The storm was Tuesday. The puddle is still here.

That is the Google question in this county. Not "best French drain contractor near me" as the first thought. Standing water after a storm, Huntsville. Wet crawl space, Madison County. The clay did not take the rain. The grade sent it to the house. Or both.

Why it sits

Red clay. Tiny particles. Water moves sideways or not at all. Fifty-plus inches a year, no dry season. A low spot that would empty in sand is a pond here. Grade does almost all the work because the soil will not.

The expensive version is not the lawn. It is water against the slab or in the crawl, storm after storm. Clay at the perimeter stays damp. That is foundation and wood and mosquitoes, not just ugly grass.

Crawl spaces in this county

A lot of houses are on crawl, not a deep basement. After a storm you get: damp smell, wet vapor barrier, water at the low corner, a sump that never rests. Sometimes the yard is feeding the crawl through the soil. Sometimes downspouts dump next to the stem wall. Sometimes the lot drains toward the house because beds got built up and the 6-inches-in-10-feet slope died.

A French drain at the footing, with a real outlet, is how you intercept that. A sock in the middle of the yard is not.

What to do the night of the storm

If water is in the house, that is safety first. 911 if someone needs rescue. City police non-emergency is 256-722-7100. After it is a private-lot problem, use the form on this site.

If the street inlet is buried in leaves, Huntsville Connect. That is not a French drain job.

If the water is only in your side yard and the crawl is dry, you can wait until morning and still request a quote.

What we look at

Where it ponds. Where the downspouts end. Grade away from the house or toward it. Whether you own a downhill daylight. Whether a city inlet is even in play. Clay vs a pocket of better fill. Hampton Cove bowl vs Green Mountain slope vs flat Harvest. The clay-soil designer on this site is the short version. A walk on the lot is the real one.

Repair vs drain vs grade

Sometimes the yard needs regrading, about 6 inches of fall in the first 10 feet from the house, because clay will not forgive a back-pitch. Sometimes gutters are the whole storm hitting one corner. Sometimes you need the trench. Often you need two of the three. We will not sell 80 feet of pipe if the downspouts are the problem.

When the last guy made it worse

Shallow sock, no stone, no grade, outlet into clay. Or a pipe aimed at the neighbor. Or roof water tied into the footing drain. We have to open that, pull the silted line, and start from a discharge that exists. Budget for undo plus do.

What fixed means here

The lawn is not a swamp two days after a typical storm. The crawl is not taking on a new lake. Water is not sitting on your foundation. We cannot make Madison County stop raining 55 inches. We can give that water a legal path.

Money (market, not a bid)

Exterior yard work often $10 to $65 a foot nationally, clay toward the top. Footing-depth and crawl collection often $30 to $100 a foot. Hardscape crossings more. A walk and a discharge plan beat a number you saw on a national blog.

When not to hire us

Public ditch is the problem: city. Failed septic: different trade. You want a hidden hook into a catch basin: no.

Request a quote. Say standing water, wet crawl, or both, and the neighborhood. No live phone until Nick assigns one. Form CTA. Domain in play is huntsvillefrenchdrain.com. Brand on the pages is still Red Clay Drainage until you say otherwise.