P.O. Box 591449 Houston TX 77259

This picture shows a 9" catch basin in place.  The grate cover is not in place yet. 

This pictures shows the drainage in place and ready to be inspected and covered up.  The crew is washing down the area as we always keep our work areas clean.

DRAINAGE

This picture shows the catch basin in place with the grate over it.  This is how the basins look in a finished drainage system.  You can see where the grass was cut out to place the drain pipe, and it is running toward the front of the home and to the street.

This picture shows capturing the downspouts from the gutters to take even more water off the yard.  The black plastic round pieces are just the customer's flower pots.  You can see the hard pipe of the drainage system attaches to the downspout.  The metal elbow is removed from the downspout and the drainage adapter is placed on the end of the downspout.

Clear Cut installs and cleans drainage systems.  Since we are in Houston, we do hard pipe systems, not French drains.  Houston has clay so the French drain does not work here.  For the average home, we use 9" or 12" square catch basins and hard pipe out to the street.

Most municipalities require a permit and inspection.  The City of Houston requires the drainage installer to have a drainage license issued by the City of Houston.

Drainage seems like a simple installation, but if the basin size and amount of basins are not correct, or the slope of the pipe from the basins to the outlet at the street is not correct, the drainage system will not work. 

The drainage system also needs to be maintained.  The basins need to be cleaned out at least one time a year.  Remove the top grates and reach in and lift out any leaves and debris.  Be careful as there may be insects or small animals in the basin.  Also clean the outlet pipe as leaves and dirt can accumulate.  Sometimes you can use a broom handle to put up the pipe from the street to remove the leaves and dirt.  Then go to the farthest basin and put a garden hose into it.  Turn the water on full blast and see if there is a good flow all the way to the street.  If it begins to back up go to the next basin up and see if you can flush it out with the hose from there.  Repeat each basin until you clear the blockage.  We have seen drainage that is blocked and have found tree roots had crushed the basin and we had to replace the basin and re route the pipe around the area.  Most times the system can be cleaned and flushed as described above.

Clear Cut Landscape & Irrigation