A bigger, more paved city in the Sabine basin, Longview’s drainage calls often come from runoff arriving off the street and neighboring lots. We intercept it and defend the house.
Tell us what your yard is doing and we’ll come take a look — no charge.
Longview, about thirty-five miles east of Tyler in Gregg County, is a bigger, more built-up city in the Sabine River basin — and that development is its own drainage factor. More pavement, older neighborhoods, and heavier runoff change the equation.
In a more urban setting, a lot of the ground is covered — roofs, driveways, streets, parking — so rain that once soaked in now runs off, faster and in greater volume, and lands on whatever’s downhill. Older Longview neighborhoods were often built before modern drainage standards, so yards inherit runoff from up the block and from streets that shed toward them. The underlying soils are the familiar East Texas sandy-over-clay, so the water that does soak in still stalls on the clay.
The calls here skew toward water arriving from off the property: a yard that floods because it sits low on the block, a driveway that channels the street’s runoff to the garage, a back corner collecting everyone’s water. The fixes are catch basins and channel drains to intercept incoming flow, French drains for the saturated ground, and grading to defend the house — and honest expectations about what you can control on your lot versus what’s coming from the public right-of-way.
Whatever the yard is doing, we bring the full range to Longview:
A lot of Longview’s housing predates modern subdivision drainage standards, so the yards inherited a system that was never really designed — and in a built-up city, much of the water arriving at your lot started somewhere else. A street that crowns toward your driveway, a neighbor’s regrade that sends flow your way, a back corner that quietly collects half the block: these are the Longview calls. The honest part of the assessment is separating what you can control on your own property from what’s coming off the public right-of-way, and building the interceptor drains, catch basins, and grading that defend your house from both. We’ll tell you plainly where your lot ends and the city’s drainage begins.
Because so much Longview water arrives from the street or uphill lots, we spend real time at the assessment tracing where it actually comes from — walking the block during or right after a rain when we can, or reading the grades and gutters when we can’t. Knowing the true source is what lets us put the interceptor in the right place instead of chasing the puddle around the yard.
We cover Longview and the surrounding Gregg County neighborhoods for the full range of residential drainage work. Standing water, a flooding driveway, or water pushing toward the foundation — call (903) 228-3172 for a free look.
What Longview homeowners ask before booking drainage work — French drains, contractors, timelines and what the Gregg County ground does to a yard.
Yes — French drain installation is the most common job we do in Longview, along with surface drains, downspout lines and regrading. The design changes with the lot: a sandy Kirvin-series slope sheds water differently than a flat, built-up subdivision pad, and the drain has to be built for the one you have.
Longview sits in Gregg County, a little lower and flatter through much of town, with a mix of sandy surface soils over tighter clay subsoil. Water moves through the top foot and then stops, which is why yards here can look dry on the surface and still hold water a spade's depth down. Tyler's hillier Smith County lots more often have fall to work with. Same services, different design.
Ask where the water is going to go, and make them show you on the lot. Any contractor can dig a trench and put gravel in it; the outlet is what decides whether the drain still works in three years. Ask about filter fabric, about the slope they are building to, and whether they will locate utilities before digging. A contractor who quotes a price without walking the yard is guessing.
Most residential French drain runs are one to two days. Larger systems, or a lot where the outlet has to be carried a long way, run longer. We give you a timeline at the assessment and tell you before it changes.
Usually one of three things: the yard has no fall, so water sits where it lands; a tighter clay layer below the sandy topsoil stops the water from draining down; or water is arriving from somewhere else — a neighboring lot, a driveway, or downspouts dumping against the house. The fix depends on which one it is, and that is what the free assessment is for.
Both. Older Longview lots often have mature trees, shallow roots and original grading that has settled over decades, so the work is careful and hand-dug in places. Newer subdivisions tend to have compacted fill, sharp lot-line grading and water pushed from lot to lot. Different problems, same principle: find where the water comes from, and give it somewhere legal to go.
Yes. Someone comes out, walks the lot, finds where the water is coming from and where it can go, and gives you a written scope and price. There is no charge and no obligation.
Free on-site drainage assessments in Longview and across Smith County. We’ll tell you what’s actually causing the water and what it takes to fix it.