French Drains and Yard Drainage on Lookout Mountain

Lookout Mountain rises over Chattanooga and runs south into Georgia, and the town of Lookout Mountain straddles the state line. Water behaves differently up there than it does in the valley. Slopes shed rain quickly, rock sits close to the surface in many yards, and what runs off one lot usually lands on the lot below. We serve both the Tennessee and Georgia sides of the mountain from Chattanooga. We do not keep an office on the mountain, and we schedule visits by phone.

Why water goes where it goes

On a hillside, a yard is rarely just a yard. It is part of a path the water takes from the ridge to the creek. A downspout that empties at the corner of the house, a driveway that tilts toward the garage, a retaining wall that dams water behind it, and a neighbor above whose pipe ends at your property line can all change what shows up in your yard after a storm. Before we propose a drain, we walk the lot and the slope above it to see where the water comes from. Our page on why a yard stays wet lists the causes we see most.

French drains on a slope

A French drain is a buried trench with gravel and a perforated pipe that collects water and carries it somewhere safe. On a hillside the details matter more:

• Placement. A drain placed across the slope, uphill of the area you want dry, can catch water before it reaches the house.
• The outlet. A drain needs somewhere to go. We plan the exit so the water ends up on your own ground, in a safe channel, and not on a neighbor.
• Rock. Where stone is near the surface, trenching takes more time and sometimes a different route. We tell you when we find it.

Our French drain installation page describes the full process, and the cost guide covers what makes one job cost more than another.

Other fixes that often come first

A drain is not always the answer. Sometimes the cheaper step is to move water away before it ever reaches the ground:

Downspouts. Extending or piping them well away from the foundation removes a lot of water. See downspout drainage.

Grading. Soil that tilts toward the house should be reshaped to tilt away from it. Where the slope is steep, that may involve a swale rather than a flat grade.

Erosion control. Bare slopes wash out. Our erosion and standing water page covers what we do about washouts and low spots.

Water in the crawl space or basement

Houses on the mountain often have a crawl space or a lower level cut into the hill. When water shows up there after a storm, the cause is usually outside, so the fix starts outside. Fixing the yard first usually makes any inside work last longer.

Two states, one mountain

Lookout Mountain crosses the Tennessee and Georgia line, and the permit and drainage rules depend on which side your address is on. If your project involves a permit, ask the local government that covers your address what it requires. We can describe the drainage work; the local office sets the rules.

What to do before we visit

• Note where water collects and how long after a rain it stays.
• Take photos during or just after a storm if you can.
• Look uphill: where does the water come from, and is there a pipe, a road or a wall involved?

To have a Lookout Mountain yard looked at, call us at (423) 497-3591 or use the contact page and tell us what the water does and where. We will plan the next step from there.