Drainage, Landscaping, or General Contracting: Who Actually Fixes What?

Drainage, landscaping, or general contracting — figuring out who actually fixes what is kind of a trick question, because all three will give you a confident answer. Ask a landscaper about your soggy backyard and you'll get grading and plant beds. Ask a general contractor and it's patios and pergolas. Ask a drainage contractor and it's French drains and downspouts.

Nobody's scamming you. They're all just looking at your yard through their specific lens. You might actually need all three, but it helps to understand the differences upfront instead of calling whoever's name you already know, paying for a fix, and getting surprised a year later when the same wet spot reappears.

Let's settle who's actually supposed to handle what. Even if you read this and call someone else entirely, you'll at least know which someone else makes the most sense for your situation.

Landscapers

Landscapers are the experts on what grows, how it looks, and how to arrange a yard so it's appealing to the eye. Some of them are smart about grading and surface water, and a good one might reshape a slope or add a swale as part of a bigger yard redesign.

Here's the catch: most landscaping companies solve for aesthetics first, water second. When you're stuck with pools of water after a storm, a less-than-thorough landscaper's instinct is often "more mulch" or "regrade a little." That can look like a fix for one season, right up until the water finds its way back.

Call a landscaper when:

• The issue is about slope, plant choice, or overall yard design

• You want the yard reshaped for looks and use

• Drainage is a secondary consideration, not the main complaint

General Contractors

A general contractor oversees construction and renovation projects involving multiple trades. They coordinate electricians, plumbers, concrete crews, landscapers, and drainage contractors as needed.

Call a general contractor when:

• You're building a new patio, deck, or pergola

• You're planning an outdoor kitchen

• You're taking on a large backyard renovation or home addition

• Your project spans multiple trades and needs somebody sequencing it

If your project includes drainage work, it usually needs to happen first. Otherwise you're building on top of an unresolved water problem.

Drainage Contractors

This is the trade most homeowners don't think to call first, mostly because it's the least familiar. A drainage contractor's whole job is tracing where water comes from, where it's supposed to go, and why it isn't getting there.

Around Austin and Central Texas, where clay soil and fast runoff make the problem worse, the fix might be:

• A French drain

• Channel drains

• Regrading combined with piping

• Downspout extensions run properly underground

• A full stormwater plan for a property that just doesn't drain right

The advantage here is diagnostic — working out where the water is actually going, and how to intercept it before it becomes a bigger problem.

Call a drainage contractor when:

• Water is pooling in your yard

• Your foundation is staying damp

• Your yard holds water after storms

• Soil is washing out of beds or off a slope

The Gray Area: Why the Overlap Is So Confusing

Realistically, a lot of good projects use two or even all three trades. A drainage fix might involve regrading that a landscaper would normally do. A backyard renovation might need drainage work first so the fix actually lasts.

That overlap is exactly why people get confused about who to call. The trades aren't neatly divided — they're just differently focused.

Here's what it looks like in practice:

• A homeowner wants a new patio, so they call a general contractor

• The GC starts digging and finds the yard already holds water after every rain

• The project pauses while a drainage contractor solves the water issue first

• The GC picks the project back up on solid, dry ground instead of pouring a slab over a swamp

That's the project going right. The bad version skips that step, and you find out a year later when the patio starts sinking on one corner.

Common Mistakes Homeowners Make

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  • Fixing the yard, not the water. Regrading or adding plants can mask a drainage issue for a season, but rarely solves it.

  • Building before diagnosing. Pouring a patio or an addition without correcting drainage first almost always means redoing work later.

  • Assuming it's just how Texas soil is. Expansive clay is real, but a lot of these problems are genuinely fixable.

  • Hiring the cheapest bid instead of the right trade. A cheap fix for the wrong problem is still money spent on nothing.

Quick Guide: Who Should You Call?

Call a drainage contractor for:

• Standing water

• Yard flooding

• Poor yard drainage

• Erosion

• Water runoff

• Drainage around your foundation

• Property grading issues

• Drainage system installation

Call a landscaper for:

• New sod

• Trees and shrubs

• Flower beds

• Pollinator gardens

• Decorative rock

• Mulch

• Irrigation systems

• Landscape design

Call a general contractor for:

• Patios

• Outdoor kitchens

• Decks

• Home additions

• Large renovations

• Multi-phase outdoor projects

Skip the Guesswork

You don't have to figure out which trade you need before you pick up the phone.

Scott Lockhart Drainage Contractor has been solving water problems across Austin and Central Texas since 1984 — over 10,000 completed projects.

Call Scott at 512-790-8564 and he'll walk the property and tell you honestly what's going on.

From there it's up to you. Let us handle it, or take that diagnosis and shop it around. Either way, you'll know exactly what you're dealing with before you spend a dime.