What Amarillo and Panhandle homeowners ask most about standing water, clay soil, playas and getting a drainage problem fixed.
Because the rain comes in bunches. NWS Amarillo's 1991-2020 normal is 19.66 inches a year, and about 64 percent of that total arrives between May and September -- the same months that bring 93 percent of Panhandle hail events. The clay under most lawns takes water in slowly, so a heavy storm outruns it and the excess collects in the lowest part of the lot. Low annual totals and a flooded backyard are not a contradiction here.
Pullman is a soil series the USDA first described in Potter County in 1929 and lists as a benchmark soil of large extent on the Southern High Plains. Its subsoil runs 35 to 50 percent clay and is rated slowly permeable. It also expands as it takes on water and contracts as it dries. For drainage, that means water soaks in slowly and the ground moves with the seasons, so a drain should move water, not store it.
A playa is a shallow basin at the bottom of its own small watershed, with no stream flowing in or out. The Handbook of Texas counts about 19,000 of them on the Texas High Plains. Amarillo keeps several city playas to store stormwater. If your lot sits on the slope toward one, runoff from streets and neighbors may pass through your yard on its way down.
Usually somewhere below. On Pullman soils the USDA places a lime-rich calcic horizon about 30 to 60 inches down. In some other soils, typically near escarpments, cemented caliche can begin within 4 to 20 inches of the surface and is very slowly permeable. Either one slows water moving down, which is one more reason to route water to an exit rather than into a pit.
It depends on where the water is. Surface drains -- inlets, channel drains and solid pipe -- catch water running across hard surfaces and lawns during a storm. A French drain -- perforated pipe bedded in a gravel trench -- picks up water soaking through the soil, like a strip that stays soggy for days. Plenty of Amarillo yards need a bit of both. We'll tell you which after walking the lot.
Generally it has to go somewhere that doesn't create a problem for someone else: a lower part of your own lot, the street or another approved discharge point, or a sump pumping to one of those. Rules vary by city, subdivision and HOA, so we check what applies to your address before designing the outlet. Simply redirecting water onto a neighbor's property isn't a fix.
It can. Many HOAs have rules about visible inlets, grading changes, pop-up emitters at the curb and work near shared fences or common areas. Some require approval before any work starts. Bring your HOA guidelines to the assessment, or tell us which subdivision you're in, and we'll design within them and give you a written scope you can submit if approval is needed.
It can contribute. The Pullman clay common here swells when wet and shrinks when dry, so water that ponds along one side of a slab while the other side stays dry puts uneven moisture under the house. Moving roof water away and grading soil away from the foundation helps keep moisture more even. We build drainage; for existing cracks or settlement, a structural engineer or foundation specialist should assess them.
When there's no downhill. If the wet spot is the lowest point on the lot and nothing nearby -- street, alley or approved discharge -- sits lower, gravity can't carry the water out. A sump collects it in a basin and pumps it to a discharge point. Lots near playas or in flat new subdivisions are the most common candidates. We only recommend one when the grade actually calls for it.
You call or fill out the form, and we call you back to set up a visit. On site, we go around the property together, look at where water comes from and where it collects, and measure the grade. Then you get a written scope showing what we'd build and why. It costs nothing and there's no obligation to hire us.
No. The price depends on trench length, depth, how far the water has to travel, whether we run into caliche, where it can legally discharge and whether a pump has to be part of it. A phone number would be a guess, and guesses tend to change later. We'd rather see the lot and give you a written scope you can compare against anyone else's.
Amarillo across both Potter and Randall counties, plus Canyon, Bushland, Panhandle, Claude, Happy, Vega, Hereford, Dumas, Borger, Fritch, Stinnett, Pampa and Tulia. If you're between those towns, call and ask. The same clay-and-playa issues show up across much of the area, though canyon-rim and river-breaks lots each bring their own grade challenges.
A big one. A roof sheds a lot of water in a summer downpour, and most of it leaves through a few downspouts. If those empty right against the foundation, you're concentrating water exactly where clay soil does the most harm. Extending downspouts or tying them into solid pipe that carries water to a discharge point is often the cheapest improvement on the whole job.
During or right after it, if you can. That's when the problem is visible: where water runs, where it pools and how fast it drains. Take photos or a short video while it's still raining, and note how long standing water lasts. Clay can hide a problem once it dries, so a few pictures save guesswork at the assessment, which we can schedule after the yard dries out.
Free on-site drainage assessments in Amarillo and across the Texas Panhandle. Call or send the form and we’ll set up a time to look.