RDM Construction Companies installs and repairs complete drainage systems across Queensbury and the surrounding towns. We handle everything from French drains and dry wells to full regrading and storm drainage, and because we do our own excavation, concrete, and asphalt work, we can fix the drainage problem and restore the surface above it in one project. No handoffs, no waiting on a second contractor.
Standing water in your yard. A basement that takes on water every March. A driveway that turns into a river during summer thunderstorms. If any of that sounds familiar, the problem is not bad luck. It is a drainage problem, and it is fixable.
A French drain is a gravel-bedded perforated pipe that intercepts groundwater and surface water before it reaches your foundation or pools in your yard, then carries it to a safe discharge point. We size and slope every French drain for the actual water volume on your property, not a one-size-fits-all trench. Common installs include curtain drains along wet property lines, footing drains around foundations, and interceptor drains at the base of slopes.
When there is nowhere to send water on the surface, you send it underground. A dry well collects roof runoff or drainage discharge and lets it soak back into the soil below grade. These are a strong fit for Saratoga properties without storm sewer access or where the city requires runoff to stay on site.
Catch basins collect surface water from driveways, patios, and low spots and route it into buried drain lines. We install new basins, repair collapsed or clogged ones, and rebuild the grading around basins that have settled and stopped collecting water.
Sometimes the fix is not a pipe, it is the shape of the land. We regrade yards so water moves away from structures instead of toward them, and we cut swales, which are shallow, landscaped channels, to carry runoff along property lines and around buildings. Grading corrections are often the most cost-effective drainage fix available.
A huge share of wet basements in Queensbury come down to one thing: downspouts dumping roof water right next to the foundation. We bury solid drain lines that carry downspout discharge well away from the house to daylight, a dry well, or a storm connection.
For chronic basement water, we excavate and install exterior perimeter (footing) drains, waterproofing-grade backfill, and proper discharge lines. Because we self-perform excavation and concrete, we can also repair damaged foundation walls, footings, and slabs exposed during the work.
For larger residential lots and commercial properties, we install storm drainage piping, culverts under driveways, and outlet structures. If your project is a commercial site with municipal tie-ins, see our commercial water, sewer, and drainage page.
Queensbury sits on some of the most water-active ground in upstate New York. The same geology that feeds the mineral springs also means high groundwater in many parts of the city, especially in low-lying neighborhoods and near wetland edges. Add in pockets of dense clay soil that hold water instead of absorbing it, and a lot of local properties simply cannot drain on their own.
Then there is the weather. Spring snowmelt dumps months of accumulated water into the ground in a few short weeks, often while the soil is still partially frozen and cannot absorb it. Freeze-thaw cycles heave and settle the ground every winter, which slowly changes the grading around foundations and breaks up older buried drain lines. Many homes in the city's older neighborhoods were built decades before modern drainage standards, so they were never designed to move this much water in the first place.
The result: wet basements, soggy lawns, ice sheets on walkways every winter, and foundations under constant hydrostatic pressure. Good drainage design accounts for all of it.
Money-Saving Offers 1-Year Work & Material Warranty Over 40 Years of Experience
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We don't subcontract laborers. Our crews show up and stand behind their own work.
Licensed, insured, family and locally owned.
Price-match guarantee
40+ years in concrete, paving, and excavation across the Capital Region
1-year workmanship and material warranty
Free, no-obligation estimates
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