Exterior Drainage · Macomb, Oakland & Metro Detroit
3G Home Exteriors traces standing water and foundation-adjacent drainage problems back to the roofline — because the puddle in the yard is almost never where the problem begins.
Family-owned and operated in Michigan since 2011
Based at 31097 Fraser Dr, Fraser, MI 48026
Serving Macomb, Oakland and St. Clair counties
Free on-site inspection and a written, itemized scope before work begins
Water pooling near a foundation, a soggy patch of lawn, or a damp basement wall usually isn’t a yard problem on its own. It’s the end result of water that started at the roof and never had a proper path away from the house. We trace that path from the roof through the gutters and downspouts to wherever it’s supposed to discharge, and fix whichever step in that chain is actually broken.
A roof is a collection surface. Every square foot of it sends rain somewhere, and there are only five or six places between the shingle and the far end of the yard where that water can go wrong. Fixing drainage means finding which one, in order, rather than treating the place the puddle happens to sit.
Valleys concentrate the runoff from a large roof area into one narrow path. A valley dumping into a short gutter run is delivering far more water per minute than the roofline next to it, and that’s often where an overflow that looks random starts.
An undersized or clogged gutter overflows regardless of what happens downstream, and everything below it is then irrelevant. If gutters that are overflowing at the source are the real problem, that’s where the fix belongs — no amount of yard work compensates for water never entering the system.
Downspout count, size and placement determine whether the gutter can actually empty. Too few outlets on a long run, or an outlet placed at the wrong end of the slope, backs water up in the gutter even when nothing is clogged.
This is the step that gets skipped most often. A downspout that ends at a splash block is depositing the entire roof’s runoff at the base of the wall. Extensions — surface or buried — move that discharge out past the backfill zone, which is the soil most likely to let water down against the foundation.
Soil settles against a foundation over the years, and a grade that once sloped away can end up sloping back. If the ground next to the house is flat or falling toward it, water discharged nearby returns to the same place. Correcting grade is sometimes the whole fix and sometimes only part of it.
Water has to end up where it can soak away or run off without creating a new problem — not at the low corner of the yard, not against a neighbor’s line, and not back toward the house. Where a buried extension makes sense, the outlet is the part that determines whether it works.
Where water exits the downspout, and whether it’s actually moving away from the house.
Overflow at the gutter level compounds every drainage problem downstream — see Seamless Gutters if the gutters themselves are the source.
Standing water near the foundation is a priority issue — it’s the condition most likely to lead to basement or crawlspace problems.
A drainage problem downstream can start at a roof valley delivering more water than the gutter or downspout below it can handle.
An undersized or poorly placed downspout can overwhelm even a well-installed drainage extension.
The final discharge point needs enough distance and grade to actually carry water away from the house, not just off the downspout.
Tell us where the water is pooling or the issue you’re seeing, with photos if possible.
We follow the path back from the pooling point to the roofline to find where it actually starts.
We identify whether the fix is at the gutter, the downspout, the grading, or a combination.
We complete the work and confirm water is moving the way it’s supposed to.
— when gutters overflowing at the source are the actual cause.
— to keep gutters from clogging and overflowing again.
— fora full roof inspectionwhen the drainage issue traces back to the roofline itself.
— for porch and stoop work where water has already gone to work on the masonry.
Reviews below come straight from our Google Business Profile, so what you are reading is what other property owners in these towns actually wrote.
Based in Fraser, we handle drainage and downspout correction throughout Macomb County, Oakland County, and the surrounding Metro Detroit area, including Sterling Heights, Troy, and St. Clair Shores.
Roof, gutter, downspout, extension, grade and discharge point are one path. Fixing the section you can see while ignoring the section upstream is how the puddle comes back.
Sometimes standing water is a soil and grading issue, and sometimes it is a roofline volume issue wearing a drainage costume. The inspection is meant to tell those apart before you spend anything.
The person who walked the property in the rain is the person supervising the trench. Nothing gets translated through a third party.
We work on the same clay soil and the same freeze-thaw cycle as your property, in the same counties, and have done since 2011.
Where the water is going to end up is stated before work starts, because moving a problem ten feet is not the same as solving it.
Drainage work is judged by the next heavy rain, not by the day it is finished. Call us after that rain and tell us what you saw. The same family that has run this business out of Fraser since 2011 answers, and coming back to look at a discharge point is a short drive rather than a service call from another county.
If water pooling in the yard tends to show up right after rain and near a downspout or roof valley, the roofline is a likely starting point. Our guides on where downspouts should actually discharge and yard drainage on Michigan clay soil cover how to tell the difference.
Often both interact — undersized gutters and poor yard grading can each make the other worse. We evaluate the whole path before recommending a fix rather than assuming it’s one or the other.
Yes, where grading and yard layout support it — a buried extension routes downspout water further from the foundation than a surface splash block can.
Sometimes, on a lot that already slopes away well. On a flat lot, or where the soil next to the foundation has settled, a splash block just relocates the discharge by a foot. That’s the situation an extension is for.
Water that is not moving away from the foundation is one of the most common contributors to basement moisture, though it is not the only possible cause. Correcting the exterior water path removes a major source, but an existing basement leak needs an in-person look before anyone promises you a result. We will tell you what the drainage work can and cannot be expected to fix.
Send the problem area and we’ll follow the path from the roofline to the discharge point. Financing is available for qualified projects — see financing options.
