For red clay slopes, gullies and washouts
Tallahassee Yard Drainage Erosion Control in Tallahassee
A gully in a Red Hills yard gets deeper every storm. Filling it is not enough. The water that cut it has to be slowed down or sent somewhere else.
- Tallahassee, Bradfordville and Crawfordville
- Written price before any digging
- Licensed, insured local contractors
- Priced for Red Hills clay and karst sand
Tallahassee Yard Drainage arranges erosion control and washout repair for Tallahassee properties where running water is carrying the yard away. The Red Hills are rolling ground, and a slope that looked stable for years can start to cut after a new roof, a new driveway or a new house uphill changes where the water goes. Once red soil is exposed, every storm takes more of it.
Stabilizing a gully now typically costs $1,000 to $7,500; leaving it lets each storm undercut the slope toward a fence, a driveway edge or a foundation, where the repair becomes $15,000 of retaining wall and structural fill.
$1,000 to $7,500 for most residential erosion repairs
Erosion control in Tallahassee typically runs $1,000 to $7,500. Filling and sodding a small washout with a diversion above it sits at the low end. Rebuilding a long gully with compacted fill, erosion matting, a rock-lined channel and a new outlet sits at the high end.
Get a price: (850) 604-5871Signs of erosion on your property
- A channel or gully cutting down a slope, deeper after each storm
- Tree roots exposed on a bank that used to be covered
- Red silt fanning out across a driveway, street or lawn below a slope
- Mulch and pine straw washed off beds after rain
- A fence post, sidewalk or driveway edge being undercut
- Bare soil that grass will not hold
Why Red Hills slopes wash
The red loam that covers most of Tallahassee and Bradfordville holds together reasonably well under grass. Strip the grass or concentrate water on it and it moves quickly. The usual trigger is concentrated flow: a downspout, a driveway edge, a culvert outlet or a neighbor's runoff all hitting the same spot. Summer thunderstorms dump water fast enough that sheet flow gathers into rills, rills into gullies.
Shade makes it worse. Large oaks and pines shade out turf, which leaves slopes with bare soil or thin pine straw that washes in the first heavy rain.
Fix the water first, then the soil
Filling a gully with dirt without changing the water that cut it produces the same gully a few months later. The durable sequence is:
- Find where the concentrated water comes from and divert or slow it, with a berm, a swale or downspout piping
- Rebuild the cut with compacted fill in layers, not loose dumped soil
- Protect the surface with erosion-control matting and sod, or plant it where turf will not grow
- Armor the channel with rock where water must still run, and give it a stable outlet
Not sure which of these your yard needs? Describe it on the phone and get a straight answer.
Call (850) 604-5871Where the washed soil ends up
Red silt leaving a property does not stop at the curb. It fills roadside ditches and storm inlets and ends up in Tallahassee's lakes and sinks. Leon County and the City of Tallahassee both treat sediment in stormwater as a real concern, and larger projects that disturb soil are subject to erosion and sediment control requirements. On a residential repair, silt fence or straw wattles during the work keep your soil on your lot.
Slopes too steep to hold
Grass holds a slope up to about three horizontal to one vertical. Steeper than that, soil and sod need help: terracing, a planted slope with deep-rooted groundcover, or a retaining wall. A wall is structural and needs its own drainage behind it, which is covered on the retaining wall drainage page. For gentle slopes with steady flow, a rock-lined dry creek bed turns the erosion path into a feature.
A gully heading toward the house or driveway?
Erosion accelerates. The cheapest time to fix a washout is before the next big storm. Call and describe where it starts and where it is heading.
Call (850) 604-5871Questions people ask
How much does erosion control cost in Tallahassee?
Typically $1,000 to $7,500, from a small washout with a diversion to a long gully rebuilt with fill, matting, a rock channel and a new outlet.
How do I stop erosion on a slope in my yard?
Stop the concentrated water first with a berm, swale or downspout piping, then rebuild with compacted fill, protect it with matting and sod or plants, and armor any channel that still carries water.
Why is my red clay yard washing away?
Concentrated flow from a downspout, driveway, culvert or neighbor hitting bare or thinly covered soil. Shade that kills turf makes it worse.
What are the signs of erosion problems?
A gully that deepens with each storm, exposed roots, red silt on the driveway or street, mulch washing off beds, and undercut fences or sidewalk edges.
Can I just fill the gully with dirt?
Not on its own. Without changing the water that cut it, a filled gully usually reopens within months.
Often done together
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Drainage swales
A swale is a shallow, gently sloped channel in the lawn. It moves a summer storm's worth of surface water across a yard without a single buried part to clog.
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Retaining wall drainage
Most retaining walls that lean, bulge or crack are failing because of water, not weight. Wet soil behind a wall pushes far harder than dry soil.
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Dry creek beds
A dry creek bed is a swale lined with river rock. It carries storm water where grass would wash out, and on a dry day it looks like it was always there.
Talk it through before anyone digs
Describe where the water sits and where it comes from. You will hear which fix fits the yard, what it usually costs, and whether you need one at all.
Call (850) 604-5871