The water comes back every storm. So does the guy who never finished.

Standing water and a wet basement are a grading and discharge problem before they are a French drain problem. We diagnose where the water actually goes, price the fix as one fixed number, and finish the scope we signed.

Curtain Drain Installation in Edwardsville, IL

Direct answer: A curtain drain is a French drain positioned to intercept rather than to collect. It runs across the uphill side of whatever you are protecting, cutting off water moving through the soil before it arrives. If your problem is water coming from somewhere else — a slope above the house, a neighbouring lot, a road shoulder — a curtain drain is usually the more efficient answer than draining the area where the water ends up.

What a curtain drain does differently

Construction is much the same as any French drain: a trench, washed stone, perforated pipe, a pitched run to a lower discharge. The difference is placement and intent. A curtain drain is sited across the flow path, upslope of the structure or area being protected, so that water is diverted before it becomes a problem.

That placement is why they are often shorter and cheaper than the alternative. Draining a wet back yard means running pipe through the whole wet area; intercepting the water at the top of the slope can mean a single run along one boundary.

When a curtain drain is the right choice

The signature is water that is not yours. Ground that stays wet on the uphill side, a slope above the house that sheds during storms, seepage arriving from a neighbouring lot or a road shoulder — all of these are cases where the water is passing through rather than originating on the site.

It is the wrong choice when water is simply sitting where it falls. A flat lot with a low spot and heavy clay has nothing to intercept; that is a grading problem or a conventional drain to a lower outlet.

Curtain drain cost and scope

Scope	Cost range	Timeline
Standard run, daylight discharge	$40 – $80 / linear foot	1 – 3 days
Deep run through heavy clay	$60 – $110 / linear foot	2 – 4 days
Run terminating at pit and pump	add $900 – $2,400	+1 day
Restoration of sod or beds	Quoted separately	varies

Edwardsville and Madison County. Depth is set by where the water is moving, not by a standard figure.

Depth, discharge and the property-line question

The run has to be deep enough to sit below the water it is intercepting, which means finding where in the soil profile the water is actually travelling. A drain installed above that layer lets the water pass underneath and is a trench full of expensive stone doing nothing.

Discharge is the other constraint, and on a curtain drain it is frequently a boundary question, because water intercepted at the top of a slope has to be taken somewhere without simply relocating the problem onto a neighbour. That should be settled on paper before excavation, along with the JULIE utility locate Illinois requires 48 hours before digging.

Curtain drain questions

What is the difference between a curtain drain and a French drain?

Construction is essentially the same — trench, washed stone, perforated pipe, pitched to a lower discharge. The difference is placement and purpose. A curtain drain is sited across the flow path upslope of what it protects, to intercept water before it arrives. A French drain is more often placed to collect water where it is already accumulating.

When should I use a curtain drain instead of grading?

When the water is arriving from somewhere else. Grading changes where surface water on your own lot goes, but it does nothing about water moving through the soil from a slope above, a neighbouring property, or a road shoulder. Persistent wetness on the uphill side of a house is the classic signal for interception rather than regrading.

How deep does a curtain drain need to be?

Deep enough to sit below the layer the water is actually travelling through, which has to be determined on site rather than taken from a standard figure. A run installed above that layer simply lets the water pass underneath it, which is the most common way a curtain drain ends up being an expensive trench that changes nothing.

How much does a curtain drain cost?

A standard run discharging to daylight typically runs $40 to $80 per linear foot in this area. Deeper runs through heavy clay run $60 to $110 per linear foot. If there is nowhere lower to daylight and the run has to terminate at a pit and pump, add roughly $900 to $2,400 for hardware and power.

What we put in writing before anyone digs

Fixed-price written quote before we break ground. Trenching turns up surprises; the price does not move because of them unless you approve a change order in writing first.
Zero-obligation site visit. If the honest answer is that the water is doing what water should do and you do not need a drain, that is the answer you get, in writing, at no cost.
The diagnosis names where the water comes from before it names the product. Grading, downspout discharge, and the water table get checked first; a French drain is a conclusion, not an opening bid.
Full-width trench, wrapped stone, and rigid perforated pipe as standard. We do not install narrow single-pipe trenches or pre-socked corrugated sections, because those are the installs that fail in year three.
Itemized scope showing linear feet, trench depth, stone volume, and discharge point as separate lines. No lump-sum 'drainage work.'
A named discharge point on the plan, with the permit or easement dependency listed separately so you can see which clocks we do not control.
If the system does not move water after the first heavy rain, we come back and correct it at our cost, not yours.