Water doesn’t soak into Keokuk ground. That’s the whole problem.
The clay under most of 52632 is tight and low-permeability. Rain that should filter down sits on top instead, spreads across the lawn, and pushes against your foundation wall. Add a hard spring downpour or fast river basin snowmelt and you get a soggy yard and a wet basement in the same week.
Morris Earthworks & Land Clearing, LLC has built drainage on both sides of that problem. Flat lots that hold water for days. Sloped Grand Avenue bluff homes where runoff carves channels through turf before it ever reaches the street.
Every job starts with a laser-level survey of your grade. We don’t guess where water goes. We measure it, then move it with gravity instead of fighting it.
You also get commercial-grade parts. Rigid smooth-interior perforated pipe, non-woven geotextile fabric that keeps clay silt out of the line, and washed river rock. Cheap sock pipe clogs in this soil within a few seasons. We don’t install it.
As a yard drainage contractor in Lee County, we handle design, trenching, discharge routing, and turf restoration with one crew, start to finish.
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.
Drainage systems fail for predictable reasons. We build against each one.
Silt is the first. Clay fines migrate into perforated pipe and choke it. We wrap every trench in non-woven geotextile fabric and bed the pipe in washed river rock, so water gets in and sediment stays out.
Fall is the second. A French drain with no slope is a buried trough. We map elevation across the property, then cut the trench to hold consistent grade from intake to outlet. Gravity does the work, not a pump.
Discharge is the third. Water has to end up somewhere that isn’t your foundation or your neighbor’s lot. We route it to a catch basin, a pop-up emitter, or a gravity outlet set well away from the structure.
Freeze is the fourth. Buried downspout extension piping in 52632 and sump lines need proper pitch and a freeze-guard outlet, or they ice over in January and back water toward the house.
Then we backfill, compact, slope the soil away from the foundation, and restore the turf. You get a dry yard, not a scar across it.
A bluff-side home was losing turf every spring as runoff cut channels toward the drop-off. We installed a curtain drain across the upslope side, tied it into a gravity outlet below the grade break, and stabilized the exposed soil. Two seasons of slope erosion control in Keokuk Iowa later, the lawn is holding.
An older home near Rand Park had standing water along the north foundation and a sump pump dumping four feet from the wall. We ran a French drain along the wet side, buried the discharge to a pop-up emitter well out in the yard, and re-graded the bed. The basement stayed dry through spring.
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.
Clay won’t absorb it, so the water has to be moved. That usually means regrading the low area and installing a French drain or catch basin routed to a gravity outlet away from the house.
Yes, and the slope helps. On Grand Avenue bluff properties we typically set a curtain drain uphill of the foundation to intercept runoff before it reaches the wall, then discharge below the grade break.
Rules differ by location and by system, so we confirm with the city before we design the outlet. Most residential jobs discharge to a gravity outlet or emitter on the property instead.
Yes. Acreage in South Lee County usually drains better than town lots. We route to a ditch line, a low swale, or a daylight outlet at the natural grade break.
Deep enough to stay pitched and draining, with a solid smooth-wall line and a freeze-guard or pop-up emitter at the end. Continuous fall matters more than depth alone for keeping ice out.
