Morris Earthworks & Land Clearing, LLC has watched Burlington’s bluffs shed water onto basements and yards for years, and we’ve built our drainage practice around that one hard fact. Heavy rain off the Mississippi River watershed doesn’t soak into Burlington’s dense Fayette silt loam. It runs downhill, pools at the base of the bluffs, and pushes straight against your foundation. We design every French drain installation Burlington IA homeowners hire us for around that exact behavior, not a generic drainage template.
We’re the yard drainage contractors Des Moines County property owners call when standing water and slope erosion threaten a bluff-side lot. From Sunnyside to Flint Hills to the downtown Burlington waterfront, we understand which properties sit in the runoff path and how to intercept water before it reaches a foundation wall.
Every system we install, whether it’s a basement curtain drain Burlington Iowa families need or a full retaining wall drainage package, is built to move water safely off your property and meet municipal discharge rules. That’s the standard homeowners and commercial property managers across West Burlington expect from us, and it’s the standard we hold ourselves to on every job.
Fort Madison’s floodplain clay doesn’t drain itself. Morris Earthworks assesses, designs, and installs drainage solutions built for Lee County’s soil and flood conditions. Get a free quote today.
More than just mulching—our land clearing includes full tree, stump, and brush removal, root raking, and debris disposal. Perfect for home sites, pasture expansion, and development-ready parcels.
We handle grading, trenching, drainage, and full-scale excavation work for both residential and rural projects. Every job is performed with precision and efficiency.
Need to remove an old structure or prep for something new? We provide clean, controlled demolition with full debris removal and site-ready results.
Keep your fields, trails, fence lines, and acreage trimmed and accessible. We mow thick grass, briars, and saplings to restore visibility, usability, and safety—whether for hunting season or long-term maintenance.
We build and grade arenas with the right slope, depth, and compaction to support safe, functional riding conditions—customized for your property and horse care needs.
Dependable drainage work in Burlington means designing for water you can’t see until it’s already in your basement. Our crews start every job with a topographical slope and watershed evaluation, so we know exactly how runoff moves across your property before we dig. That assessment drives everything: trench depth, pipe grade, and where discharge needs to exit your lot legally.
We install French drains, catch basins, surface swales, and channel drains engineered for steep driveways and hillside lots throughout Des Moines County. For properties higher up the bluff, we build Mississippi bluff retaining wall drainage systems that relieve hydrostatic pressure before it cracks a wall or triggers soil slumping. For homes already fighting wet basements, a properly graded curtain drain paired with a sump discharge line solves the problem at the source instead of masking it.
Commercial stormwater management West Burlington property managers rely on gets the same engineering discipline: geotextile-lined trenches, washed river rock backfill, and grading that meets City of Burlington stormwater codes. Every system we install carries our name, so we build it to last through the next hard Mississippi River basin storm, not just the next inspection.
A Flint Hills homeowner on a steep bluff lot was watching runoff pool against her basement wall after every heavy rain. We evaluated the slope, cut a French drain uphill of the foundation, and tied in a basement curtain drain with a daylighted discharge line well clear of the property. Two seasons of Iowa storms later, the basement has stayed dry.
A commercial property manager near the Great River Bridge along US-34 in West Burlington needed a stormwater plan after runoff kept flooding the parking lot and neighboring lots. We installed catch basins tied to underground piping, regraded the lot surface, and routed discharge to meet City of Burlington stormwater codes. The lot now drains clean within minutes of a storm, with zero runoff onto US-34.
Take a look at some of our latest work. Scroll through the photos below to see our team in action and the results we deliver.
We install French drains and surface swales uphill of your foundation to intercept runoff before it reaches your home, then route water through piping to a safe discharge point away from your property.
Yes, when properly graded. Fayette silt loam won’t absorb water on its own, so a French drain moves it away mechanically, reducing saturation, slope slumping, and washout risk on bluff-side yards.
Often, yes, especially for grading changes or new discharge points. We handle stormwater permitting with the City of Burlington and Des Moines County so your system stays fully compliant.
Yes. Without drainage, water pressure builds behind the wall and pushes it out over time. We install drainage board and weep systems behind every retaining wall we build or repair.
Yes. We design commercial stormwater systems for properties along Roosevelt Avenue and throughout the US-61 corridor, keeping runoff off pavement and out of neighboring lots per municipal code.
