Ask most homeowners what makes a great landscape and they'll talk about plants, patios, and stonework. Ask a contractor who's worked the Wasatch Back for fifteen years and the answer is one word: drainage. In Park City, water is the force that builds — or destroys — everything you put in the ground.
Snowmelt is a different animal than rain
A landscape designed for rainfall has to move occasional storm water. A Park City landscape has to handle weeks of freeze-thaw cycling and a spring snowmelt that saturates the ground from below for an extended stretch. That sustained volume and timing is what overwhelms undersized or poorly routed systems.
Where bad drainage shows up
- Against the foundation. Water pooling at the house is the most urgent issue we fix — and usually the most preventable with regrading and properly routed drains.
- Behind retaining walls. A retaining wall is really a water-management structure. Without gravel backfill and drainage, freeze-thaw pressure pushes walls out of plumb.
- On slopes. Uncontrolled runoff carves channels and strips soil, undoing planting and hardscape alike.
Designing for the freeze-thaw reality
We grade away from structures, build in drains sized for snowmelt volume rather than just rain, and combine grading, stabilization, and planting to hold slopes. On hardscape, the compacted sub-base and edge restraint matter more than the pavers on top — that base is what survives a decade of frost heave.
Get the water right first
Plants, sod, patios, and walls all last dramatically longer when the water is handled before anything decorative goes in. It's the least glamorous part of a project and the part that determines whether the rest of it survives Park City winters. If you've got pooling, erosion, or a wall that's starting to lean, that's a drainage conversation — and the sooner the better.
