Hear from Our Customers
When water finds its way into a home that’s been standing since 1952, it doesn’t just sit there. It works into the walls, feeds mold growth within 24 to 48 hours, and quietly chips away at the structural integrity of a foundation that’s already weathered seven decades of Montgomery County winters. A properly installed french drain system interrupts that cycle before it becomes a $15,000 insurance claim or a deal-killing inspection report.
Oreland’s landscape plays a real role here. Sandy Run Creek runs through Springfield and Upper Dublin Townships, and the clay-heavy soils common to this area don’t drain the way people expect. After a heavy rain, that water has nowhere to go fast — and it finds the path of least resistance, which is usually your basement wall or the low corner of your yard. A french drain gives it a better option.
For homeowners near the golf courses surrounding Oreland — Sandy Run Country Club, North Hills, LuLu — irrigation runoff and managed landscaping can push additional water toward adjacent residential properties in ways that aren’t obvious until the problem shows up inside. Getting the drainage right means understanding the full picture, not just what’s happening at the surface.
We’ve been working in Montgomery County for two decades. That means we’ve seen the inside of a lot of 1950s basements in Oreland — the kind with original block walls, original pipe insulation, and the kind of history that standard drainage contractors aren’t equipped to handle. We’re not just a waterproofing company. We’re a certified environmental services firm that also does waterproofing, which is a meaningful difference when your home was built before 1978.
We hold EPA certification as a Lead Inspector and Risk Assessor, and we’re fully accredited through the Pennsylvania DEP for lead and asbestos work. When we trench around a foundation on Barclay Road or Heather Road East in Oreland, we know what we might be disturbing — and we have the credentials, equipment, and protocols to handle it safely. That’s not something any of the other drainage contractors showing up in your search results can say.
It starts with a free estimate. We come out, look at where the water is coming from, and assess the full situation — not just the symptom. In Oreland, that often means checking the grade around the foundation, evaluating how surface water moves across the yard, and identifying whether the issue is hydrostatic pressure against the basement wall, surface drainage failure, or both. If the home was built before 1978, we also assess for lead and environmental hazards before any excavation begins.
From there, we design the system around your specific property. An exterior french drain involves trenching along the foundation or across the yard, laying a bed of clean crushed stone, setting perforated PVC pipe at the correct slope, wrapping it in geotextile filter fabric to keep soil out, and routing the outlet to a safe discharge point. We use rigid PVC — not corrugated flex pipe — because it holds its shape, flows better, and lasts significantly longer. Interior french drain systems follow the perimeter of the basement floor, channel water to a sump pump, and can be installed year-round regardless of ground conditions.
Because Oreland sits across both Springfield Township and Upper Dublin Township depending on where your property falls, permit requirements can vary. We know which township governs which part of the community and what’s required before work begins. That’s not something you want to figure out mid-project.
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A french drain installation from us is not a one-size-fits-all job. In a neighborhood where the housing stock ranges from 1950s Cape Cods on quarter-acre lots to late-Victorian colonials in Custis Woods, the drainage solution has to match the property. Exterior systems handle yard flooding and foundation pressure. Interior systems manage water that’s already entering the basement. Most Oreland homes with chronic moisture issues need one or the other — sometimes both — and we’ll tell you honestly which one applies to your situation before you spend a dollar.
Every project includes an environmental assessment as part of our standard process. If your home predates 1978 — which describes the majority of properties in Springfield Township — we check for lead paint and asbestos near the work area before excavation starts. We use HEPA filtration systems on-site when disturbing potentially hazardous materials, and we handle any remediation that’s needed under the same contract. You don’t get handed off to another company mid-project.
French drain cost typically runs in the range of $3,000 to $8,000 depending on system length, soil conditions, and whether environmental remediation is involved. We offer free estimates, cash discounts, and 24/7 availability — including emergency response when a storm doesn’t wait for Monday morning. If you’re planning a basement renovation, preparing to list your home in a market where Oreland properties are moving in under two weeks, or just tired of dealing with the same wet corner every spring, this is the conversation worth having.
It depends on where your property sits. Oreland is a census-designated place that spans both Springfield Township and Upper Dublin Township, and each has its own permit requirements for excavation and drainage work. Generally speaking, any exterior drainage work that affects how stormwater moves across your property — especially near a foundation or property line — is likely to require a permit under the township’s stormwater management ordinance. Both townships also operate under Pennsylvania’s MS4 permit requirements under the Clean Water Act, which governs how drainage systems must be designed.
We handle the permit process as part of the project. We know which township governs which part of Oreland and what each requires, so you’re not left figuring that out on your own. Getting this wrong — or skipping it — can create problems when you go to sell the property, so it’s worth doing correctly from the start.
For most residential properties in Oreland, a french drain installation runs somewhere between $3,000 and $8,000. Where you fall in that range depends on several factors: the length of the system, whether it’s exterior or interior, the soil conditions on your property, and whether any environmental work — lead testing, asbestos assessment, or remediation — is needed before excavation begins.
In a neighborhood where the majority of homes were built in the 1940s through 1960s, environmental assessment is often part of the picture, and that affects both the scope and the cost. We’re upfront about all of it in the estimate, so there are no surprises after the work starts. We also offer cash discounts, which can make a meaningful difference on a project in this range. The free estimate exists so you know exactly what you’re looking at before you commit to anything.
An exterior french drain is installed around the outside of the foundation or across the yard to intercept water before it reaches the house. It’s the right solution when the problem is surface drainage — pooling water in the yard, runoff from neighboring properties, or hydrostatic pressure building up against the outside of the foundation wall. In Oreland, where clay-heavy soils slow drainage and Sandy Run Creek’s watershed creates seasonal saturation, exterior systems address the root cause of the problem.
An interior french drain runs along the perimeter of the basement floor, below the slab, and channels water that’s already entered the basement toward a sump pump. It doesn’t stop water from entering the foundation — it manages it after the fact. Interior systems are a good fit when exterior excavation isn’t practical, when the foundation wall itself is the entry point, or when you need a solution that can be installed during winter months when the ground is frozen. Many Oreland homes end up needing one or the other depending on where the water is coming from, and some need both working together.
A properly installed french drain system — built with rigid perforated PVC pipe, clean crushed stone, and geotextile filter fabric — should last 30 to 40 years with minimal maintenance. The systems that fail early almost always come down to shortcuts: corrugated flex pipe that collapses over time, no filter fabric so soil gradually infiltrates the gravel bed, or an outlet that connects to a storm sewer that’s already partially blocked.
In Oreland specifically, mature tree root systems are a real maintenance factor. The neighborhood’s established tree canopy is part of what makes it attractive, but roots from 50- to 75-year-old trees can infiltrate perforated pipe joints over time and eventually restrict flow. French drain cleaning — flushing the system with a pressure jetter — can extend the life of the drain significantly when done every several years. We’ll let you know during the estimate if root intrusion looks like a likely concern based on what’s growing near the planned system route.
This is one of the more common questions we hear from homeowners in Oreland, and the answer usually comes down to one of a few things. The clay-heavy soils common to the Springfield Township area don’t absorb water quickly. That means even a moderate rain event can saturate the ground faster than it drains, building hydrostatic pressure against your foundation walls. Older block or stone foundations — the kind found in most of Oreland’s mid-century housing stock — are not waterproof. They were never designed to be. Water finds every crack, every joint, and every gap that’s developed over 70 years of freeze-thaw cycles.
There’s also a water table factor. Properties in lower-lying areas near Sandy Run Creek or in the East Oreland and Sunnybrook sections can sit closer to the seasonal water table than homeowners realize. When that table rises after a series of rainy days, it doesn’t take a major storm to push moisture through the floor or walls. A french drain system — interior, exterior, or both — addresses the pressure before it becomes a flood.
Yes, and this is one of the more important reasons to choose a contractor with environmental credentials for drainage work in Oreland. The majority of homes in Springfield Township were built during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s — well before the EPA’s 1978 lead paint threshold. That means foundation walls, exterior surfaces, and the soil immediately surrounding the foundation may contain lead-based paint or lead-contaminated material. Asbestos pipe insulation in the basement is also common in homes of this era.
When a standard drainage contractor trenches around a pre-1978 foundation, they’re potentially disturbing all of that without the training, equipment, or protocols to handle it safely. We are a Certified Lead Inspector and Risk Assessor with Pennsylvania DEP accreditation for lead and asbestos work. We assess for hazards before excavation begins, use HEPA filtration systems on-site when needed, and handle any remediation under the same contract — so nothing gets left unaddressed and you’re not coordinating between three different companies to finish one project. For families in Oreland with young children, this isn’t a minor detail. It’s the whole reason to call us first.
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