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Design Services › Drainage Plans
Technical & Structural Plans

Drainage plans that move water where it belongs.

Water is the quiet destroyer of outdoor projects. Daydream prepares grading and drainage design that manages runoff, protects structures, and keeps your space usable, coordinated with civil engineers where a project calls for stamped design.

Grade First
Water managed by design, not by luck
Protects the Build
Keeps water off structures and hardscape
Coordinated
Civil engineering where required
Why It Matters

Almost every outdoor failure is really a water failure.

Settling patios, failing walls, cracked hardscape, soggy lawns, water in the basement: trace them back and the cause is almost always water that was not managed. In North Georgia clay especially, water that is not directed somewhere on purpose will find somewhere on its own, usually the most expensive place possible.

A drainage plan decides where water goes before the ground is ever moved. We design the grading and drainage so runoff is collected and carried away from structures, hardscape, and the areas you use, coordinated with civil engineers where a project requires stamped drainage design. Get this right and everything built on top of it lasts. Get it wrong and no amount of good construction saves it.

What The Plan Covers

A deliberate path for every drop.

Grading and drainage designed so water is managed on purpose, coordinated with civil engineering where required.

Grading Design

How the ground is shaped so water flows away from where it should not go and toward where it should.

Surface & Subsurface Drainage

Swales, channels, catch basins, and subsurface drains that collect and carry water off the site.

Structure Protection

Keeping water away from foundations, walls, pools, and hardscape, where it does the most expensive damage.

Outlet & Discharge

Where the water ultimately goes, designed to discharge properly and coordinated with engineering where required.

Grading plans Drainage design Swales & channels Catch basins Subsurface drains Stormwater coordination
How It Is Handled

Designed for the site, engineered where it counts.

Simple lot drainage and engineered stormwater are different scopes. We handle both appropriately.

01

Read the Water

Using accurate topography, we map how water moves across the site today and where it causes problems.

02

Design the Solution

We design grading and drainage to redirect water deliberately, protecting structures and usable space.

03

Engineer Where Required

For engineered stormwater or detention, we coordinate licensed civil engineers to provide stamped design.

04

Build or Hand Off

We build it as your design-build team, or deliver a coordinated drainage set for your crews.

Who It Serves

For problem lots and projects that must last.

Homeowners with drainage problems, or building something they need to protect, get water managed by design. Builders and contractors get coordinated grading and drainage plans with civil engineering handled where required. Drainage is unglamorous, and it is the difference between a project that lasts and one that fails.

Georgia Residential General Contractor license seal

Design-build, with civil engineering coordinated.

Daydream prepares grading and drainage design and coordinates licensed civil engineers for stamped stormwater design where a project requires it. View all credentials

Common Questions

Drainage plans, answered.

Do I need a drainage plan for my project?
If your project changes grade, adds hardscape, or sits where water already causes trouble, yes. Managing water is one of the highest-return parts of any outdoor project, and it is far cheaper to design than to fix.
Is this the same as engineered stormwater?
Not always. Much residential drainage is design-level grading and drainage, which we prepare. When a project requires engineered stormwater or detention with a stamp, we coordinate a licensed civil engineer.
Can drainage be fixed after the fact?
Sometimes, but it is almost always more expensive and less effective than designing it in from the start. The best time to solve drainage is before anything is built.
Can you provide a drainage plan for another builder?
Yes. We provide grading and drainage plans as a standalone service, with civil engineering coordinated where required.

Solve the water before you build.

Tell us where the water goes wrong. We will design a drainage plan that puts it where it belongs.

Request a Drainage Plan