Drainage in Wrightsville, PA

Wrightsville is a small borough on the west bank of the Susquehanna River in York County. We are based in Lancaster and drive across the river to work here. This page covers the drainage problems we see in towns like this one and how a visit works.

Drainage problems in a river town like Wrightsville

Wrightsville sits on the Susquehanna River, across from Columbia. The borough covers 0.6 square miles, all of it land, so houses, streets and yards are close together. When rain or snowmelt comes off the hill above the river, there is not much open ground for it to spread out on. Water goes where the lot lets it, and that is often toward a neighbour's wall or a basement window well.

Slope and runoff toward the river

A town that overlooks a river is built on a grade. Water running downhill collects against the uphill side of a house, soaks into the soil there and pushes against the foundation wall. A French drain or a curtain drain set uphill of the house catches that flow before it reaches the wall and carries it to a place where it can leave safely.

Tight lots and shared runoff

On a small lot there is little room for a long discharge line. A downspout that empties at the corner of one yard can leave a soggy strip in the next. We look at where the water can go without causing trouble for the neighbours, which sometimes means a dry well or a pop-up emitter instead of a long pipe run.

Older homes and old foundations

Wrightsville has a long history, and its historic district is on the National Register of Historic Places. A town with that much history usually has older houses, and older houses often have stone or block foundations with no footing drain at all. We check the wall for cracks and efflorescence, the white mineral crust that shows water has been moving through, before we suggest a fix.

Drainage services we offer in Wrightsville

We handle three main kinds of work here. Which one fits depends on where the water is showing up, not on what the house looks like from the street.

French drain installation

A French drain installation is a trench lined with fabric, filled with washed stone and fitted with perforated pipe. It collects groundwater and moves it away by gravity. We use it for soggy lawns, water along a foundation and low spots that stay wet for days. The same work covers curtain drains, foundation drains, interior drains and dry wells.

Basement waterproofing

If water is getting inside, basement waterproofing deals with it. That can mean repairing a foundation crack, adding an interior drain along the footing, or installing or replacing a sump pump. We also work on crawl spaces and on flooded basements.

Yard drainage

Yard drainage covers water on the surface. Regrading, drainage swales, channel drains, catch basins and downspout drainage all belong here. On a sloped lot, a shallow swale along the property line is often the simplest way to move water around a house.

Signs water is a problem at your Wrightsville property

Some signs are obvious, like standing water in the basement after a storm. Others take longer to notice. A musty smell, peeling paint low on a basement wall, a white powdery film on the concrete, or a sump pump that runs far more than it used to all point to groundwater. Outside, look for bare soil washing out near a downspout, a patch of lawn that never dries, or a gutter that overflows at the same corner every time.

It helps to note when it happens. Water that appears only in heavy rain usually means surface runoff or a clogged discharge line. Water that shows up in a dry spell after a wet week points to a high water table or a slow-draining soil.

What a drainage visit in Wrightsville looks like

We start with a walk around the outside of the property. We look at the roofline, the gutters, where each downspout ends and how the ground slopes away from the house. Then we go inside, if the problem is in the basement, and check the walls, the floor joint and any existing sump pit.

After that we explain what we think is causing the water, which fix we would suggest and what else could work. Some problems need a drain. Others only need a downspout extension or a few inches of soil built up against the wall. If a simpler fix will do the job, we say so. We do not quote prices before we have seen the property.

How to book a drainage visit in Wrightsville

We serve Wrightsville from Lancaster. We do not have an office in the borough. Our hours are Monday to Friday, 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM, and Saturday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. We are closed on Sunday and we do not offer emergency or after-hours service.

To book, call (717) 696-1707 or email info@frenchdrainlancaster.com, or use the Request a Drainage Visit button. Tell us the address, where the water shows up and when it happens. You can also start from our [home page](/) to see everything we do.

About Wrightsville: Wrightsville, PA on Wikipedia · Wrightsville on Google Maps