French Drain Installation
Coordinated by the same referral network across Shreveport, Bossier City, and Northwest Louisiana.
Northwest Louisiana · Caddo & Bossier Parish
Foundation drainage across Shreveport and Bossier City. Exterior curtain drains, interior perimeter drains, sump systems, and negative-grade correction for slab, crawlspace, and pier-and-beam homes on NW Louisiana clay.
Foundation problems in NW Louisiana are almost always water problems first and structural problems second. Shreveport's plastic clay swells when it gets wet and shrinks when it dries — the swell-shrink cycle is what pushes and lifts and cracks slabs, brick, and pier-and-beam framing. Controlling water around the foundation stops the cycle before the structural damage begins.
The soils under Shreveport and Bossier City are dominated by Yazoo, Perry, and Portland clays with high shrink-swell potentials — plasticity indexes routinely above 40. When a foundation stays surrounded by saturated clay through a wet winter and then that clay dries and pulls back a foot away from the footing in a July heat wave, the structural stress is enormous. Homeowners see it as cracked drywall, sticking doors, brick separation, and — in the worst cases — visibly settled slab corners. Nine times out of ten, the fix that stops the progression is drainage, not underpinning.
Efflorescence (white mineral streaking) on interior basement or crawlspace walls. Musty smell in a crawlspace or ground-floor closet. Wet or dark soil in the crawlspace after a rain — should be dry. Visible seepage at a slab-to-wall joint. Brick-mold rot at the bottom corners of exterior door frames. Buckled hardwood or discolored baseboards in a ground-floor room. Any of these is a call for a drainage evaluation before you spend money on cosmetic repairs that won't hold.
An exterior curtain drain is a French drain built at foundation depth, uphill of the house, to intercept water before it ever reaches the wall. Trench depth is typically 30-48 inches — below the footing weep and below the seasonal wet-line. It runs the full uphill face of the house, wraps the corners a few feet, and daylights or tees into a sump discharge on the downhill side. For a Shreveport home where lots slope toward the house or where a neighbor's yard drains onto yours, the curtain drain is the single most effective piece of foundation waterproofing available. See the French drain page for the physical construction detail.
On a house where the exterior is tight against a property line, a driveway, or established landscaping the owner wants to keep, an interior perimeter drain is the alternative. The crew cuts a 6-8 inch trench along the interior perimeter of the basement or crawlspace, installs perforated pipe wrapped in fabric, backfills with washed stone, and pours a new concrete cap. The drain runs to a sump basin. It's more invasive than an exterior curtain drain and more expensive, but for the right house it's the only real option.
A curtain drain or interior perimeter drain that gravity-daylights to the surface is the ideal. When gravity doesn't work — flat lots, lots that slope away from any daylight point — the water goes to a sump basin and gets pumped. A good residential sump setup here uses a cast-iron submersible with a solid float, a battery-backup pump on top for power outages, a check valve to prevent backflow, and a discharge line that runs at least 10 feet from the foundation before it releases. Cheap plastic pumps with vertical float switches are the number-one call-out we get for failed sump systems. See sump pump installation.
No drainage system fixes a house whose grade slopes toward the foundation. Restoring positive grade — 6 inches of fall in the first 10 feet — is the mandatory first step. Sometimes a light regrade is all a house needs; sometimes it's the finishing pass after a curtain drain is buried. See grading and regrading.
Crawlspace encapsulation — vapor barrier, sealed vents, dehumidifier — is a moisture-control system, not a water-control system. It's the right add-on after a drainage fix, not a substitute for one. Encapsulating a crawlspace that's actively flooding just means you now have a $10,000 bathtub under your house.
Exterior curtain drain runs $85-$150 per linear foot depending on depth and access. Interior perimeter drain systems typically run $80-$130 per linear foot plus sump. A whole-house solution — perimeter drain, sump, discharge line, regrading — commonly lands between $12,000 and $28,000 for a 2,000 sq ft home. See drainage costs.
In NW Louisiana clay, always drainage first. Underpinning a foundation that continues to see water damage is expensive, invasive, and often unnecessary — controlling the water around the footing stops most of the movement. Get a drainage evaluation before you sign a pier-installation contract.
Both. Pier-and-beam needs crawlspace access — a curtain drain plus a sump under-crawl is common. Slab homes get exterior curtain drains, sometimes with interior tie-ins where a slab crack has developed.
A one-side exterior curtain drain: 2-3 days. A full-perimeter interior system with sump: 5-7 days. Larger projects with regrading and hardscape restoration: 2 weeks.
Coordinated by the same referral network across Shreveport, Bossier City, and Northwest Louisiana.
Coordinated by the same referral network across Shreveport, Bossier City, and Northwest Louisiana.
Coordinated by the same referral network across Shreveport, Bossier City, and Northwest Louisiana.
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