Wet yards, flooded basements, icy driveways — it’s all the same problem: water with nowhere to go. We give Plymouth water a better path with grading, drains, and culverts that actually work.
Plymouth sits on glacial outwash — deep sandy terraces laid down by the Baker and Pemigewasset — and that geology is a gift to excavators: fast digging, easy trenching, soils that drain almost too well. The flip side is the floodplain; both rivers claim real estate in a big spring, so we check flood zone lines early on any low-lying project and set grades accordingly. The rental economy around Plymouth State drives a steady, particular kind of work: gravel parking pads behind multi-unit houses, built with fabric under the base so four winters of plowing don’t churn them into mud, plus drainage fixes for backyards that six parked cars have compacted into ponds. Village lots are tight, with the usual old-town underground, so 811 marks come first. Summer is our Plymouth window for rental work — students gone, driveways empty, and eight clear weeks before the leases turn over in late August.
Building a parking pad for a Plymouth rental? Put geotextile fabric under the gravel — it’s a small line item that keeps the base from pumping down into the subsoil under daily traffic and plowing. A fabric-based pad is still a pad in ten years; a gravel-on-dirt pad is a mud problem by year three.
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.
