Now accepting new clients for the season. Request your consultation today.
Now accepting new clients for the season. Request your consultation today.
MW Lawn & Landscape installs French drains across Olathe, Overland Park, Lenexa, and Johnson County a fabric-wrapped trench of washed river rock and perforated pipe that collects groundwater and carries it away from your yard and foundation. Built with proper fall to a real discharge point, then we seed the trench line back in. Warrantied work. Family-owned for 25+ years.
A French drain is simple in concept and unforgiving in execution. It’s a trench, a perforated pipe, washed stone, and fabric and it works because water takes the path of least resistance, which is the open space between the stones. Get the fall wrong, skip the fabric, or use dirty stone full of fines, and it silts up and quits within a few seasons. In Johnson County’s heavy clay, where water has nowhere to soak away, a properly built French drain is often the difference between a backyard you can use and one that’s a swamp for days after every storm. We build ours with washed river rock, wrapped in geotextile fabric, sloped to a discharge point that actually carries water away and then we put your lawn back.
A French drain is the right answer for chronically saturated ground but not for every wet spot. We find the real cause first, and if a buried downspout or a regrade solves it, we’ll tell you that instead.
Washed rock means no fines to settle in and silt up the voids, and geotextile fabric keeps surrounding soil from migrating into the stone. That combination is what makes a drain last.
A drain that doesn’t go anywhere is just an expensive buried trench. We set continuous fall and take the water to a discharge point that actually gets it off the problem area
A French drain is a trench across your yard. Drainage crews leave you with the scar we’re your lawn company, so we grade it back, seed or sod the line, and repair the beds we worked through.
Every part that decides whether a drain works for decades or quits in three years.
We walk the property, trace where the water comes from and where it can go, and confirm a French drain is actually the right fix.
We set the route, depth, and continuous slope based on your yard so water keeps moving instead of sitting in the pipe.
Fabric lines the trench and folds over the stone, keeping soil from working its way in and choking the system.
Perforated pipe set at the bottom of the trench, sized and oriented to collect water along the whole run.
Washed river rock packed around the pipe washed so there are no fines to silt it up, and sized to hold generous void space for flow.
We carry it out to a proper discharge point, grade and reseed the trench line, and warranty the work.
Every yard is different here are the solutions we use, alone or in combination. Click any to learn more
A gravel-and-perforated-pipe channel that collects groundwater and carries it out to a safe discharge point the workhorse for chronically soggy ground. View Service →
Roof runoff dumped at your foundation is the most common drainage problem there is. We bury the line and pop it up safely out in the yard. View Service →
Sometimes the fix isn’t a pipe it’s reshaping the ground so water runs away from your home instead of toward it. View Service →
A stone channel that moves runoff away from low spots and looks like a natural feature instead of a drainage project. View Service →
25+ years in this clay and we leave your lawn looking like we were never there
We’ve worked Johnson County’s clay since 2000 and know how water actually moves through it.
Not every wet yard needs a trench. If a downspout or a regrade fixes it, that’s what we’ll recommend.
Drainage crews trench and leave. We seed or sod the line back in because your lawn is our job too.
We stand behind the install, and the same team can mow, feed, and maintain the yard afterward.
Three steps from soggy to solved.
Fill out the form or call (913) 829-4949. We walk your property, find where the water is coming from, and confirm a French drain is the right call.
We set the route, depth, and fall, then build it fabric, perforated pipe, washed rock, and a real discharge point. Most residential drains take a day or two.
We grade the trench line back and seed or sod it, so within a season you can’t tell where we dug and the work is warrantied.
What homeowners in Olathe and Johnson County ask us about French drains.
Still Have Questions? Call our team or request a free assessment, and we’ll walk your property to tell you what’s actually going on.
A French drain is a gravel-filled trench with a perforated pipe at the bottom, and it works on the simplest principle there is: water takes the path of least resistance. Instead of soaking slowly through dense clay, water finds the open space between the washed stones, drops into the pipe through the perforations, and runs downhill to a discharge point away from your house. Geotextile fabric wraps the whole assembly so surrounding soil can’t migrate in and clog it. The parts are basic the layout, the fall, and the discharge point are what make it work or fail.
For typical yard drainage, generally somewhere around 18 to 24 inches deep and about a foot wide deep enough to intercept water moving through the soil, wide enough to hold useful stone volume around the pipe. When we’re pulling water away from a foundation it goes deeper. But depth is a diagnosis, not a default: the right number depends on where your water actually sits, how your yard falls, and where we can discharge it. That’s what the on-site assessment is for.
Two things matter more than anything else, and every drainage pro agrees on both: the stone must be washed, and it has to be the right size. Washed means the fine sand and silt have been cleaned out those fines settle into the gaps and silt a system up, and dirty stone is one of the most common reasons a drain quits within a few years. Size matters because a French drain runs on void space: the open gaps between the stones are the path the water actually takes.
We build with washed river rock, sized to hold generous void space and heavy enough to stay put when water moves through it fast. Some contractors prefer angular crushed stone, on the reasoning that sharp edges interlock and resist shifting that’s a legitimate approach too, and you’ll find good drainage people on both sides of it.
Honestly, the round-versus-angular debate gets more attention than it deserves. Far more drains fail from unwashed material, missing fabric, not enough fall, or a discharge point that goes nowhere than from the shape of the stone. Get those four right and your drain will outlast the argument.
It comes down to length, depth, and access. A short run along one side of the house is a very different job from a long drain across a saturated backyard, and a yard a machine can’t get into costs more because the trench gets dug by hand. Materials and where the water can practically discharge factor in too. We assess your property free and give you a written quote before anything gets dug call (913) 829-4949.
Very little, which is one of the best things about them. Check your discharge point after big storms to make sure water is running out freely, and if you have surface inlets, keep leaves and debris off them. That’s mostly it. A properly built drain washed stone, fabric-wrapped, correct fall should run for years without attention. Ours are warrantied, so if it isn’t draining the way it should, call us.
Usually, yes but first we need to know why it quit. The common causes are silt working into the stone (typically because the original rock wasn’t washed or no fabric was used), tree roots finding the pipe, a crushed or collapsed line, or a discharge point that’s buried, blocked, or was never right to begin with. Sometimes it’s a straightforward fix at the outlet. Sometimes the drain was built wrong and rebuilding is the honest answer. We’ll diagnose it and tell you which one you’re looking at.
4.7 ★★★★★ · 180+ Reviews
Based in Olathe, KS, we solve standing water and drainage problems throughout the following cities in Johnson County and the greater Kansas City metro
River Rock Installation decorative stone and rock beds, including the stone we use in dry creek beds. Learn More →
Bed Weeding clear the weeds and prep your beds before rock goes down. Learn More →
Aeration & Overseeding relieve the compacted clay that makes water sit on your lawn Learn More →
Weekly Mowing reliable weekly mowing, trimming, and edging by the same crew Learn More →
Let MW Lawn & Landscape find out where your water is actually coming from and build the fix right. Free on-site assessment, honest diagnosis, warrantied work, and your lawn restored when we’re done.
