Yard drainage in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

What a drainage fix from Autana includes

Drainage work is rarely one thing. Most yards need a combination: a downspout that dumps water two feet from the foundation, a low spot that never dries out, and a slope that pushes runoff toward the house instead of away from it. Autana looks at the whole property before picking a fix, not just the spot where the water happens to be standing today.

• Utility locate called before we dig
• Downspouts traced and tied into buried lines
• Pop-up emitters set at daylight or a low point
• River rock channels and swales for surface flow
• French drains where subsurface water needs to move
• Perforated pipe wrapped and bedded correctly
• Regrading to pitch water away from the foundation
• Outlet checked so water actually has somewhere to go
• Sod or seed restored where the trench line ran
• Site cleaned, spoil hauled off

Buried downspout lines and pop-up emitters

A downspout that empties straight onto the ground at the foundation is one of the most common drainage mistakes on older homes, and Joel calls the fix for it "drainers for the gutters": solid pipe run underground from the downspout to a pop-up emitter well away from the house, where the cap only opens when water pressure pushes it up. That keeps roof water from pooling at the foundation and moves it to a spot on the property where it can actually soak in or run off without becoming your neighbor's problem.

Where the water actually goes

Most of a drainage fix ends up buried, so here it is drawn to scale instead. This is one property's worth of roof water and groundwater, from the downspout to the point it finally leaves the yard.

1. Downspout tied in at the house. The gutter's downspout feeds straight into a buried line instead of dumping onto the ground at the foundation, which is one of the most common drainage mistakes on older homes.
2. Buried solid pipe, pitched away from the house. Solid, unperforated pipe carries roof water underground from the downspout toward the outlet, sloped the whole way so gravity keeps it moving instead of pooling partway.
3. Trench bedded in gravel. The pipe runs bedded in clean stone rather than loose backfill, so it stays supported and does not settle or trap standing water along its length.
4. Geotextile-lined French drain. Where groundwater is the problem instead of roof water, a perforated pipe sits under a visible rock channel inside a trench wrapped in fabric, which keeps the clay from washing in and clogging the stone.
5. The clay layer underneath. Blount and Pewamo clay holds a seasonal water table close to the surface from December through May, which is why water that is not routed somewhere on purpose tends to end up at the foundation.
6. Pop-up emitter at daylight. The buried line ends at a spring-loaded cap that only opens under water pressure, releasing the flow well away from the house instead of letting it stand at the outlet.
7. Slope regraded away from the house. The yard's surface is reshaped to fall away from the foundation, so gravity is doing part of the work before a drop of water ever reaches a pipe.
8. River rock at the outlet. A splash of stone spreads the water out where it daylights, so the outflow does not carve a bare channel into the lawn.

River rock channels, swales and French drains to daylight

Surface water moving across a lawn gets carried in a shaped swale or a river rock channel, both of which slow the water down and route it visibly to where it needs to go, useful anywhere the flow is occasional but heavy, like a downspout outlet or a low run between two houses. Subsurface water is a different problem and needs a French drain: a trench with perforated pipe bedded in clean stone, wrapped in fabric to keep the clay from clogging it, sloped to daylight at an outlet lower than the wet spot it is draining. Both approaches show up on the same property regularly, since roof water and groundwater rarely follow the same path.

Regrading away from the foundation

Sometimes the fix is not a pipe at all, it is the slope of the ground itself. Soil settling over years, mulch beds built up too high against the siding, or a grade that was never pitched correctly to begin with can all send water toward the house instead of away from it. Regrading resets that slope so gravity does the work on its own, which is often the cheapest and most permanent fix available on a given property.

Why you fix drainage before you pave

Water that runs under a patio takes the base with it, no matter how well that base was compacted. That is why Autana installs drainage before paving on sloped or wet sites, and it is also why the workmanship warranty on a patio, wall or fire pit explicitly does not cover drainage changes made by others after the fact. Fix the water first, then build on top of ground that stays where it is put.

The perched water table, December through May

Pewamo silty clay, common in the low spots and swales around this metro, is very poorly drained and carries a water table sitting anywhere from 30 centimeters above to 30 centimeters below the surface between December and May. Blount, the more common soil across upland yards, is somewhat poorly drained with a seasonal high water table 6 to 24 inches down over roughly the same stretch of the year. That is not a one-time storm event. It is months of saturated ground every year, which is why a drainage fix here has to move water reliably, not just handle the occasional downpour.

Tunnel Works, the stormwater ordinance, and where your runoff goes

Fort Wayne's Tunnel Works project, a five-mile deep rock tunnel about 200 to 220 feet below grade completed in 2025, was built to cut combined sewer overflows from roughly 71 a year down to about 4. The city also enforces a Stormwater Management Ordinance under City Code Chapter 53, which requires property owners to maintain their own on-site stormwater control. The practical takeaway for a homeowner: every square foot of new hard surface you add has to send its runoff somewhere specific, not just wherever it used to soak in. That is one more reason drainage gets planned before a patio or a wall goes in, not worked out afterward.

How the fix runs, step by step

1. Walk the property after it rains, if we can

   Joel walks the yard, ideally after a rain event, to see where water actually collects and moves rather than guessing from a dry lawn.

2. Written quote out of Jobber

   Run length, outlet distance, and which approach fits, buried line, French drain, swale or regrading, in writing, free.

3. Locate utilities and open the trench

   Locates called before digging, trench cut to the depth and slope the fix requires, spoil set aside for restoration.

4. Set pipe, stone and fabric

   Perforated pipe bedded in clean stone and wrapped in fabric where the clay would otherwise clog it, sloped consistently to the outlet.

5. Tie in the outlet

   Pop-up emitter, daylight point or existing storm connection tied in and checked so water actually has somewhere to go once it leaves the pipe.

6. Backfill and restore the surface

   Trench backfilled and compacted, sod or seed restored along the line so the fix disappears into the lawn once it is finished.

7. Test it and walk it with you

   Water run through the system where possible to confirm flow, then a walk-through so you know exactly what is buried and where.

Recent drainage work

Yard drainage questions

Related work

Drainage fixes often show up alongside these:

• Paver patios →

  Drainage goes in before the base, every time, on any sloped or wet site.

• Retaining walls →

  The same clean stone and drain pipe protecting a wall does the same job on its own.

• Landscaping and mulch beds →

  River rock beds and regrading finish a drainage fix into the rest of the yard.

• Lawn care and mowing →

  A yard that finally drains is a lot easier to keep mowed and healthy through a wet spring.

Yard drainage by city

• New Haven
• Fort Wayne
• Auburn

Also serving: Garrett, Columbia City, Warsaw, Huntertown, Leo-Cedarville, Grabill, Harlan, Woodburn, Monroeville, Hoagland, Waterloo, Butler and Kendallville.