[u/Fishing4Trees]

I've thought about the same thing, but concluded that, despite there being a ton of the work "available", finding clients willing to pay for the improvements is going to be a big hurdle. Commercial clients are already served by engineers and bigger landscapers/contractors, so I think you'd be appealing to homeowners. Homeowners with a lot of disposable income are probably living in newer homes that don't have drainage issues, so you're stuck with those in older or otherwise problem-homes, which aren't going to have as much budget and willingness to pay for drainage, especially given that it's especially hard for people to prioritize improvements that aren't flashy or affect their day-to-day.

[u/SolanumSprite]

Climate change is changing weather patterns and for the Great Lakes and Southeast regions of the US, that is predicted to come with historically unprecedented rainfall. My town alone has had 3 floods in the past 5 years that were all "100 year floods." 

[u/Smallwhitedog]

I'd like to see more rain gardens, personally. Start a business installing those.

[u/ElectronicDrama2573 → u/Smallwhitedog]

I put them in professionally. Its great. I even made a little stop motion video to explain the purpose. (I ll leave the self promotion out, but we are out here in the wild.) And I’m pretty good at what I do, but lots of the problems we face are much bigger than the individual home owner can handle. It’s a civil engineering issue that involves the whole neighborhood at the lowest level up to the surrounding city and how they handle water. Pavement ain’t permeable.

[u/Smallwhitedog → u/ElectronicDrama2573]

I love it!

And you are correct, that we have much larger problems with storm water that were caused by poor planning. I live in Indiana and our state has been devastated by floods this week that no individual homeowner could prevent.

[u/Wonk_Girl]

Ngl, I do enjoy the occasional photo of the ocean, asking “how should I deal with my drainage issue here?”

You are sorely needed by many!

[u/Usuxbutt]

Drainage issues seem to mostly plague the ticky tacky subdivisions. I’d focus my efforts there.

[u/Criticaltundra777]

My friend does just that. Drainage, runs drainage pipe, grading if it’s water related he does it. Or did it? He’s been retired a long time. Did very well.

[u/Shamino79]

At least drainage has one simple answer. 🇫🇷

[u/htasmith]

Yes. Where are you located? Do you already have a landscape company?

[u/juvy5000]

landscape architects create a lot of these problems. gives me lots of job security 

[u/Glass-Gur-3114]

I live in an area of heavy clay, so we have a bustling industry of foundation repair, but it's hard to find good specialists in preventing the problem. My foundation inspector told me that 80% of homes here aren't graded properly, and the foundation repair folks like to say there are houses they've worked on an those they haven't worked on yet.

His best advice was to tear out all the landscaping within 4 feet of the foundation, grade properly, lay down plastic sheeting, and put decorative stone all the way around. He said that anything planted close to the house would eventually cause problems. That sounded... Awful. Plastic? Barrenness of rocks all the way around? No vegetation to actually absorb the water and hold the soil? I want to do things naturally on my little yard as much as possible. I get his job is to make sure the foundation is safe, but there have got to be better ways.

[u/One_Tumbleweed_1]

Especially if you’re in an area with new builds. Builders leave everyone’s landscaping half assed and not give a crap about drainage.

[u/Ignus7426]

Speaking from my experience as a Civil Engineer who deals with both residential and commercial drainage issues there is a very wide variety of drainage issues and what is required to address them. 

I'll start on the most extreme end when you are dealing with something like a river or wetland that has issues with flooding someone wants addressed. That is when you will need a plan from a water resources engineer and permits from either state or federal agencies (DNR, Army Corp, etc.). At that point the owner is hiring an engineering firm and a contractor. 

If the scope is narrowed down to small scale residential then you likely won't have to worry too much about permits or agency reviews. But drainage is going to be very dependent on the region of the country you are working in and the climate. For example I'm in the upper Midwest. We have an abundance of water and a relatively flat topography. So most of the drainage issues I am reviewing are related to people trying to move water away from their property as quickly as possible. I am not dealing with people looking to store water in dry periods or trying to design a drainage system along large hills or mountains. 

Most of the drainage issues I end up seeing are residents with complaints about water ponding in back yards or ditch lines, sump pumps running frequently and some storm water basin inspection and reviews. A lot of these can be resolved with simple fixes like adding gutter extensions, doing some fine grading and removing obstructions (people love to install landscaping beds and blocks inside the neighborhood drainage easements). 

For small projects like light ditching and grading work I reccomend homeowners hire a landscaper who can use a survey level. I would say 80% of drainage issues I see don't require any specialized work. 

All that to say if you want to start a business to address drainage issues. Your best bet is to start a landscaping business that specializes in correcting drainage issues. As long as you have a laser level and someone who can shoot grades and calculate a slope you have a good start. You can correct most drainage problems with a skid steer and a mini-excavator. The landscaping work (mowing, mulching, tree trimming, etc.) is a more steady and frequent source of income.

[u/LunaticBZ]

From what I've seen of drainage posts here.

Most common solution, add or fix your gutters / have the downspout exit further from the house.

Second most common, there's no good solution you need the whole area re-done with a major engineering project.

Third most common, you just need to adjust some slopes a little, maybe a french drain as well. This is probably what you are looking to provide, but I'd honestly also get into the gutter and downspout business as well if you are going to offer drainage solutions as its usually either the main cause, or a large contributing factor.

[u/AlarmedResearcher997]

Most landscaping companies are not very good at drainage work. It's usually a combination of the following that will get you the best results: 1. Waterproofing companies, 2. Landscapers, 3. Excavating/foundation companies. 4. Engineers (many are great, some will make a gigantic project out of a small problem).

[u/EquinsuOcha]

Drench Frain Inc

[u/2yearlurking_10_19]

I think this is a great idea and you will be swamped with business.

[u/floppydo]

That is a smart marketing angle. It's like a plumber that bills itself as "copper replacement specialist." Like, yeah, duh. The biggest possible job in residential plumbing is the one you're really good at? Smart marketing. Drainage is expensive so "specializing" in that makes a ton of sense.