French Drain Cost in Irving, TX: What a Typical Job Includes

Key takeaways

A typical Dallas-area range for a standard exterior French drain is about $25 to $55 per foot installed.
The outlet decides more of the price than the footage: a short run to a pop-up costs far less than a deep run to the curb.
Restoration (sod, sprinkler lines, cut concrete) is real money; make sure an estimate includes it.
Local wages for this work run below the national average, which is part of why DFW ranges sit where they do.

A standard exterior French drain in the Irving and Dallas area typically costs about $25 to $55 per foot installed, which puts a 60-foot side-yard run at roughly $1,500 to $3,300 before any curb core, pump or concrete work. That range covers a trench, filter fabric, washed stone, perforated pipe and a basic outlet. Rein Irving Drainage Company publishes the range so you can check an estimate against it; a site visit turns it into a written number for your yard.

What moves a French drain toward the high end

Factor	Lower cost	Higher cost
Length	Short run along one side	Long run around the house or across the lot
Depth	12 to 18 inches	Deeper toward a distant outlet
Outlet	Pop-up emitter in a lower part of the lawn	Long run to the curb with a curb core, or a pump
Soil	Sandy topsoil over clay (much of central Irving)	Dense clay or hard layers near the surface
Obstacles	Open lawn	Tree roots, utilities, walks and driveways to cross
Restoration	Grass with no sprinklers in the way	New sod, several sprinkler lines, cut concrete
Access	Gate wide enough for a small excavator	Hand digging through a narrow side yard

Of all these, the outlet matters most. A drain that can empty at a pop-up emitter twenty feet away is a small job. The same drain on a flat lot where the nearest allowed outlet is the street curb a hundred feet away is a much larger one, and a lot with no lower outlet at all needs a pump. Our guide to where a French drain can drain lays out the options.

What is inside an Irving French drain price

Some parts of the price have public figures behind them; others depend entirely on your yard.

Part of the price	What sets it	Local public figure
Labor	Hours of trenching, laying and backfill	Pipelayers in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro earn a mean $22.84 an hour, about 13% below the $26.30 national mean (BLS, May 2025); construction laborers a mean $21.05 against $25.02 nationally
Machine time	Trench length and access for a small excavator	Operating engineers in the metro earn a mean $26.51 an hour against $31.87 nationally (BLS, May 2025)
Stone, fabric and pipe	Trench length and width	No public local figure; quantities follow the trench
Outlet	Distance and type: pop-up, swale, curb core or pump	Coppell charged $100 for a 2022 residential curb-core permit; Irving’s requirement is confirmed per address
Grade or earthwork permit	Only where a city requires one	Grand Prairie: $50 earthwork permit for a residential lot under half an acre when the grade or drainage pattern changes; Dallas exempts single-family lots under two acres from its grading permit
Restoration	Sod, sprinkler repairs, concrete	No public figure; it scales with the trench and what it crosses

A wage is not a billing rate. The hourly rate a contractor charges also carries insurance, licensing, vehicles, equipment and overhead, so it is always well above the wage figures. The wage gap is one reason Dallas-area prices do not simply track national averages.

Example budgets

These are illustrative examples built from the typical range, not quotes.

Example	Scope	Illustrative budget
Soggy strip along one side yard	40 ft, shallow, pop-up emitter at the front lawn	About $1,000 to $2,200
Back corner that never dries	60 ft, moderate depth, outlet in a swale toward the street	About $1,500 to $3,300
Wet side yard on a flat lot	80 ft, deeper toward the street, curb core	About $2,000 to $4,400, plus any permit and concrete work

Ways to keep the cost down

Fix roof water first. If downspouts dump at the wet area, burying them in solid pipe can shrink or remove the need for a French drain.
Check whether the problem is surface water. A puddle on clay may need a catch basin or regrading instead. Our French drain versus catch basin guide explains how to tell.
Share one outlet. Several lines that end at the same curb core or swale cost less than separate outlets.
Phase a large job. A whole-yard plan can be built in stages if each stage ties into the same outlet.

What a fair estimate should list

A useful French drain estimate names the trench length and depth, the pipe and fabric, where the outlet is and what kind, any permit or curb-core work, and exactly what restoration is included. If an estimate is a single per-foot price with none of that, ask what happens at the outlet and who repairs the sprinklers. For the wider picture across every kind of drainage work, see drainage cost in Irving, or try the cost tool for your own length. To have the range turned into a written number, call for an estimate or use the form.

Questions people ask

Is a French drain priced per foot or per job?

Most estimates are built from the length of trench, but the total also includes the outlet, any curb core or pump, and restoration. Comparing two quotes by their per-foot number alone can hide what each one leaves out.

Why do some quotes come in far below $25 a foot?

Very low figures usually mean a shallow trench with sock pipe and no filter fabric, little or no restoration, or no real outlet. Those drains tend to clog quickly in Irving clay.

Does a curb outlet cost extra?

Usually, because it adds a longer run, a cut through the curb and, where the city requires it, a permit. Coppell's 2022 permit for a residential curb core for yard drains carried a $100 fee.

How much does a French drain cost in Irving?