Wet yards, flooded basements, icy driveways — it’s all the same problem: water with nowhere to go. We give Alton water a better path with grading, drains, and culverts that actually work.
The steep camp roads off Route 11 and around Alton Bay were laid out for Model A traffic in July, not tandem dump trucks in November — and that shapes every job we price here. Access is the first conversation: can a concrete truck make the grade, where do we turn equipment around, and is the road base solid enough to haul over at all? Come March and April, many of Alton’s town roads get posted for mud season, and hauling simply stops until they firm up, so we schedule around it rather than fight it. The conversion work itself is satisfying dirt work: lifting a camp, digging a full frost-depth foundation where posts used to be, trenching water and power, and cutting the driveway grade so it’s actually plowable. Up toward Mount Major, ledge sits close to the surface and a hydraulic hammer earns its keep.
Converting an Alton camp to year-round? Walk your camp road with your excavation contractor before you commit to a construction schedule. If the road can’t take loaded trucks — or gets posted every spring — your whole project timeline shifts, and it’s far better to plan a fall dig than discover a March standstill.
Most wet-basement and swampy-yard problems are solved outside, with dirt. We regrade so the ground pitches away from the foundation, install French and curtain drains that intercept groundwater before it reaches the house, day-light downspouts and footing drains so roof water leaves, and set culverts and swales that carry storm flow through the property instead of across your lawn.
On lake lots this doubles as shoreline stewardship — controlled infiltration instead of erosion channels cutting to the water. Perforated pipe in clean stone, wrapped, pitched, and day-lighted: boring details, dry basement.
French/curtain drain installs typically run $2,000–$8,000 depending on length and depth; regrading and downspout day-lighting often less. We find where the water comes from before quoting, and the quote is flat.
Often, yes — if the water is coming from surface or shallow groundwater on the uphill side, a curtain drain that intercepts it plus regrading at the foundation solves it outside. If the water table itself is high, interior systems may be part of the answer; we'll tell you which problem you actually have.
Snowmelt plus flat or bowl-shaped grading plus our hardpan soils equals standing water. The cure is a path: swales or drains that give melt somewhere to go. Most wet yards are fixed with a day or two of grading and pipe.
Work within the protected shoreland (250 feet of a lake) or touching wetlands can require NHDES permits. We flag it on the site walk and plan the job so it's done right and documented.
Free site walks, test pits before quotes, flat pricing, and a crew that knows Lakes Region ground.
Tell us where the property is and what you’re trying to do. We’ll walk the site, talk it through, and give you a straight, flat quote.
