Landscaping in Irving, TX
Irving ground holds water, and we plan around it. On the south side, a dense clay layer stops rain a foot or two down. On the north side, the clay itself swells shut when it's wet. We're a Colleyville landscaper working all over Irving, about twenty-five minutes from our shop. Landscaping for Irving homes: drainage, patios, walkways, planting beds, and sprinkler repair. Licensed and insured.
4.8 · 93 Google reviews · Colleyville, TX
Why Irving yards drain the way they do
Irving grew up between the Elm Fork and the West Fork of the Trinity River, and the ground remembers it. Across most of the older south side, a loamy top layer sits on a dense clay pan. Rain gets a foot or two down and stops there. The top layer stays soggy for weeks after a wet spell. Up north, on the slopes, it's heavy blackland clay all the way down. It swells shut when it's wet and cracks open when it's dry. Down along the river and the creeks, the low ground floods outright. So the question on an Irving yard is rarely whether the ground holds water. It's where, and for how long. We find that out on the walkthrough, and the rest follows from it: where a drain goes, what we plant, and how long each sprinkler zone runs.
Serving Irving, TXWhat we do for Irving homes
Bring us one wet corner or the whole yard. Either way, the first step is a walk around the property with you, looking at where the water goes.
Irrigation & drainage
Design, planting & lighting
Patios & masonry
Walkways & steps
Outdoor living
Not sure where to start?
Tell us what your yard needs. The visit and the written quote are free, and there's no pressure to book.
Work from around the area
Have a look at the work we've finished around the Metroplex. Our reviews live on Google, not just on this page — 4.8 stars from 93 neighbors.
Irving problems that start with the water
Where you are in Irving decides which of these shows up:
A yard that stays soggy for weeks.
On the south side, the clay pan stops rain a foot or two down. The top layer sits wet through winter and spring. Roots drown, beds rot, and your mower leaves ruts. A drain has to get below the pan or carry the water off the top. See fixing standing water.
Rain that ends up against the house.
The north side has real slopes, and heavy clay sheds water fast once it's soaked. What lands on the high side of a lot runs to the low side and sits against the slab. See drainage.
A wall or patio that moves with the seasons.
Blackland clay grows when it takes on water and pulls back as it dries, and the cracks can open an inch wide by late summer. Anything built on it needs a base and drainage planned for that movement. See why retaining walls need drainage.
Two watering days, so every zone has to work.
Irving limits watering to two set days a week, and bans it from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from April through October. On clay, much of one long run ends up in the street, which the city counts as waste. Its own advice is to cycle and soak: two or three short runs about an hour apart. A controller that can't do that, or a zone that's down, wastes one of your two days. Running a system with a broken head is a code violation on its own. See sprinkler repair.
Low ground near the river and the creeks.
Lots along the Elm Fork and the creeks that feed it sit on soil that floods now and then. Out there, the yard has to be laid out around the water. Grade that moves it off quickly, beds set above it, and plants that can take wet feet. See landscape design.
Some of these are ours to fix, and some aren't. Tell us what you're seeing, and we'll sort out which.
Get your free quoteIrving landscaping questions
Get your free quoteNot at all. The drive is about twenty-five minutes down Highway 114 or 183, depending on which end of Irving you're on. We've finished more jobs in Irving than in most of the cities we serve.
On most of the south side, the answer is a foot or two down. There's a layer of dense clay under the topsoil, and rain stops when it hits it. The soil above stays saturated until it slowly dries from the top. We dig a small hole on the walkthrough and watch where the water stops, then plan the drain to match.
Not from April 1 through October 31. In those months the city bans watering between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. by any means, hose included. Watering also gets two set days a week, year-round: Tuesday and Saturday for even-numbered addresses, Wednesday and Sunday for odd. A hand-held hose is fine on any day, outside those hours. If the city declares a drought stage, its stricter rules take over. From November through March, daytime watering is allowed. The code gives you a defense for new plantings. Watering to establish plants, trees, or grass put in within the last forty-five days counts in your favor if the day rule is ever enforced against you. The city also grants short variances for new landscapes and system repairs.
We do both, and most of the calls are repairs. A head the mower clipped, a zone that stays dead, a valve that won't shut, a water bill that climbed with no explanation. Buried line has a hard life in clay, which shifts a little with every wet and dry spell. Two Irving rules are worth knowing: running a system with a broken or missing head is an offense, and every automatic system has to have working rain and freeze sensors. Backflow tests are the one thing we don't do in-house. If your system needs one, we'll point you to a licensed tester. The heads and the sensors we check on every repair call.
Probably nothing is broken. Clay takes water slowly, so a single long run puts much of it in the gutter. Irving treats water running into the street as waste. The fix is to split each zone into two or three short runs about an hour apart, so each pass soaks in before the next one lands. Irving's own guidance is two or three seven-minute cycles. Most controllers can do this once they're set up for it, and we set them up.
That depends on the job, and on what the ground is doing. A sprinkler repair, like a clipped head or one dead zone, is the small end of what we do in Irving. One drain across a soggy side yard costs far less than a whole new back yard, and wet ground can change the plan for either. So we come look before we name a number, and the number comes in writing. The visit and the quote are free.
Weekday inquiries that arrive before 3 PM get a reply the same day. Anything later hears from us the next business day. From there we pick a time to meet at the property, find where the water is sitting, and send you a written price. You're not charged for any of it.
A sprinkler repair or a drain in one trouble spot usually gets going inside a week or two. A full build needs closer to a month or a month and a half up front, for design, materials, and a slot on the schedule. That way the plan is settled and the materials are lined up before anything is dug up.
Ready to get the water in your Irving yard under control?
Tell us what you're seeing. A back corner that's been soft since March, a slope that sends every storm toward the house, a patio that lifts a little more each summer. We'll come out, find where the water is sitting, and put a plan and a price in writing. You pay nothing for the visit or the plan.
4.8 ★ · 93 Google reviews · Licensed and insured · Same-day reply on weekday inquiries before 3 PM