NDS Certified Professional Drainage Contractor
Fix the Drainage Before You Pay for Foundation Repair
Foundation repair corrects what the water already did. It does not stop the water. If the drainage that caused the movement is still in place when the piers go in, the same forces go right back to work on a foundation you just paid to fix. Gutter Pro is an NDS Certified Professional Drainage Contractor in Jacksonville - we do not do foundation repair, which is exactly why we will tell you honestly what order your work belongs in.
Why the Order Decides What You Pay
Homeowners rarely get told this by either trade, because each one is quoting their own scope. The foundation contractor quotes piers. The landscaper quotes grading. Nobody prices the sequence, and the sequence is where the money is.
| Work | Typical cost | What it actually does |
|---|---|---|
| Engineered drainage correction | $2,500 to $7,500 for a typical 50-to-100-foot system ($35 to $75 per linear foot installed) | Removes the water source driving soil movement |
| Home settling repair | $5,000 to $25,000 | Corrects movement that already happened |
| Piering or underpinning | $1,000 to $3,000 per pier | Stabilizes and supports; does not address water |
| Foundation lifting | $20,000 to $23,000 | Raises a settled structure back toward level |
| Full foundation replacement | $20,000 to $100,000 | Last resort after prolonged uncorrected movement |
Foundation repair figures are 2026 national industry averages published by Angi. Gutter Pro does not perform foundation repair; these are provided so you can weigh sequence against cost. Drainage figures are our own Northeast Florida installed pricing.
The expensive version of this story is simple. A homeowner pays for piers. Two wet seasons later the cracks return, because the downspout still discharges six feet from the slab and the buried line under the side yard has been leaking for years. Now they are paying the structural contractor a second time, on a foundation that was already repaired once.
The drainage correction that would have prevented it usually costs less than a third of the structural work - and unlike the structural work, it is the part that stops the problem recurring.
What Foundation Repair Fixes, and What It Does Not
| Foundation repair handles | Foundation repair does not handle |
|---|---|
| Settled or sinking sections of slab or footing | Roof water discharging next to the foundation |
| Structural support through piers and underpinning | A saturated, poorly draining lot |
| Lifting a structure back toward level | Subsurface water stacking on hardpan or clay |
| Crack repair, sealing, and stabilization | A cracked or collapsed buried drainage line |
| Bowing wall correction | Grade that slopes back toward the house |
Both columns are real work. The right-hand column is what causes the left-hand column in Northeast Florida, and it is the column nobody quotes until someone asks.
How to Tell Whether Water Is Actually the Cause
Not every foundation problem is a drainage problem. Here is what points to water, based on what we find walking Jacksonville properties:
Two or more of these and drainage almost certainly belongs first in your sequence. We will tell you at the assessment which ones your property actually shows, and if we do not see them, we will tell you that too.
Holding a foundation repair quote? Get the drainage assessed before you sign it.
Book a Free Site WalkWhen Foundation Repair Genuinely Should Go First
We are the drainage contractor and we still tell people this regularly, because getting it wrong is dangerous and because you should be able to trust the rest of this page.
- Active structural failure. Doors and windows binding shut, stair-step cracking widening month over month, visibly out-of-level floors, or separation at the wall-to-ceiling joint. Stabilization is not something to sequence behind landscaping.
- An engineer has already called it urgent. A structural engineer's report outranks anything on this page. Follow it.
- The movement is not water-driven. Undersized original footings, organic fill, sinkhole activity, or tree-root heave can move a foundation with the drainage working perfectly. Correcting drainage will not fix those.
- The repair scope will disturb the drainage path anyway. If piers are going in exactly where the drain line belongs, the structural work goes first and the drainage is built into the backfill - see the sequencing below.
Even in these cases the drainage correction still needs to happen. It just happens second, and it is what stops you doing the structural work twice.
What a Drainage Correction Actually Involves
An honest correction is engineered to a flow number, not guessed. On a typical Jacksonville property it means some combination of:
- Getting roof water genuinely away from the structure. Downspouts tied into buried solid line and carried to daylight or a pop-up emitter well clear of the foundation - not a splash block, not a flex extension that gets moved for mowing.
- Intercepting subsurface water before it reaches the slab. A perimeter French drain with slotted FDM heavy-duty HDPE in a #57 stone envelope wrapped in geotextile fabric, cut in above the hardpan or clay layer that water stacks on.
- Correcting grade where it works against you. Positive fall away from the structure for the first ten feet wherever the lot allows it.
- Replacing failed buried line. Cracked, silted, or collapsed pipe is a hidden water source. It often reads as a mystery wet spot for years.
- Right-sizing the gutters feeding all of it. Undersized 5-inch gutters overflow in Florida rain and dump concentrated water at the foundation. We install 6, 7, and 8-inch seamless with 3x4, 4x5, or larger downspouts sized to the roof area.
The pipe spec, and why it matters next to a foundation
We install FDM heavy-duty HDPE: solid-wall, 100 percent virgin resin, rated for vehicle traffic, with a 100-plus year design life per the Plastics Pipe Institute. Critically, the joints are snap-fit with no glue.
Florida soil cycles hard between saturated and dry, and that movement works every pipe buried in it. Solvent-welded PVC joints are rigid, so repeated ground movement concentrates stress at the joint until it cracks - and a cracked joint next to a foundation is an invisible leak feeding water into the exact soil you just paid to stabilize. Snap-fit joints flex with the ground instead. Nobody else in this market makes that argument, because nobody else installs that pipe. Full detail on the drainage pipe spec.
New drainage systems we install carry our lifetime workmanship warranty. That covers our work on what we build - it does not extend to pre-existing gutter or drainage components we did not install, and we will be clear at the assessment about which is which.
Schedule 40 PVC is an exception-only material for us - extremely low slope, penetrations through bulkheads or seawalls, and freshly backfilled ground likely to settle. We never install recycled corrugated pipe; it is compromised on average within about three years in Florida soil.
Sequencing the Two Trades So You Only Dig Once
When both jobs are happening, the order below saves excavation, restoration, and money.
- Drainage assessment first, before you sign the structural contract. It costs you nothing and it changes the scope conversation. Knowing the water source often changes which piers are actually needed.
- Correct the water source. If there is no active structural emergency, drainage goes in first and the soil is given a season to stabilize where the schedule allows it.
- Structural work second, with the drainage plan in hand. Your foundation contractor should know where the buried lines run so their excavation does not cut them - and so their backfill does not belly your line.
- Coordinate the shared trench. Where the pier excavation and the drain line occupy the same ground, they get dug once and built together. This is the step that gets skipped when the two trades never speak.
- Flood test and restore. The system is hose-tested to the discharge point before anything is buried and sodded. You watch it move water.
Why NDS Certified Matters on This Specific Job
NDS manufactures the engineered components - catch basins, fittings, emitters - and certification means training in the actual design math: flow capacity by pipe diameter, fitting losses, slope requirements. Owner Albert Urbank is an NDS Certified Professional Drainage Contractor, and he walks every property personally.
On a foundation-adjacent job that matters more than usual. Undersized pipe or a guessed slope next to a structure does not just underperform - it puts water back into the soil you are trying to protect. This is also why we quote drainage and only drainage: we have no incentive to talk you into structural work, and no incentive to talk you out of it.
Where This Comes Up in Northeast Florida
- Mandarin, Arlington, San Jose: spodic hardpan within 18 inches of grade. Water stacks on it and travels sideways toward whatever is lowest, frequently a slab edge.
- Riverside, Avondale, Springfield: older homes, shallower footings, mature oak roots, and clay subsoil - the combination that produces seasonal crack movement.
- Ponte Vedra, Marsh Landing, Sawgrass: high seasonal water table off the marsh and Intracoastal, so the margin between "drains fine" and "saturated" is thin.
- Nocatee, St. Johns: newer construction on fill that is still consolidating, with builder grading cut to code minimum.
- Fleming Island, Orange Park: clay-heavy subsoil that stops infiltrating once saturated, then swells and shrinks through the seasons.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I fix drainage before foundation repair?
In most Jacksonville cases, yes. Foundation repair corrects movement that already happened; it does not remove the water that caused it. If the source is still active after the piers go in, the same forces resume on a foundation you just paid to fix. The exception is active structural failure - binding doors, widening stair-step cracks, out-of-level floors - where stabilization should not wait, and drainage follows immediately after.
Will fixing the drainage repair my foundation on its own?
No, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. Drainage removes the cause. It does not lift a settled slab or restore structural support. What it does is stop the movement progressing and prevent you paying for the structural work twice. Damage already done still needs a structural contractor.
How much does drainage correction cost in Jacksonville?
Typically $35 to $75 per linear foot installed, with most 50-to-100-foot systems landing between $2,500 and $7,500. Depth, soil conditions, obstructions such as roots and hardscape, and discharge distance drive the range. That is generally a fraction of a structural repair, which industry data puts between $5,000 and $25,000 for settling work. Final pricing follows the free on-site assessment.
My foundation contractor said drainage is not the issue. Who is right?
Possibly them. Undersized original footings, organic fill, sinkhole activity, and root heave all move foundations with drainage working perfectly. A free second look costs you nothing and either confirms their read or finds a water source worth correcting. We are not competing with them - we do not sell foundation repair.
How long should I wait after drainage work before structural repair?
Where there is no urgency, giving the soil a wet season to stabilize lets the structural contractor measure a settled condition rather than a moving one. Where the structural work is urgent, do not wait - stabilize, then correct the drainage right behind it. Your engineer's guidance governs.
Will my insurance cover any of this?
Homeowners policies in Florida generally exclude gradual water damage and earth movement, which is what this usually is. Sudden events sometimes qualify. We provide written documentation and photos of what we find, which is useful whether you are filing a claim or simply keeping a record for resale. We do not file claims on your behalf and cannot promise a coverage outcome.
What pipe should be used near a foundation?
FDM heavy-duty HDPE - solid-wall, virgin resin, rated for vehicle traffic, with snap-fit joints and no glue to crack as the soil cycles wet to dry. A cracked glued joint underground next to a foundation is an invisible leak feeding the soil you are trying to protect. Schedule 40 PVC is reserved for three exceptions: extremely low slope, bulkhead or seawall penetrations, and settling backfill. Never recycled corrugated.
Do you work alongside foundation repair companies?
Regularly. The best outcome is when both trades see the same plan - your structural contractor knows where our lines run so their excavation does not cut them, and shared trench work gets dug once instead of twice. We are happy to talk directly with your foundation contractor or engineer.
