Hard-pipe drainage is the underground half of a gutter system: solid pipe, buried with fall, that picks up water at the downspout and carries it away from the house to a discharge point — a pop-up emitter out in the yard, a downspout discharge outlet on a slope, or a route toward the street or swale.
Why 'hard pipe'? Because the pipe is solid-walled, not perforated. Its job is transport: take water from a known point and deliver all of it somewhere better. Perforated pipe — the French drain kind — has the opposite job, collecting water out of the soil. Using perforated pipe on a downspout run is a common DIY mistake that leaks roof water into the ground right where you're trying to remove it.
When does a downspout need it? Read the ground beneath it. A trench or washout in the mulch, soil splashed on the wall, moss or algae on the foundation, a slab corner that stays dark for days after rain — each is the same message: this much water, concentrated in this one spot, is more than the ground can shed. A splash block moves the problem eighteen inches; pipe removes it.
The good news is that downspout piping is honest, unglamorous work with an obvious result — the water leaves. It's also the natural companion to a gutter job, which is why we quote the whole path together. If your downspouts are dumping at the slab, the free estimate will show you exactly where the water should be going instead.
