Catch Basins and Dry Wells in Fort Wayne, IN
Fort Wayne Drainage Pros installs catch basins and dry wells for homes and commercial sites across Fort Wayne and Allen County, Indiana. We are a licensed and insured drainage contractor. A catch basin collects surface water at a low spot and pipes it away; a dry well stores water where there is no lower exit to send it to. Both handle water that pools with nowhere to go.
A catch basin is a grated box set flush at the low point, piped to a lower exit. A dry well is a buried chamber packed in washed #57 stone and wrapped in geotextile filter fabric, and it holds water while the soil below soaks it in. The fabric keeps the clay out of the stone, so the well keeps its storage space instead of silting into solid ground.
When You Need a Catch Basin
A catch basin is for a spot that collects water and has a lower place to send it. The bottom of a sloped yard, a patio edge, a driveway apron, the base of a downspout run: water heads to these and stays. The basin gives it an exit. Water falls through the grate, the box catches leaves and grit, and the pipe carries the flow to daylight or another drain.
When You Need a Dry Well
Some lots have no lower ground to drain to. The whole yard is flat, the street is no lower, and there is nowhere to run a pipe. A dry well solves that by sending the water down instead of away. It stores a storm's worth of runoff in the voids between the stone and releases it slowly into the soil, so the surface clears while the ground takes its time.
Sizing a Dry Well for Clay
Clay is the catch. It takes water in slowly, so a dry well on Fort Wayne soil has to be large enough to hold the runoff while it waits to soak in. We size the well to the area that drains into it and to how fast the ground actually accepts water, which we check on site. An undersized well fills and overflows in the first hard rain.
Tied Into the Whole System
Basins and wells rarely work alone. A yard drainage layout might run several catch basins into one pipe, then to a dry well where the lot has no exit. A french drain that cannot reach daylight often ends in a dry well. We build the pieces to work as one path for the water.
What It Costs
A single catch basin with a short pipe is a small job, a few hundred to about a thousand dollars. A dry well in Fort Wayne runs about $1,500 to $4,000, since the size of the pit and the volume of stone drive the cost, and clay takes a bigger well. Every job gets a free written estimate first.
Have a low spot that never dries out, with nowhere to drain it? (260) 555-0184 gets you a free look and a straight read on whether a basin, a dry well, or a sump is the right exit.
What is the difference between a catch basin and a dry well?
A catch basin collects surface water and moves it on through a pipe. A dry well stores water and lets it soak into the ground. You use a basin where there is a lower exit to pipe the water to, and a dry well where there is not, so the water has to go down instead of away.
Do dry wells work in clay?
They work, but clay takes water slowly, so the well has to be sized for that. On tight Fort Wayne clay a dry well is built larger to hold a storm's worth of water while the soil drinks it in over time. Where the ground barely takes water at all, we look at piping to an exit instead.
Where should a catch basin go?
At the low point where water already collects, the spot that ponds after every rain. That might be the bottom of a sloped lawn, the edge of a patio, or a driveway apron. The basin sits flush with a grate on top, so the water that heads there falls in and leaves through the pipe.
How deep is a dry well?
Deep enough to reach soil that will take water and to hold the volume it needs to store, which depends on how much runoff feeds it and how slowly the ground drains. On clay that usually means a good-sized pit or chamber packed in washed stone. We size it to the water it has to handle, not to a standard hole.