Drainage Solutions for the Minneapolis St. Paul Metro Area

Rain is a fundamental necessity for the livelihood of any landscape, but what about when rain is actually doing more damage than good?

Good landscaping doesn’t start or end with what the eye can see. The foundation for a quality landscape is what’s going on underground. Nothing will sour the joy of your gorgeous home or commercial outdoor area faster than a basement full of water, drowned plants that you paid top dollar for, or perpetual wet spots and standing puddles on your lawn. That’s why drainage matters.

If drainage systems are not functional, the landscape is not functional. Failure to address drainage issues can lead to massive property damage to both your outdoor areas and your home or business. That’s why evaluating drainage needs is the first thing that must be considered before moving forward on the installation of your custom design.

Drainage may not be the prettiest part of our services, but it might be the most important. That’s why we at Architectural Landscape Design, Inc. are committed to confronting drainage concerns head-on and installing them correctly from the start.

As a part of our initial evaluation of your property, we will take a look at your current drainage situation, including where water is currently directed and the steepness of slopes on your property. It’s a great time for us to talk with you about any issues you have with standing water. If you’ve had problems with water in the basement, your mulch and top soil spilling out into the yard after a downpour, or if your yard becomes a small pond after a storm has passed, let us know.

Drainage Is the Foundation of Any Landscaping Project

We want to make sure we get everything right from the start. After our initial consultation about your custom landscape design, we will need to evaluate how your ideas will affect water runoff. For example, if we put in a new patio for an outdoor kitchen, the water that previously seeped into the grass now has to go somewhere else. We will discuss what changes need to be made and how those changes fit in with your budget and vision.

The initial site prep we do as we excavate for your new landscaping is the most important step in installing drainage solutions. We want to solve drainage problems without creating new ones, and that’s why we’re so committed to making sure no detail goes unnoticed. Doing the job properly the first time saves both you and us a lot of unnecessary time, money and headaches.

We Offer a Variety of Drainage Solutions

Drainage may not sound pretty, but that doesn’t mean drainage solutions aren’t pretty. We suggest solutions with both practicality and aesthetics in mind. Some of our most common solutions include:

Re-grading
“Grading” is just a fancy engineering term that means the levelness of your land. To re-grade your property, we physically change the levelness or purposefully shape areas to accommodate the features included in the new design. By doing so, we can better direct water runoff so that it won’t damage your property or pool in your lawn. When we finish your project, the lay of your land will look different, but still natural.

French Drains
Also called a “curtain drain,” these are deep trenches laid with perforated piping and then filled with rock, gravel or some other type of landscaping textile. Runoff water gathers into the trench, seeps through the rocks and into the pipe, where it’s redirected away from the area. On the surface, the French drain looks like an attractive accent to your landscape.

Catch Basins
A catch basin is probably the most familiar type of drain. A basin or basket with a grated top is placed into the ground so that it lies flush with or just slightly below the surface. When water enters, underground pipes direct the water. If subtlety is a concern for you, we can work to find a style or design that doesn’t take away from the visual impact of your new outdoor space.

Rain Gardens
What better way to solve drainage issues than with something that fits right into the landscape and is Eco-friendly to boot? A rain garden is a planted garden in a large depression or hole, which allows rainwater and redirected stormwater a chance to collect and be absorbed as groundwater. That water is then available to the plants in the garden. To the naked eye, a rain garden looks the same as any other planted area on your property.

Dry Creek Beds
Some might call it a ditch, but there’s nothing attractive about a ditch. Dry creek beds serve the same purpose as ditches, but are made to look like a stream that’s run dry. By using polished rocks and cut stone to line the bottom and sides, dry creek beds channel water to run down to a more appropriate area for draining. Because the design of a dry creek bed is so versatile, the result is a functional drainage solution that looks like an intentional, attractive feature of your new outdoor area.

Leave Your Drainage Issues to Us

There are more solutions than we can list here. We would be more than happy to work with you to come up with solutions that will work with your property, your budget, and the vision you have for your new landscape. Drainage is part of the dirty work of landscaping, but done well, the end result will look and feel effortless.

We have the skills, experience and tools to handle any size project, both residential and commercial. We know the importance of laying a proper foundation and understand that you want to get to the prettier part of landscaping as soon as possible That’s why we maintain all of our own machinery and equipment, saving you time and money.

If you have concerns about drainage on your property, don’t wait until major damage has been done. Get in touch with us by calling us at 952-224-4856 or filling out our contact form. We are ready to create draining solutions that work for your property.