Grading · French drains · Gutters & downspouts

Drainage correction: sometimes the fix is water, not piers.

Drainage correction treats the thing that actually moves most Central Texas foundations — water cycling the clay between soaked and bone dry. Grading, french drains, gutter and downspout corrections, and area drains, scoped from the same measured inspection as everything else we do. When your house needs a water fix that costs hundreds instead of a pier job that costs thousands, that's the quote you'll get.

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The toolbox

Four ways to make water leave politely.

Regrading

Soil rebuilt to slope away from the foundation — the fix for negative grade, settled backfill, and flower beds that hold water against the slab like a bathtub.

French drains

A gravel trench with perforated pipe that intercepts surface and subsurface water and carries it away before it reaches the foundation — the workhorse for chronic wet sides and uphill lots.

Gutters & downspouts

Extensions, splash management, and discharge relocation. A downspout dumping roof water at one corner is the single most common drainage failure we find on inspections.

Surface & area drains

Catch basins and channel drains where water ponds — patios, low spots, hardscape edges — piped to a discharge point that isn't beside your slab.

The mechanism

On expansive clay, water is usually the root cause.

Central Texas clay swells when it soaks and shrinks when it dries — and a foundation only suffers when that happens unevenly. Uncontrolled water is the great unevener: a downspout soaking one corner while the west wall bakes, a negative grade feeding every rain against the slab, runoff eroding the soil that supports a porch. Poor drainage damages slabs from both directions — heave where it's wet, settlement where erosion and the next drought take the support away.

That's why drainage correction isn't landscaping — it's foundation medicine. Piers treat the elevation; drainage treats the cause. Fix only the first and the clay keeps cycling around your repair; fix the water and the whole perimeter calms down. Heavy rain making cracks worse and drought damage are the same story from opposite seasons. Not sure which side of the line your house is on? Foundation repair or drainage correction walks exactly how the inspection makes the call.

Motmot crew evaluating downspout drainage at a slab edge during a foundation inspection — Crew evaluating where a downspout discharges against the slab edge — the most common drainage failure we find.

The honest version

Sometimes you need drainage, not piers. We'll say so.

A meaningful share of the "foundation problems" we inspect turn out to be water problems wearing a structural costume — pooling at a corner, a soaked bed on a soaker hose, gutters overflowing at one wall. When the elevation survey says the slab is still within tolerance, the honest quote is the water fix, and it's often hundreds instead of thousands. If another company has already quoted you piers and your gut says the yard floods first, a free second opinion that includes the drainage walk is the cheapest insurance there is. Nobody here earns a commission on pier count — the readings decide, not a quota.

Belt and suspenders

When drainage pairs with pier work.

When a slab has already settled, drainage alone can't lift it — that takes piers and a measured lift. But piering a house while a downspout keeps soaking one corner is treating the symptom and feeding the disease, so combined scopes are common: piers where the readings demand support, drainage correction where the water was driving the movement, each priced as its own line item in the same written quote. The pier work carries our lifetime transferable warranty — and because that warranty doesn't cover damage caused by improper drainage around the home, getting the water right is also how you protect it. Good drainage is the cheapest maintenance a repaired foundation can get.

Measured, like everything else

What the free inspection checks.

Grade & slope

Which way the soil actually falls at every wall — negative grade against the slab is the quiet chronic offender.

Gutters & discharge points

Where every downspout dumps, whether gutters overflow at the corners, and which walls take roof water.

Ponding & erosion

Low spots that hold water after rain, and runoff paths that are carrying support soil away from slab and porch edges.

Irrigation & vegetation

Soaker hoses and sprinkler heads watering the foundation, and trees drinking one side dry — both halves of the uneven-moisture problem.

The elevation map

Floor elevations in tenths of an inch, so the drainage findings connect to what the slab has actually done — and the fix matches the facts.

From a Google review

“Drainage issues hurt my foundation, but Motmot Foundation Repair helped me fix my slab porch and pier and beam foundation and also installed a French Drain.”
— Antonio · ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Google review

Straight answers

Drainage questions, answered straight.

What is drainage correction?

Fixing how water behaves around your foundation: regrading soil so it slopes away from the house, extending or adding gutters and downspouts, installing french drains to intercept subsurface water, and adding surface or area drains where water ponds. The goal is a perimeter that stays evenly moist instead of cycling between soaked and bone dry — because that cycle is what moves Central Texas foundations.

Do I need a french drain or foundation repair?

It depends on what the elevation survey shows. If the slab hasn't moved beyond tolerance and the problem is water — pooling, a soaked flower bed, a downspout dumping at a corner — drainage correction alone may be the honest fix. If the slab has already settled, piers fix the elevation and drainage keeps the cause from coming back. We measure first, then tell you which one you actually need, even when that answer is the cheaper one.

How much does drainage correction cost?

It's scoped line by line, because a downspout extension and a full french drain system are very different jobs — many fixes cost hundreds, not thousands. On combined projects, drainage work is priced as its own line item next to the pier work so you can see exactly what each part costs. The inspection is free and the quote is written and itemized.

Will fixing drainage stop my foundation from moving?

If water was the driver and the structure hasn't lost elevation beyond tolerance — often yes, and it's the cheapest structural money you'll ever spend. What drainage can't do is lift a slab that has already settled; that takes piers. That's why the sequencing matters: measure first, correct the water, and only add structure where the numbers demand it.

Do you install french drains in San Antonio?

Yes — french drain installation, regrading, gutter and downspout corrections, and area drains, across San Antonio and the whole corridor to Austin, from our San Antonio and San Marcos offices. It's the same crew discipline as our foundation work: scoped from measurements, quoted in writing, and finished with the site clean.

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