Drainage solutions for Westchester properties

This is the question to settle before anyone digs, because the answer decides almost everything else. A simple test you can run yourself: go out during a steady rain, not after it.

• Water is running across the surface toward the house or a low spot. That is a grading or roof water problem. The fix is usually on the surface: regrade the strip next to the foundation, extend downspouts, or cut a shallow swale to carry the flow on a chosen route.
• The surface looks fine, but the ground stays soggy for days afterward, or water seeps up at the base of a slope. Water is moving through the soil. That is where a French drain, curtain drain or catch basin earns its place.
• Both. Common on sloped lots. Grade first, then drain what is left. A drain asked to carry water that the grade keeps sending onto it is asked to do the grade's job.

If you only see the water after the biggest storms of the year, tell us that on the estimate request. It points to a volume problem rather than a constant one, and it changes how big the fix needs to be. For what moves the number on a drain, read our guide to French drain cost.

We counted days with 1 inch or more of rain in NOAA daily records for Westchester County Airport (station USW00094745), July 2015 to June 2025, by July to June season.

The range runs from 5 days (2017-2018) to 20 (2023-2024), and the same record holds 23 days of 2 inches or more over the ten years. The wettest single day in the period was 6.06 inches on 2021-09-01. A system sized for an average year can be overrun in a year like 2023-2024, which is why we ask whether you see water every rain or only after the big ones.

Ask any contractor, us included, how they know your soil will drain before they build a dry well.

A dry well holds water underground and lets it soak away. That needs two things: soil that accepts water, and enough depth above the seasonal water table and bedrock for the water to go somewhere. County soil data shows how often one of those is missing (USDA NRCS SSURGO, Westchester survey NY119, map unit dominant condition weighted by acres, share of rated soil acres):

• 71.7% are rated well drained, so most soil looks fine on paper.
• But 21.3% have a seasonal water table within 18 inches, and 42.1% within 36 inches.
• 42.4% have bedrock within 40 inches.
• 84.5% have one or the other: a seasonal water table within 36 inches or bedrock within 40 inches.
• 46.6% are in hydrologic soil group C or D, or a dual group (A/D, B/D, C/D) that behaves like D while the water table is high, which means slow infiltration when wet.

A simple decision rule: a dry well is a poor fit if your spot has a seasonal water table or bedrock within about 3 feet of the surface, or a hydrologic soil group of D or any dual group ending in /D. In any of those cases, a pipe to a real outlet or a surface fix is usually the better plan. 84.5% of rated soil acres in the county fail the water table or bedrock test by the map, so on most Westchester lots a dry well is a poor fit unless a test pit on your spot shows otherwise.

Check your own lot in about ten minutes:

1. Open USDA Web Soil Survey at https://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/ and start the app.
2. Search your address and draw an Area of Interest around the wet spot.
3. Open Soil Data Explorer, then Soil Properties and Qualities. Look at Depth to Water Table, Depth to Any Soil Restrictive Layer, Drainage Class and Hydrologic Soil Group.
4. Screenshot the results and send them with your estimate request.

Soil maps are drawn at a scale of acres, not yards, and fill or old construction can change a lot. We still look at the ground itself before recommending a dry well.

These are from the job write-ups on our work page, in the words published there.

Bluestone terrace with drainage, Westchester County, NY

• Problem: the patio collected water against the house and needed a surface that would shed runoff.
• What was done: bluestone terrace with cobble edge and river-rock drainage bed. Materials: bluestone, granite cobble, river rock, compacted base.
• Result: water leaves the joints instead of sitting through a freeze.

Bluestone pool surround, Mount Kisco, NY

• Problem: the pool deck needed a finished stone surround that would drain through freeze-thaw cycles.
• What was done: irregular bluestone set around the pool with pitch away from the coping, with drainage behind the stone.
• Result: finished surround pitched so meltwater does not sit against the stone.

Stairs and retaining wall rebuilt as one structure, Westchester County, NY

• Problem: a failing set of outdoor stairs and the retaining wall beside them, moving apart from each other after years of water getting behind both.
• What was done: took both down and rebuilt them together, with a compacted stone base and drainage behind the new wall.
• Result: one structure instead of two leaning on each other, with the water that caused the failure now routed out instead of trapped behind it.

What that last job shows: when stone moves after years of water getting in behind it, the question is where the water goes, not just the stone. Our walkthrough checks whether older buried pipe is still connected to anything and whether water has a way out.

Every fix needs an outlet, and the outlet often sets the size of the job more than anything else. Water has to discharge somewhere real: a lower part of your own property, a daylighted pipe end, or, where local rules allow it, a municipal system. We will not aim a line at a neighbor's yard. Whether you can tie into a town system depends on your town's rules, so we check before we plan around it.

New York State requires a call to 811 before digging. Under state law, member utility companies must respond to a location request within two business days, not counting the day it is submitted (source: UDig NY, New York's 811 center, digsafelynewyork.com, read September 2026). Build that wait into the schedule for any trenching work.

You can text photos to (914) 486-3682 or attach up to three with the estimate form. The most useful ones:

1. Where the water sits, taken during or right after rain.
2. Each downspout, showing where it ends.
3. Any old pipe ends, grates or cleanouts you have found in the yard.
4. The slope next to the foundation, taken low to the ground.
5. Stains or a waterline inside the basement, if water gets in.

Nelson walks uphill of the problem as well as at it. We look at gutters and downspouts, surface pitch, where water pools, and whether older buried pipe is still connected to anything. Some properties have compacted soil, shallow rock, or grades that hold water. Others need only a downspout moved or a strip regraded away from the foundation. We inspect before quoting pipe.

We do not publish prices, because drainage work is priced from what is found on site. These are the things that move the number:

• Where the outlet is, and how far the water has to travel to reach it.
• Length and depth of trenching.
• Rock in the dig.
• Access for equipment.
• How much lawn, planting or hardscape has to be restored afterward.
• How many collection points are involved.

Nelson walks the property, writes the scope and leaves a price. The visit is free.

Check it in the next real storm. A working system shows water entering grates or disappearing from the spot that used to pond, and the outlet running during and after the rain. Hardscape should shed water too.

Warning signs: water still pooling at the same spot, a grate that stays full after the rain stops, or an outlet that never runs.

Proof that drainage work lasts is hard for homeowners to find. In 105 public Google reviews of five other local landscaping companies that we read in September 2026, 2 mentioned how drainage work performed afterward (full review study). So ask for it: tell us after the first big storm how the work did, good or bad.

• Rain: NOAA GHCN-Daily records for Westchester County Airport, White Plains (USW00094745), July 1 2015 to June 30 2025, 3,649 daily records. A season runs July 1 to June 30. A "1 inch day" is a calendar day with 1.00 inch or more of recorded precipitation; "2 inch days" likewise.
• Soil: USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access, Westchester survey NY119. We took each map unit's dominant condition, weighted by map unit acres, excluded open water, and counted only rated soils (units with a drainage class, which leaves out urban land, rock outcrop and pits): 222,157 of 264,916 land acres (83.9%).
• Reviews: 105 public Google reviews of five other local landscaping companies, read and hand-checked in September 2026. Method in the review study.
• Limitations: county-wide soil shares are not your lot; check yours on Web Soil Survey and on site. Rain comes from one airport station, and a few days per season are missing. Review counts are a floor, since a reviewer may mention results in words we did not count as drainage.