French Drains and Swales

French Drains and Swales in Bozeman

Surface grading solves a lot of drainage problems, but not all of them. When groundwater sits high or a wet spot lingers long after the snow leaves near Tracy Avenue, you need drainage that works below the surface. Radar58 installs French drains, gravel-and-perforated-pipe trenches wrapped in geotextile fabric, that pull water out of the soil and carry it to daylight or a basin. We also cut swales, shallow shaped channels that move surface water across a yard without a pipe at all.

Why Subsurface Drainage Works

A French drain intercepts water in the ground itself, which is exactly what a wet basement wall or a persistently soggy lawn calls for. The geotextile fabric keeps fine Gallatin Valley soil from clogging the gravel, so the line keeps flowing for years. A swale is the simpler, lower-cost cousin, ideal where the fix is guiding surface runoff rather than tapping groundwater. Many Bozeman lots use both together.

Our Process

We locate the water source, call an 811 locate before any trench opens, and machine-trench to the depth the fix needs. We bed the perforated pipe in washed gravel, wrap it in fabric, and backfill clean so the yard is left tidy. For deeper runs we slope and shore the trench to OSHA standards. Then we tie the outlet into a swale, a basin, or a safe discharge point.

Call (406) 718-1030 for a free look at your wet spot in Bozeman.