Yard Drainage on the Hillsides of Collinsville, IL
Collinsville is built down the face of the bluff, so a lot of its yards take water from the house above and pass it on to the house below. When that water comes in against a foundation or carves a gully through the lawn, Jon reshapes the slope and gives it a path that holds.
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Yard Drainage in Collinsville
A city that steps down toward the bottoms
Collinsville climbs from the edge of the American Bottom up onto the bluffs, and Cahokia Mounds sits inside its western city limits. The city calls itself the Horseradish Capital of the World, but its houses are mostly up the hill, where streets and older homes were laid out on slope, one lot above the next.
That layout decides most drainage problems here. Water does not collect on a Collinsville hillside so much as travel. It comes off the roofs and lawns uphill, picks up speed and finds the lowest line across your lot, which is often right along the back wall of the house.
When the water starts next door
Illinois law expects lower ground to take the water that naturally runs onto it from above. On a stepped street that means the trick is not stopping it at the property line. It is catching it before it reaches the house and steering it around.
Jon usually does that with a shallow swale cut across the slope uphill of the house, with enough fall to keep moving and a grassed bottom you can mow. It picks up the runoff and carries it past the corners to lower ground. On many Collinsville lots that single cut is most of the job.
Piping roof water down a slope
On a hillside, a downspout that empties at the wall sends its water straight into the ground beside the basement. A buried line takes it under the lawn instead, down the slope to an outlet well clear of the house. The line follows the fall of the land, so it keeps flowing without help.
Where the pipe comes out, the water leaves with some force. The outlet is set where the water can spread onto grass or a rocked pad rather than dig a new hole in the slope. The yard grading cost guide explains what moves the price on work like this.
A low spot that keeps sinking
Collinsville is old coal country. State geological survey records list more than twenty mines in the Collinsville area, working the Herrin seam from 1862 until the last one closed in 1964, and much of Madison and St. Clair counties is undermined.
Most wet hollows in a yard are just settled fill or a poor grade, and those regrade well. A dip that keeps getting deeper, with cracks showing in the drive or the foundation, is something else. Jon will tell you if what he sees is beyond a grading fix. The Illinois State Geological Survey has an address lookup for old mines, and in the counties where most mines lie, Illinois home policies include mine subsidence cover unless the owner turned it down in writing.
Two counties, one set of locates
Most of Collinsville is in Madison County, but two parts of the city reach south into St. Clair County. Inside city limits, the Community Development desk at City Hall on South Center Street issues a Land Disturbance/Grading Permit and a separate permit for digging in the street right of way. Ask there before a large regrade or a line that runs out to the street.
Whatever the county, a drain trench never starts until JULIE has been called. Call 811 or 800-892-0123 at least two working days ahead, and the utilities mark their own lines. Pipes a previous owner buried are not anyone's to mark, so they are worth mentioning.
Pricing a Collinsville drainage job
Jon comes out, looks at where the water enters the lot and where it can leave, and gives you one figure. The quote is free. If you have a photo from the last storm, send it with your call or text.
Drainage work here often ties into other jobs on the same lot. A cracked patio holding water can come out with concrete removal in Collinsville, and bigger reshaping of a slope is grading and dirt work in Collinsville. The rest of 3D's work in town is on the Collinsville page.
Yard Drainage & Grading
Standing water moved off the yard and away from the house: regrading, swales and buried drain lines.
See the serviceTalk to Jon(217) 710-0606
Tell Jon where the water comes onto your Collinsville lot and where it ends up. He walks the slope with you and quotes it for free.
Call nowWhat that covers
- Interceptor swales. Runoff from the lot above caught and turned around the house.
- Downhill drain lines. Downspouts piped under the lawn to an outlet down the slope.
- Settled yards regraded. Hollows and back-sloping ground filled and shaped to drain.
- Gullies repaired. Washed channels filled, reshaped and left ready for seed.
Collinsville, IL
A Metro East city on the bluffs above the American Bottom, with older neighborhoods and newer subdivisions along I-55/70.
Town pageAlso in CollinsvilleConcrete Removal in Collinsville, IL
See the pageAlso in CollinsvilleGrading & Dirt Work in Collinsville, IL
See the pageAlso in CollinsvilleGravel Driveways in Collinsville, IL
See the pageAlso in CollinsvilleDemolition in Collinsville, IL
See the pageThe serviceYard Drainage & Grading
Standing water moved off the yard and away from the house: regrading, swales and buried drain lines.
Main service pageCollinsville and the towns nearby
Up the hill and along I-55/70, the ground changes from town to town. Jon does the same work in Edwardsville, where subdivision swales are the usual call, and in Troy, where the ground flattens out toward the old farm fields. For driveways on these slopes, see gravel driveways in Collinsville. Each of those towns has its own mix of slope and clay, so the fix that suits a bluff lot in Collinsville is rarely the one a level yard in Troy needs.
Four steps, no surprises
Tell us the job
Call, text or send the form. A photograph of the ground and the way in tells Jon more than a description does.
Jon prices it himself
Jon quotes every job. You are not talking to a call centre and the number comes from the person who will do the work.
The machines turn up
Excavator, skid steer or the dump truck, whatever the job actually needs.
It gets left clean
Debris hauled off and the ground graded back, whichever was agreed. The job is not done while there is a pile in your yard.
Photos of his work.
These are photographs from actual jobs. See more recent work. Or read about the full yard drainage & grading service.
Questions people ask
Not seeing yours? Call (217) 710-0606 and ask Jon, or read the guides.
Water pours off the yard above mine every storm. What can be done?
A swale cut across the slope above your house catches that runoff and carries it around the sides to lower ground. It is shallow and grassed, so you mow over it. Illinois law expects lower lots to take natural runoff, so routing it past the house works better than trying to wall it off.
Is a sinking spot in my Collinsville yard from an old mine?
Most low spots are settled fill or a bad grade, and those regrade fine. If a dip keeps deepening and cracks are showing in concrete or the foundation, check the Illinois State Geological Survey mine lookup and call your insurer. Jon will say plainly if it is more than a grading job.
Do I need a permit for drainage work in Collinsville?
Small regrades and a downspout line usually do not, but larger grading that changes how water leaves a lot may. Ask the city's Community Development office before a big job starts, and check which county your lot is in if you are near the south edge of the city.
Can you work on a steep backyard?
Usually, yes. The skid steer and excavator handle most residential slopes, and Access gets checked when the job is quoted. Very steep or tight lots may need the work done in stages, and he will tell you that up front.
Other work he takes on
Most jobs end up being two or three of these at once, and they get quoted together.
Yard Drainage & Grading in other towns
Demolition & Debris Removal
Sheds, garages, slabs and old buildings taken down and hauled.
Learn moreGrading & Dirt Work
Ground shaped so the water leaves, and keeps leaving.
Learn moreDriveways & Gravel
A drive built on a base that carries weight.
Learn moreExcavation & Site Prep
Ground opened, cut to grade and ready for the next trade.
Learn moreLand Clearing
Overgrown ground taken back to something you can use.
Learn moreHauling & Delivery
Rock, dirt, sand and mulch delivered by dump truck.
Learn moreFree estimate in Collinsville.
Send the details and Jon will come out and look at it. If it is easier to talk it through, call him directly.
Hillsboro and Montgomery County, Edwardsville, Collinsville, Glen Carbon, Troy, Highland and the Metro East, and across central Illinois to Springfield, Decatur and Effingham.
Need yard drainage in Collinsville?
Send the job over and Jon will come back to you himself.