An interior French drain breaks the slab edge along the basement wall, sets a perforated pipe beside the footing, and sends what it catches to a sump pump that lifts it outside.
Is the inside the right side to work from?
Work from the inside when the outside is not available. A finished patio, a drive against the house, a shared wall, or a mature tree in the way all remove the exterior option, and an interior drain is what is left. It is also the answer when water is already arriving and the dig season has closed.
Work from the inside when the water is coming up rather than in. Damp across a whole wall, or water appearing through the slab, is the water table rather than a fault outside one spot. An interior drain and a pump relieve that; sealing a wall does not.
Do not start here when the ground outside still falls toward the house, or a downspout ends within 6 feet of the wall where the water shows up. Those are surface problems and they are the cheapest thing on this page. An interior drain installed around either of them moves the water without removing the cause.
Both of those choices have a page of their own: Interior vs Exterior French Drain in Layton, UT and French Drain vs Sump Pump in Layton, UT.
The jobs this covers, and what each one costs to get wrong
Basement Waterproofing
Sealing the inside of a foundation wall and draining it, usually with a perimeter drain that feeds a sump. It is the answer when water is already inside and the outside cannot be dug — a finished patio, a shared wall, or a drive against the house.
What moves the price. How much wall gets treated. Whether the floor has to be broken to reach the footing. And what has to come out and go back — a finished basement adds that to every foot, and it is usually the bigger half.
When basement waterproofing is the wrong answer. If the outside can still be dug, a footing drain treats the cause and this treats the sign. Water at one wall with a downspout beside it is a downspout problem. Sealing the inside leaves the water where it was.
Sump Pump Installation & Repair
A basin set below the slab, a pump, a check valve and a discharge line taken well clear of the foundation. It is the answer where there is nowhere downhill to send water by gravity. A flat lot removes the option a French drain depends on.
What moves the price. Where the water may be sent, and how far the line runs to get there. Cutting a slab for a new basin costs more than dropping a pump into one that exists. A flat lot needs that line carried further than most people expect.
When a sump pump is the wrong answer. If the lot falls to somewhere lower, a gravity drain does the same work. Nothing to fail, and nothing to power. A pump is what is left when there is nowhere lower to send water.
Crawl Space Drainage
A perimeter drain and sump under a crawl space, usually with a vapour barrier over the ground. It applies when the ground under the floor is wet. The space is the foundation’s inside face even though nobody stands in it.
What moves the price. Headroom, and how much of the work is done lying down. Getting spoil out and stone in through a small hatch is the other multiplier. A vapour barrier is priced by floor area, not by perimeter.
When crawl space drainage is the wrong answer. A crawl space that is damp rather than wet is often a venting and grading problem at the surface. Trenching under a floor to deal with water from the flower bed outside is the long way round.
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.
For part of the year the water outside your wall is higher than your floor The shallowest mapped water table sits 29.9 inches down
Seasonal high water table is the depth the ground water rises to in a normal wet spring. Where it comes up above a footing, water reaches a basement wall under pressure rather than by running down it, and that changes which repair works.
USDA NRCS Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO), via Soil Data Access · retrieved 2026-08-28
A pump is sized against the storm that arrives most often, not the worst one A two-year storm drops 1.69 inches in a day
This is the daily rainfall expected about every other year, which is the load an interior drain and its pump handle repeatedly rather than once. A basin that empties fast enough for the design event and cycles constantly at this depth is the wrong pump for the house, and it is the failure seen most.
NOAA Atlas 14 Volume 1 Version 5, Precipitation Frequency Data Server · ±0.15 in · retrieved 2026-08-28
Questions people actually ask
How much of the floor has to come up?
A strip 12 to 18 inches wide along the wall being drained. The concrete is cut, not broken out whole, and it goes back over the new stone. On a perimeter run the cut follows the wall rather than crossing the floor, so furniture in the middle of the room is usually not in the way.
How long does an interior drain take?
Usually 2 to 3 days for a perimeter run. Digging the same length outside takes 3 to 5, and longer once a patio, drive or grown planting has to come off and go back. The pipe is a small part of either number.
Where does the water go once it is inside?
Into a basin set below the slab, then out through a discharge line taken well clear of the foundation — 10 feet is a working minimum, further on flat ground. A line that ends beside the wall returns the water to the drain that just removed it.
Does an interior drain stop the wall getting wet?
No, and it is not meant to. It relieves water at the footing, 7 to 8 feet down on a full basement, so the water has an easier path than through the wall. A wall that is wet because the ground outside falls toward it stays wet until the grade is fixed.
Can this be done in a finished basement?
Yes, and the finish is usually the bigger half of the cost. Framing, drywall and flooring within about 2 feet of the wall come out and go back, priced by the foot the same as the drain. Ask for those two numbers separately before comparing quotes.
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.