French Drain Installation Cost 2026: $2,000–$7,000 Typical

Installing an exterior French drain on a US single-family lot — about 50 to 100 linear feet along a yard or a foundation wall, a standard trench about 2 to 3 feet deep, perforated pipe, gravel, fabric, a discharge to daylight or a simple outlet, and ordinary soil back in the trench — often clusters around $2,000–$7,000. That is the typical French drain installation cost for that scope. It is also the typical yard drainage cost when the yard fix is this drain. Exterior work on a run long enough to carry the crew is typically about $20–$65 per linear foot. An interior basement drain is higher: about $65–$130 per linear foot once the run is long enough, one wall is typically $3,500–$8,000, and a drain around the basement is typically $8,500–$18,000. The wider national spread, about $1,000–$20,000, covers a short shallow yard run in a lower-cost area at the low end and an interior drain around the basement, with a sump tie-in, at the high end. A full basement waterproofing job on the wall, a foundation repair, or new gutters on the whole house can clear that spread. These are typical planning ranges, not a survey and not a quote.

This page is the buried drain that collects water in the soil and carries it to a lower outlet. A bid may call the same trench a curtain drain, or a footing drain when it sits beside the foundation. It is not the eave and the downspout, which are the gutter guide. It is not a pier or a brace under a wall that has moved, which is the foundation guide. It is not the pump in the pit, which is the sump pump guide. A swale and a regrade move surface water without a pipe. They are other ways to read the same wet spot. They are not a second bill on top of the drain.

The pipe on a pallet is not the job. Perforated pipe and a yard of gravel can look cheap by the foot. The bid is the trench, the fabric, how deep the crew has to go, the place the water is allowed to end, the lawn or the floor you open to get there, and the permit. Price the wet side someone has looked at, not a per-foot rate from a forum.

The rows below are ways to read one job. They are not added together. The exterior per-foot row is an installed foot on a run long enough to carry the crew: pipe, gravel, fabric, and ordinary soil back in a standard trench, with no sump, no dry well, and no new lawn. The length rows are that exterior job at that length. The shallow row and the standard row are that exterior foot at that depth. The standard row and the exterior per-foot row are the same reading. The deep row is a deeper exterior trench, not a second pipe. The interior per-foot row is a basement foot, and the one-wall and around-the-basement rows are that interior job at that size. Use an add-on row only when the bid left that line out, or when the water has to end in a well, a pop-up, or a sump the trench price did not include.

Scope	Typical planning range
Exterior, per linear foot	$20–$65
Interior basement, per linear foot	$65–$130
About 25 linear feet, exterior	$1,000–$2,500
About 50 linear feet, exterior	$2,000–$4,500
About 100 linear feet, exterior	$2,000–$6,500
About 150 linear feet, exterior	$3,000–$10,000
Shallow yard, about 1 to 2 feet deep	$20–$40 per ft
Standard trench, about 2 to 3 feet deep	$20–$65 per ft
Deep, to the footing	$50–$120 per ft
Interior, one basement wall	$3,500–$8,000
Interior, around the basement	$8,500–$18,000
Sump pump tie-in	$500–$2,000
Pop-up emitter	$250–$800
Dry well	$800–$2,400
Downspout connection	$200–$800
Landscaping restore	$400–$2,000
Permit, when the bid leaves the city fee out	$100–$500

Exterior French drain cost per foot is typically $20–$65. That rate is the installed foot once the run is long enough that the trencher, the gravel, and the crew are not the whole bid: perforated pipe, gravel, fabric, and ordinary soil returned to a trench about 2 to 3 feet deep, discharged to daylight or a simple outlet on the same slope. The low end is open soil in a lower-cost area and a straight run. The high end is roots, a tight side yard, a corner, or soil the trencher cannot finish. It is not an interior slab, and it is not a dig down to a deep footing. One hundred feet is the length where this rate multiplies cleanly. A short run costs more per foot than $20.

Interior French drain cost per foot is typically $65–$130. The crew cuts the basement slab, trenches along the footing, sets pipe and gravel, and patches the concrete. The floor of the row meets the top of the exterior rate. $65 can be a straightforward interior foot or a hard exterior foot. Ask which one the bid is. An exterior price and an interior price are two proposals, not two lines you add. The top of the interior rate is a thick slab, a finished floor, or a mechanical room the crew has to work around. One hundred feet at $65–$130 is $6,500–$13,000. The $6,500 meets the top of a straightforward 100-foot exterior job. The $13,000 has left the typical band and stays inside the wider spread.

About 25 exterior feet is typically $1,000–$2,500. Twenty-five times $20 is $500, under the row. Twenty-five times $40 is $1,000, the floor of the row and the floor of the wider spread. Twenty-five times $65 is $1,625, still under the top. The top, $2,500, is $100 a foot. The crew, the trencher, and the gravel do not shrink to a quarter of a 100-foot job. That $1,000 is a short, shallow, open yard in a lower-cost area. It is not a foundation drain someone discounted. The top enters the typical band. The overlap is $2,000–$2,500.

About 50 exterior feet is typically $2,000–$4,500. Fifty times $20 is $1,000, the same dollars as the cheapest 25-foot run, which is why the floor is not the cheap rate. Fifty times $40 is $2,000, the floor of this row and the floor of the typical band. Fifty times $65 is $3,250. The top, $4,500, is $90 a foot: a corner, roots, or a side yard the machine cannot walk. The whole row sits inside $2,000–$7,000. This is the common one-wall yard or foundation job. Adding the per-foot row on top of it double-counts the trench.

About 100 exterior feet is typically $2,000–$6,500. One hundred times $20 is the floor. One hundred times $65 is the top. This is the clean reading of the exterior per-foot row, and it sits inside the typical band. The typical top, $7,000, is $500 above this row. One hundred times $70 is $7,000: the same footage with a corner, or soil the trencher cannot finish, that is still the yard or foundation job this page calls typical. Use the 100-foot row for a straight run. Use $7,000 when the bid names that extra difficulty and the job is still not a deep footing dig, an interior slab, or a dry well.

About 150 exterior feet is typically $3,000–$10,000. One hundred fifty times $20 is the floor, still inside the typical band. One hundred fifty times $65 is $9,750. The top sits at $10,000, a corner or a tight gate past that multiply. One hundred fifty times about $47 is about $7,000, so a mid-rate run of this length is where the job leaves the typical band. Most of the row sits above $7,000 and inside the wider spread. Do not add this row to the 100-foot row. A 150-foot bid is one trench.

The cost to install a French drain around a house is the 100-foot or 150-foot row when the sides that take water are the whole perimeter, not the 50-foot price copied four times. A small footprint can land on the 100-foot row and stay inside $2,000–$6,500. A larger perimeter, or four sides, is the 150-foot row and can leave $7,000 without leaving the wider spread. A deep dig around the house, or an interior drain around the basement, is a different row and can leave $10,000. Measure the sides that are wet. Leave a dry side out of the trench.

A shallow yard trench, about 1 to 2 feet deep, is typically $20–$40 per foot. That is the lower part of the exterior rate, for surface water in a lawn the trencher can cross. One hundred feet at $20–$40 is $2,000–$4,000, inside the typical band. A standard trench, about 2 to 3 feet deep, is typically $20–$65 per foot. That is the exterior per-foot row, not a second charge on top of it. Adding the shallow row to the standard row prices two trenches.

A deep exterior trench, down to the footing, is typically $50–$120 per foot. It overlaps the exterior rate from $50–$65 and the interior rate from $65–$120. A deep outside dig and a basement slab cut are different jobs that can land in the same dollars. Ask which one the bid is. Fifty feet at $50–$120 is $2,500–$6,000, inside the typical band. One hundred feet at $50 is $5,000. One hundred feet at $120 is $12,000, which leaves the typical band and stays inside the wider spread. Do not price a footing-depth dig on the $20–$65 row. That row is the standard trench.

Interior French drain cost for one basement wall, about 25 to 40 feet, is typically $3,500–$8,000. Forty times $65 is $2,600, under the row. Twenty-five times $130 is $3,250, still under it. The saw, the haul-out, and the patch do not shrink to a short wall. Forty times $130 is $5,200. The top, $8,000, is a finished floor to match, or a wall the crew has to reach past a furnace or a stair. The row overlaps the typical exterior band from $3,500–$7,000 and leaves it at $8,000. It is not the exterior 25-foot row plus a basement fee.

A drain around the basement, about 100 to 150 feet, is typically $8,500–$18,000. One hundred times $65 is $6,500, under the floor, because a perimeter is rarely the cheapest foot in every cut and the corners are part of the loop. One hundred times $85 is $8,500, the floor. One hundred fifty times $120 is $18,000, the top. One hundred fifty times $130 is $19,500, near the top of the wider spread. The whole row sits above the typical exterior band. This is the interior system that can clear $10,000. A wall membrane, on the basement waterproofing guide, or a new sump pit, on top of it can clear $20,000. $18,000 plus a new pit at $4,500 is $22,500. The pump and the pit are the sump pump guide. They are not already inside $8,500.

Sump pump tie-in is typically $500–$2,000 when the new drain has to reach an existing pit and that connection is not already in the trench or the pit excavation. The floor is a short pipe into a pit that is already open. The top is more slab cut to reach it. That is the same kind of line the sump pump guide prices as a drain-tile tie-in. Do not add a second copy from that page. A new pump in an existing pit is typically $500–$1,500 on that guide. A new pit, with a pump, is typically $1,500–$4,500. $18,000 plus the tie-in top of $2,000 is $20,000, the top of the wider spread on this page. A tie-in is not a new pump.

A pop-up emitter is typically $250–$800. It is the outlet at the end of a line that can come back to the surface and spill onto a lower part of the yard. The floor is one emitter close to the end of the trench. The top is a longer buried stub or a second emitter. A dry well is typically $800–$2,400. It is a buried pit that takes the water where the yard has no lower outlet. The two meet at $800. They are alternatives. Adding them prices two endings for the same pipe. A larger dry well, or a well in tight access, can leave $2,400. The length rows assume daylight or a simple outlet. Add one of these rows when the bid left the ending out.

A downspout connection, when the bid leaves it out, is typically $200–$800. The floor is one nearby downspout tied into the new drain. The top is two, or one with a longer buried run from a far corner. A third leader, or a run under a walk, can leave $800. New gutters are a different project. Splash blocks and short extensions live on that guide. Burying a leader into this drain is this row. The length rows do not include a new gutter system.

Landscaping restore — seed, a strip of sod along the trench, a shrub or two the dig took out — is often $400–$2,000. The length rows include ordinary soil back in the trench. They do not include a finished lawn. Seed along an open run sits toward $400. Sod and a few shrubs sit toward $2,000. A designed relandscape of the yard can clear that. A patio or a driveway panel the trench crosses is not this row. A bid that already includes the sod is one number. Add this row once, and only when the bid left the surface out.

A permit, when the bid leaves the city fee out, is often $100–$500. The length rows include it when the bid says so. Add it once. A yard drain that stays on the lot, and does not touch the street or the sanitary sewer, is often the case with no fee. Do not add the row then. A discharge into a storm connection the city has to approve can sit at the top of the row. Tying a footing drain into the sanitary sewer is a question for the city, not a savings.

A swale, a shallow grassed channel that carries the same surface water, is typically $800–$3,000 for a run of similar length. The floor sits under the typical drain band. The top sits inside it. A regrade that reshapes soil along one side of the house so water moves away is typically $1,000–$4,000. The two overlap. A regrade of the whole yard can leave $4,000. They are alternatives to a pipe when the water can travel on the surface. Adding a swale, a regrade, and a French drain prices three answers to one wet spot. A swale does not dry a basement that takes water from below the slab. A regrade cannot bury the siding, and it cannot raise the soil over a foundation vent. If the only outlet is uphill, the surface fix has nowhere to send the water, and the drain is the row that applies.

What the range includes

The typical band assumes an existing single-family lot and an exterior drain the crew can dig from the yard. It includes about 50 to 100 linear feet, a standard trench about 2 to 3 feet deep, perforated pipe, gravel, fabric, a discharge to daylight or a simple outlet, ordinary soil backfill, and a permit where the city requires one and the bid includes that fee. An open 50-foot run in a lower-cost area sits toward $2,000. A 100-foot run with a corner, or a high-labor city, sits toward $7,000.

A 25-foot shallow run can sit at the floor of the wider spread, near $1,000, and under the typical band. A 150-foot perimeter, a deep dig to the footing, an interior wall, a dry well, a sump tie-in, and a landscaping restore are the other rows. One basement wall can overlap the typical band and can leave it. A drain around the basement starts above it.

How long the work takes depends on the length, the depth, and the surface, and the bid’s schedule is the one that counts. A 50- to 100-foot exterior trench in open soil is often one to two days. A deep dig to the footing, or a basement wall, is often two to four days. A drain around a finished basement can run longer when the floor has to be matched or the city has to see the pipe before it is covered. These are typical planning spans.

Living at home during the work is the usual plan. An exterior job needs a path along that wall and a place to set the soil. The lawn along the trench is open until the backfill is in. An interior job means the basement is the work zone: dust, a cut slab, and a wet vac. A household that uses that room as a bedroom can sleep upstairs. That stay is not in the drainage bid.

Warranties are part of the contract, and this page is not a reading of one company’s form. A drainage warranty commonly covers the pipe and the workmanship on that run, and the term on labor is often shorter than any term on the materials. It does not promise the yard will never hold water somewhere else, it does not cover a gutter that still dumps on the wall, and it often expects the outlet to stay open. Read the form. The warranty is not a dollar line in the planning range.

Homeowners insurance and a home warranty are contracts too. A standard homeowners policy is built around sudden and accidental damage. Groundwater, a wet yard, and a drain installed because the grading was never right are the kind of loss those policies commonly exclude or treat as maintenance. Flood coverage, when a policy has it, is a separate contract. Water in a finished basement after a storm is a different question from the cost of the trench. A home warranty may name drainage and still exclude a pre-existing wet wall, soil, or any amount over a low dollar limit. Read the form before you treat either one as the budget. Neither one is inside the planning range.

The floor of the national spread, near $1,000, is a short shallow yard run. The top, toward $20,000, is where an interior drain around the basement and a sump tie-in usually land together. $18,000 plus $2,000 is $20,000. A new pit on top of that perimeter, or a wall membrane with it, can clear that top. A foundation repair or a whole-house gutter replacement can clear it too. Treat a number above it as a different scope and ask which driver caused it.

None of the bands include new gutters, piers or a leveling on the foundation guide, or a sump pump and its pit. Downspouts that still dump at the foundation are the gutter job, plus the connection row on this page if they are buried into the drain. A wall that has moved is the foundation job. A pump that has failed is the sump job. Do not fold the yard into the pipe allowance, and do not fold a pier into the drainage bid.

As a cross-check, not a bid: 100 exterior feet at $20–$65 is $2,000–$6,500. Fifty exterior feet at a mid rate of about $40 is $2,000, the floor of the typical band. A drain around the basement starts at $8,500. If a bid and that reading are far apart, the bid is interior, a deep footing dig, a dry well, a sump, or a restore the reading left out.

What moves the price

Driver	How it changes the bid
Length	Twenty-five exterior feet are $1,000–$2,500. Fifty are $2,000–$4,500. One hundred are $2,000–$6,500. One hundred fifty are $3,000–$10,000. A short run does not get the $20 rate.
Interior or exterior	Exterior is $20–$65 a foot. Interior is $65–$130. One basement wall is $3,500–$8,000. Around the basement is $8,500–$18,000. The two per-foot rows meet at $65. They are not added.
Depth	A shallow yard is $20–$40 a foot. A standard trench is the $20–$65 row. A dig to the footing is $50–$120 a foot, and 100 feet at $120 is $12,000.
Where the water ends	Daylight is in the length rows. A pop-up emitter is $250–$800. A dry well is $800–$2,400. They meet at $800. They are alternatives.
Sump, leaders, surface	A tie-in to an existing pit is $500–$2,000. A downspout connection left out is $200–$800. Landscaping restore is $400–$2,000. A permit left out is often $100–$500.
Swale or regrade	A swale for the same surface water is $800–$3,000. A regrade along one side is $1,000–$4,000. They are alternatives to a pipe, not a second line on it.
Access and region	Open soil in a lower-cost area sits toward the floor of the row. A tight side yard, a finished basement, or a high-labor city sits toward the top and can leave it.

Gutters, the drain, the foundation, and the pump are separate invoices that share one water problem. Gutters and downspouts that discharge away from the house keep roof water out of the soil at the wall. A French drain collects water that is already in that soil. A new drain with the downspout still emptying on that wall runs full every rain and can silt up sooner. Extending the downspouts is the gutter job. Connecting them into the drain, when that is the plan, is the $200–$800 row. Neither one lifts a wall that has already moved, and a larger gutter does not dry a low spot that has no outlet.

A wall or a slab that has moved is the foundation repair guide. A drain does not lift a settled footing, and a pier does not carry the water away. If the wall has bowed and the soil against it stays wet, price both. The foundation page is the steel and the braces. This page is the trench. Leaving the water on the footing is how a repaired corner moves again. Fixing the drainage is still its own line. It is not included in a pier price.

An interior drain usually ends at a sump. The pump, the pit, and a battery backup are the sump pump guide. The $500–$2,000 tie-in is the pipe from this drain into a pit that is already there, when the excavation did not already include it. An exterior drain that falls to daylight does not need a pump. A basement that takes water, with no pit, needs the new-pit row on the sump page and the interior row on this page. $8,500 plus $1,500 is $10,000 at the floors of those two rows. $18,000 plus $4,500 is $22,500, which clears this spread. Do not look for the pump inside the gravel price.

A swale or a regrade is the first reading when the problem is surface water and the yard can be shaped. Standing water in a lawn that slopes toward the house, with a dry basement and downspouts that already discharge away, is often the $1,000–$4,000 regrade or the $800–$3,000 swale. A French drain is the reading when that surface path does not exist, or the water is at the footing rather than on the grass. Interior water at the floor line, after the outside grade and the gutters are already right, is the basement row.

DIY or hire

A careful owner can dig a short, shallow yard trench when the utilities are marked, the run is a day of shovel work rather than a trencher along the whole house, and the water has a lower place to daylight on the same property. Call 811 before anyone digs. Gas, electric, and the sewer share that strip of yard more often than the grass suggests. The pipe has to fall toward the outlet, the outlet has to stay open, and the water has to stay on your side of the line. The risks are a utility strike, a flat run that holds water, and a discharge that dumps on a neighbor or into a sanitary sewer the city does not allow.

Hire the drain to the footing. That depth, the fabric, and the backfill against a foundation are a mess to undo, and in many cities they are a permit. Hire the basement slab. Cutting concrete, patching it, and tying the loop to a sump are not a weekend trench. Hire any discharge that leaves the property, ties to a storm connection, or needs a pump and a circuit. The circuit is electrical work. The pump is the sump pump guide.

Hire even more clearly when the trench has to pass under a deck, a walk, or a driveway, when the side yard is too narrow for the machine, or when the basement is finished. Those are the jobs where the wrong hole shows up after the crew is gone. An owner can still extend a downspout and fill a low spot of soil against the wall. That is maintenance. It is not a footing drain.

Repair or replace

The signs of a drainage problem are ordinary. Water stands in the yard a day after a normal rain. Mulch, soil, or a walk stays wet against the foundation. The basement or the crawl space smells musty after rain, or water shows at the floor line. A white deposit appears on the lower foundation wall. One downspout empties at the wall, and that bed is the wet one. The soil slopes toward the house. A window well holds water. An inspector or a buyer has named the drainage. One puddle on a patio that has always held a birdbath, with a dry basement and a grade that falls away, is the patio. It is not, by itself, a French drain.

Is a French drain worth it? Price the $2,000–$7,000 band when water sits against the foundation or in a low yard and a regrade or a swale cannot send it away. Start with the downspout and the slope when those are the whole problem. Extending the leader is the gutter guide. A regrade along one side is the $1,000–$4,000 row. A swale is the $800–$3,000 row. Either one can sit under a pipe, and either one is the better purchase when it actually gives the water a way out. An interior drain, $3,500–$8,000 for one wall or $8,500–$18,000 around the basement, is worth pricing when the basement is already wet and the outside cannot be opened: a driveway, a neighbor’s line, or a footing too deep to reach from the yard. A drain is not worth it as a substitute for piers on a wall that has moved, or for a sump pump that has failed. Price those on their own pages.

How long does a French drain last? Often about 20 to 30 years, as a planning life, not a warranty. Replace a run that has collapsed, filled with silt the outlet cannot pass, or was laid flat so water never leaves, on the length row for the feet that still need to work. A pop-up that has broken, or an outlet buried under mulch, can sit under the $250 floor of a new emitter. That is maintenance. Roots in one stretch, or a crushed section under a walk, are a repair of that stretch. A repair that means opening most of the trench is the replacement. Do the work on your schedule. A drain that fails in a hard rain is the same trench, plus a wet basement.

Keep the outlet open. A drain that ends in a pop-up or a daylight pipe fails when that ending is buried, crushed, or set higher than the start. Confirm the water leaves during a rain before you price a second trench beside one that is only clogged at the end. Gutters that still dump on the wall will fill a sound drain with grit. Fix that on the gutter guide. A sump that does not start will leave an interior drain with nowhere to send the water. Test the pump on the sump guide.

How to use this number

Ask for a written price that names the linear feet, exterior or interior, the depth, where the water ends, who restores the lawn or the slab, and whether a permit, a downspout connection, a sump tie-in, a pop-up, and a dry well are included. Compare an exterior yard or foundation job of about 50 to 100 feet with $2,000–$7,000. Compare the exterior per-foot rate with $20–$65, and the interior rate with $65–$130. Compare 25 feet with $1,000–$2,500, 50 with $2,000–$4,500, 100 with $2,000–$6,500, and 150 with $3,000–$10,000. Compare one basement wall with $3,500–$8,000 and a drain around the basement with $8,500–$18,000. Compare a shallow foot with $20–$40 and a dig to the footing with $50–$120. Keep a pop-up, a dry well, a sump pump, basement waterproofing, new gutters, and a foundation repair as their own lines.

A very low bid on a 100-foot foundation drain is a reason to ask whether the depth, the outlet, the fabric, and the permit are included, not a reason to celebrate. A quote near $1,000 should say a short shallow yard run, and it should say the water already has somewhere to go. A high bid should point at interior concrete, a deep footing, access, a dry well, or the yard. Two or three local bids on the same feet, the same depth, and the same outlet are the number that matters. How this site sets the band is explained on the methodology page.