An exterior French drain excavates to the bottom of the outside basement wall, coats the wall with a waterproof sealant, and lays a gravel-filled drain at the footing to carry water away before it touches the concrete.
Can the outside still be dug, and is it worth it?
Work from the outside when the ground is available and the wall itself is the problem. This is the only approach that keeps water off the concrete rather than collecting it after it arrives, and on a wall that is actively taking water it is the more durable of the two.
Weigh what sits on top of the dig before anything else, because that is where the money goes. A lawn is cheap to open and put back. A patio, a concrete drive, a deck or a mature tree is not, and on a full basement the trench is 7 to 8 feet deep for its whole length. The pipe is the cheapest thing in it.
Do not dig when the existing footing drain is merely silted rather than crushed. A camera survey settles which it is in a morning, and jetting a blocked line costs a fraction of replacing it. Digging out a drain that could have been cleaned is the most common waste on this page.
That choice has a page of its own: Interior vs Exterior French Drain in Layton, UT.
The jobs this covers, and what each one costs to get wrong
Footing Drain Replacement
Excavating to the footing, removing the failed line, and rebuilding the drain and its filter layer. It applies when the original drain exists and has silted shut. Adding a second drain beside a blocked one repeats the failure.
What moves the price. How deep the footing is, and what sits on top of the dig. A patio, a drive, grown planting and a deck all come off and go back. The pipe is the cheapest thing in the trench.
When footing drain replacement is the wrong answer. A line that is silted rather than crushed can often be jetted for a fraction of the cost. A camera survey settles which it is in a morning. Digging out a drain that could have been cleaned is the waste seen most often here.
Window Well Drainage
A drain in the base of the well, tied to the footing drain or to its own outlet, plus a cover. It applies when a well fills and comes over the sill. A well is a hole against the foundation and it collects everything that lands in it.
What moves the price. Whether the well can tie into a footing drain that works, or needs an outlet of its own. And how deep the well is. A cover is cheap. An outlet dug from the base of a deep well is not.
When window well drainage is the wrong answer. A well that only fills when the gutter above it spills is a gutter job. Fitting a drain to carry off water that should never have arrived treats the spill and not the cause.
Get an estimate in Layton
None of this can be priced from a description. Three things decide it. What the ground does with water. How much fall the site has. Where the water may go at the end. All three are facts about an address, and none of them show up in a photograph. Send the address and what you are seeing. Someone who does this work in Layton takes it from there. If it turns out to be a cheaper job than the one you came here for, that is worth hearing before anyone digs.
Layton Utah French Drain drainage services.
Read what a Layton drainage job costs before calling anyone, and check the Layton Utah French Drain service area to see whether your street is covered.
Back to Layton Utah French Drain.
Where the water comes from decides which fix will work The largest mapped soil here is rated for flooding: None
Flooding frequency is the USDA's rating for how often a soil is covered by water from a stream or a river overflowing. A rating of None means the survey does not expect that here, which points the diagnosis at grade, downspouts and ground water. Any rating above None means a watercourse belongs in the diagnosis too, and work on the house alone will not settle it.
USDA NRCS Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO), via Soil Data Access · retrieved 2026-08-28
What comes out of the trench decides what has to go back into it Surface clay runs as high as 23% here
Clay content is the share of the soil made of the finest particles. Wet clay will not compact and dry clay does not drain, which is why an exterior drain is backfilled with imported granular material and washed stone rather than with the spoil that came out. Putting the same ground back around a new drain is what silts it shut.
USDA NRCS Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO), via Soil Data Access · retrieved 2026-08-28
Questions people actually ask
How deep does an exterior drain go?
To the bottom of the wall it protects, which on a full basement is 7 to 8 feet down. That depth is most of the price: it decides whether the trench needs shoring and how much spoil comes out and has to go somewhere.
What has to come off and go back?
Everything in the trench band, which runs 2 to 3 feet wide at the surface for the whole length of the wall. Lawn, planting, patio, drive, deck. Reinstatement is often the larger half of the quote and the half that varies most between two houses with the same wall. Get it priced as its own line.
Is the wall sealant enough on its own?
No. A coating keeps water out of the concrete; it does nothing about water standing against it. The stone drain at the footing is what removes the pressure, and it needs about 1 inch of fall every 8 feet to carry anything.
Can an exterior drain be dug in winter?
Frozen ground stops the work. The usual window runs about 8 months, opening once the frost is out and closing when it returns. Inside that window, book roughly 6 weeks ahead — an open trench against a foundation is not something to leave over a freeze.
When is cleaning the old drain cheaper than replacing it?
Whenever the line is silted rather than collapsed, which a camera survey settles in a morning. Jetting costs a small fraction of a 7 to 8 foot dig. Ask for the survey before the quote, not after.
Water already at the wall is not waiting for a decision
Ground that is saturated has nowhere to put the next storm, so rain that stood in the yard once stands deeper the next time. Water sitting against a wall keeps working on it, and the finest soil travels with that water into whatever drainage is already in the ground.
Working out which job it actually is costs nothing, and it is the step every other decision depends on.