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What Drainage Services Cover in Queensland

Drainage services cover everything involved in getting water away from a property safely, from the roof, the surface and below the ground. It is a broad trade because water arrives in several ways and has to be dealt with in each. There is surface water, the rain that runs across paving, lawns and driveways, there is subsoil water, the moisture that saturates the ground and sits against walls and footings, and there is roof water, the large volume a roof sheds in a storm through its gutters and downpipes. Each of these has its own drainage solution, and a good drainage specialist looks at where the water comes from, where it pools, and where it can legally and safely be sent. The aim is a property that sheds a downpour without flooding, eroding or undermining anything.

The job ranges from a small fix to a major engineered system. At the small end sit a length of surface channel across a wet patio, a French drain along a soggy fence line, or a single pit to catch a pooling spot. At the large end sit a full stormwater system, with pits, pipes laid to a fall and a connection to the legal point of discharge, designed to carry away everything a roof and a block can produce in the worst storm. In between lie the everyday jobs of connecting downpipes properly, draining behind a retaining wall, and regrading a yard that holds water. The right solution depends entirely on the water problem being solved.

Who does the work depends on what the drainage connects to. Surface and subsoil drainage in the landscape can be the work of a landscaper or a capable contractor, but stormwater drainage connected to the council system is regulated drainage work for a licensed drainer or plumber. The line matters, because connecting to the legal point of discharge, altering the stormwater system, or working on sanitary drainage is licensed work rather than a job to improvise. A good specialist is clear about which parts of your drainage need a licensed drainer and which do not. The connection to the council system is the part that crosses into licensed work. A specialist who is clear about that line is one who works within the rules rather than around them.

The guide below covers what drainage work costs in Queensland in 2026, the types of drainage and how they differ, and the rules that govern where water can go. It covers surface drainage, subsoil and French drains, stormwater pipes and the legal point of discharge, downpipe connections, retaining wall drainage, and the way the local climate, soils and storms make drainage so important here. The aim is to leave you able to brief a drainage specialist clearly and read a quote with confidence, rather than guessing at what the job involves. It also covers yard flooding, erosion and clay soils, the safety of excavation, and the difference between a blocked drain and inadequate drainage. The pricing section sets out what each kind of drainage costs in Queensland in 2026. From start to finish, it runs from why drainage matters, to the types and the rules, to what you should pay.

Why Drainage Matters in Queensland

Queensland weather makes drainage a serious matter rather than an afterthought. The wet season and the summer storms can deliver enormous volumes of water in a very short time, and a property that cannot move that water away quickly is the one that floods, erodes and suffers. The intensity of the rain here is the difference, because a system that copes with gentle drizzle can be overwhelmed by a tropical downpour. Drainage designed for the rain the state actually gets is what keeps a property dry when the sky opens. A system sized for a downpour is a different thing to one sized for drizzle.

The soils add a second reason drainage matters so much. Much of Queensland sits on reactive clay that swells when wet and shrinks when dry, and that movement is hard on slabs, footings and walls, cracking them as the ground heaves and settles. Water pooling against a footing feeds that cycle, so keeping water away from the foundations is one of the most important things drainage does. Poor drainage and reactive soil together are behind a great many of the cracked slabs and walls that plague homes here. The ground here moves with the seasons, and water is what drives that movement hardest. Keeping it away from the footings is half the battle against a cracking home.

The consequences of bad drainage are expensive and often hidden until they are serious. Water that pools against the house damp-proofs the wrong way, rots timber, attracts termites and undermines footings, while water that sheets across a yard erodes soil and washes out gardens and paths. None of this announces itself loudly, which is why a drainage problem is often left until it has done real damage. Sorting the drainage early, before the water has found the weak points, is far cheaper than repairing what poor drainage destroys.

Surface Drainage: Pits, Grates and Channels

Surface drainage deals with the water that runs across the ground rather than soaking into it. A channel or strip drain, a long grated trench, catches sheet water running off a patio, a driveway or a paved area and carries it away before it reaches the house or pools in a low spot. A grated pit does the same job at a point, collecting water from a dip and feeding it into a pipe below. These are the visible parts of drainage, the grates underfoot, and they are the first line of defence against surface water. They are also the part most people picture when they think of drainage. The grate is only the visible end of a system that has to carry the water somewhere safe.

The key to surface drainage is catching the water where it gathers and giving it somewhere to go. A drain placed where the water actually runs, at the low point or across the path of the runoff, works, while one placed by guesswork does not, which is why a specialist watches where the water goes in a downpour or reads the lay of the land. The drain then has to connect to a pipe that carries the water to a legal outlet, because a drain that collects water but has nowhere to send it simply moves the puddle. Getting both the catching and the carrying right is what makes surface drainage work. A drain in the wrong spot is just an expensive line in the ground.

Surface drainage is common around the hard surfaces of a property. A driveway that sheds water toward the garage, a patio that floods in a storm, or a paved courtyard that holds water all call for a channel drain or a pit to take the runoff away. This is where drainage meets the paving and concreting trades, because the drains are often set into or alongside the hard surfaces. Coordinating drainage with a paving and driveway job, or a concreting project, is far easier than retrofitting drains afterwards.

Subsoil and French Drains

Subsoil drainage tackles the water you cannot see, the moisture that saturates the ground and keeps a lawn soggy or a wall damp. A French drain, the classic subsoil solution, is a trench filled with gravel around a slotted pipe, often called ag pipe, wrapped in a geotextile fabric that lets water in but keeps soil out. Groundwater seeps into the gravel, enters the slotted pipe and is carried away to an outlet, which lowers the water table in that spot and dries out the ground above. It is a simple idea that solves a surprising range of soggy-ground problems. The water it removes is the kind you feel underfoot rather than see running. Drawing it out of the ground is what turns a permanent bog back into usable lawn.

The detail is what makes a French drain last rather than silt up. The geotextile wrap is essential, because without it fine soil washes into the gravel and the pipe and clogs the drain within a few seasons, turning an expensive trench into a useless one. The fall of the pipe matters too, since the water has to run downhill to its outlet, and the gravel and pipe sizing have to suit the volume. A French drain built properly, with the fabric, the fall and the right materials, works quietly for many years, while one built carelessly fails quickly. The fabric and the fall are what decide which of the two you get.

French and subsoil drains solve some of the most common wet-ground complaints. A lawn that stays boggy long after rain, a garden bed that drowns its plants, a damp patch on a wall, or water seeping under a slab can all be subsoil water that a French drain intercepts and carries away. They are also essential behind retaining walls and in many landscaping situations, anywhere water needs to be drawn out of the ground rather than off its surface. A dedicated French drain and subsoil drainage system is the targeted answer where the problem is water in the ground.

Subsoil drainage often forms part of a broader landscaping or earthworks job. When a yard is being reshaped, a garden rebuilt or a wall constructed, the subsoil drainage is best designed in from the start rather than added once the problem appears, and it ties in naturally with the earthmoving and the planting. Building the drainage into the landscape works far better than cutting it in afterwards. A landscaping project is the natural moment to get the subsoil drainage right alongside the rest of the work. Designing the drainage in early costs far less than cutting it in once the garden is finished. The earthworks are already open at that stage, which is exactly when the pipe should go in.

Stormwater Pipes and the Legal Point of Discharge

Stormwater drainage is the engineered system that carries collected water away from a property, and it is where drainage becomes regulated. The pits, channels and downpipes all feed into stormwater pipes, which have to be laid to a fall and sized to carry the volume, and those pipes must discharge somewhere specific and legal. That somewhere is the legal point of discharge, the council-approved outlet for the property's stormwater, and it is the heart of any stormwater system. Everything upstream is only as good as its connection to that point. Everything upstream depends on that one outlet being right.

The legal point of discharge is a concept worth understanding, because it governs where the water can go. Depending on the property, the legal point of discharge might be the kerb and channel at the street, a council stormwater main, or an inter-allotment drainage easement that runs between blocks, and only the council can confirm which applies. Crucially, a property cannot simply discharge its stormwater onto a neighbour's land, because doing so creates a nuisance and a legal problem rather than a drainage solution. A licensed drainer determines the correct point of discharge with the council before building the system to reach it. Confirming the point with the council first avoids building toward an outlet that is not allowed. It is the question a licensed drainer settles before anything is dug.

The standards and the licensing exist because stormwater done wrong causes real harm. Stormwater drainage is designed and built to AS/NZS 3500.3, the standard for stormwater drainage, which is published by Standards Australia, and connecting to the council system is regulated work overseen within the framework published by the Queensland Government. A system that discharges to the wrong place, or is undersized, floods either the property or the neighbour, which is exactly what the rules prevent. Building stormwater to the standard and to the right outlet is what keeps the water, and the law, on side.

Downpipes, Roof Water and Connection

A roof sheds an astonishing volume of water in a storm, and where that water goes matters enormously. The gutters collect it and the downpipes bring it down, but a downpipe that simply spills at the base of the wall dumps that whole volume against the footings, which is one of the most common and damaging drainage faults there is. Connecting the downpipes to the stormwater system, so the roof water is piped away to the legal point of discharge, is what turns a roof from a flooding risk into a managed one. The connection is the difference between roof water leaving the property and roof water attacking the house. A roof can shed thousands of litres in a single storm, all of it through a few downpipes. Sending that volume away in a pipe, rather than against the wall, is the whole point.

The damage from disconnected downpipes builds quietly over time. Water spilling at the base of a wall keeps the ground there permanently damp, which rots timber, attracts termites looking for moisture, erodes the soil and feeds the reactive-clay movement that cracks footings, none of it obvious until it is serious. A downpipe properly connected to a pipe that carries the water away removes all of that at a stroke. It is one of the cheapest and most worthwhile drainage improvements a home can make, and one of the most often neglected. It is also the first thing a good drainer looks for at a damp house.

Downpipe and roof water drainage ties closely to the gutters above it. The gutters, downpipes and stormwater connection are one continuous path for roof water, so a problem anywhere along it, blocked gutters, an undersized downpipe or a missing connection, undermines the whole. Addressing the roof drainage as a system, rather than one piece at a time, is what keeps it working. A gutter and downpipe installation and the roof and gutter plumbing behind it work hand in hand with the stormwater system below.

Retaining Wall Drainage

Drainage behind a retaining wall is not optional, it is what keeps the wall standing. A retaining wall holds back earth, and when that earth becomes saturated the water adds enormous hydrostatic pressure against the back of the wall, pressure that walls are not designed to take and that pushes them over time. The answer is drainage behind the wall, an ag drain at the base and weep holes or a drainage layer that let the water escape rather than build up. A wall built without this drainage is a wall waiting to fail. The pressure of saturated soil is far greater than most people imagine. It is this hidden force, not poor blockwork, that topples most failed walls.

The drainage is built into the wall as it goes up, which is why it has to be planned from the start. As the wall is constructed, a layer of gravel or a drainage cell sits behind it, an ag pipe runs along the base to collect the water, and weep holes through the wall give any remaining water an exit, all carrying the water to a safe outlet. Done at build time this is straightforward, but retrofitting drainage to a wall that is already failing means excavating behind it, which is a far bigger job. Getting the drainage right when the wall is built is both cheaper and what makes the wall last. The drainage and the wall are really one structure, not two.

A bulging, cracking or leaning retaining wall is very often a drainage failure rather than a structural one. When a wall starts to move, the cause is frequently water building up behind it with nowhere to go, and addressing the drainage is part of any proper repair. This is where drainage and retaining wall construction meet, because the two have to be designed together. A retaining wall builder who understands drainage builds the wall to drain, which is the only kind of retaining wall worth having.

Yard Flooding and Pooling Water

A yard that floods or holds water after rain is one of the most common drainage complaints, and it usually has a clear cause. Water pools where the ground falls toward a low spot with no outlet, where the soil is too compacted or clay-heavy to absorb it, or where runoff from a higher area or a neighbour collects, and the fix follows the cause. Sometimes the answer is to regrade the ground so it sheds water toward a drain, sometimes to install a pit and pipe to take the water away, and often a combination. Diagnosing why the water pools is the first and most important step. Treating the symptom without finding the cause simply moves the puddle. A specialist reads the fall of the land and watches where the water actually runs.

Regrading and drainage together solve most pooling problems. Reshaping the surface so it falls gently toward a drainage point, then installing the pit and pipe to carry the collected water to a legal outlet, turns a boggy yard into a usable one. The work has to respect where the water can legally go, because regrading that simply sends the water onto a neighbour trades one problem for another. A specialist looks at the whole flow of water across and off the property before reshaping anything. Sending the water onto a neighbour only swaps a puddle for a dispute.

Persistent yard flooding is worth solving rather than living with. A yard that stays wet is unusable, breeds mosquitoes in a climate that needs no encouragement, kills lawn and gardens, and keeps moisture against the house, so the cost of fixing it is usually repaid in a yard that works and a home that stays dry. The solution is rarely as dramatic as it seems, often a well-placed pit, a length of pipe and some regrading. Getting a drainage specialist to diagnose the cause is the path to a lasting fix rather than a guess.

Erosion, Clay Soils and Foundations

Erosion and soil movement are the slower damage that poor drainage causes. Water running unchecked across a property carries soil with it, scouring channels, washing out garden beds and undermining paths and structures over time, and on a slope the effect is faster and more serious. Controlling where the water flows, and slowing it where it must run, is what stops erosion from reshaping a yard. Drainage that manages the water gently keeps the soil where it belongs. On a slope, unchecked water can carve a channel in a single wet season. Slowing and directing it is what stops a yard from washing away.

The reactive clay soils common in Queensland make drainage near the house especially important. These soils swell when wet and shrink when dry, and the movement stresses slabs and footings, so water that pools against the foundations drives the very cycle that cracks them. Keeping water away from the footings, through proper downpipe connection, surface falls and subsoil drainage, is one of the most valuable things drainage does for a home on reactive soil. The cracked slabs and walls so common here are often a drainage story at heart. Keep the water off the footings and much of that damage never starts.

Protecting the foundations is really the underlying purpose of much residential drainage. Every measure that moves water away from the house, the connected downpipe, the surface that falls away from the walls, the subsoil drain that lowers the water table, protects the most expensive part of the property from the slow damage water does. It is easy to think of drainage as being about the yard, but its most important job is keeping the structure sound. A home that stays dry around its footings is a home that avoids the worst of the reactive-soil damage.

Licensing and the Law

Drainage sits across a line between unregulated landscaping work and licensed plumbing work, and the line matters. Shaping the ground, laying a French drain in the garden, or installing a surface channel in the landscape can be done by a landscaper or a capable contractor, but stormwater drainage connected to the council system, and all sanitary drainage, is regulated work that must be carried out by a licensed drainer or plumber. The distinction turns on what the drainage connects to, with connection to the stormwater or sewer system being the licensed part. Knowing which side of the line your job falls on tells you who should do it. Get that wrong and an unlicensed connection to the council system is both unlawful and a risk. The safe course is to treat any council connection as licensed work.

The licensing of this work in Queensland is administered by the QBCC, which licenses the drainers and plumbers who carry out regulated drainage. The plumbing and drainage framework, including the rules about where stormwater may be discharged, is published by the Queensland Government. These rules exist because drainage done wrong floods properties, damages neighbours and overloads the public system, which is exactly the harm the regulation is there to prevent. Using a licensed drainer for the regulated parts protects both the property and everyone downstream of it. The public system depends on each property managing its own water.

The legal dimension goes beyond licensing to where the water ends up. A property is responsible for managing its own stormwater and cannot lawfully discharge it onto a neighbour's land, because doing so is a nuisance that the neighbour can act on, and disputes over water flowing from one block to another are common and bitter. The legal point of discharge, confirmed with the council, is the lawful answer to where the water goes. A drainage specialist who works to the legal point of discharge keeps you on the right side of both the engineering and the law.

Excavation, Services and Safety

Drainage means digging, and digging brings its own risks that a professional manages. Trenches for pipes and drains can be deep, and the ground holds buried services, the water, gas, electricity and telecommunications lines that run underground, which a careless dig can strike with serious consequences. Locating those services before excavating, through the national service-locating process, is a basic and essential step that a professional never skips. Hitting a gas or power line is a genuine danger, not just an inconvenience, which is why the locating comes first. Striking a power or gas line is dangerous as well as expensive. A few minutes spent locating services is cheap against that risk.

Trench safety is the other side of safe excavation. A deep trench can collapse, which is a serious hazard to anyone in it, so excavation is done with the right precautions, equipment and awareness rather than improvised, and the deeper the trench the more this matters. Workplace health and safety guidance for excavation in Queensland is published by WorkSafe Queensland. A drainage contractor who works safely, locates services and handles trenches properly is protecting both their workers and your property. Safe digging is part of the price of doing the job properly.

Reinstatement is the part of excavation that is easy to forget when comparing quotes. Once the pipes are laid and the trenches backfilled, the lawn, garden, paving or concrete that was dug up has to be put back, and a quote that ignores reinstatement looks cheaper until the bare trench across the lawn becomes your problem. A good contractor includes making good the surface in the scope, so the property is left tidy rather than scarred. Asking what reinstatement is included is a fair and important question before the digging starts.

What Drives Drainage Pricing in Queensland

Drainage pricing follows a few clear drivers, and understanding them helps you read a quote rather than just reacting to the number. The first is the length and depth of the work, because every metre of drain or pipe has to be dug, laid to a fall and backfilled, and depth, rock or hard clay all slow the digging and add cost. The second is the type of drainage, since a shallow surface channel is far cheaper than a deep stormwater run to a distant point of discharge. A quote that sets out the length, the type and the depth lets you see what you are paying for. The specialist who walks the site and watches the water before quoting is giving you a real number.

Connection and council requirements are the next major variable. A job that needs a new connection to the council stormwater system, or that has to reach a distant or awkward legal point of discharge, costs more than one draining to a nearby outlet, and any council approval or inspection adds to it. The point of discharge is often the single biggest factor in a stormwater job, because the distance and difficulty of reaching it drives the length and depth of the pipe. A specialist who has confirmed the point of discharge is quoting the real job rather than a hopeful one. The distance to the point of discharge often dwarfs every other cost on a stormwater job. A quote that has not pinned that down is a quote that can move.

Access, soil and reinstatement round out the picture. A site a machine can reach is cheaper to dig than one where the trenching is by hand, rock or heavy clay slows everything, and putting back lawn, paving or concrete afterwards is real work that belongs in the quote. A job well outside the metropolitan South East can carry a travel component too. None of this is hidden cost when it is explained up front, and a good specialist walks you through what your particular site and water problem involve, so the quote holds rather than growing on the day. A quote built on a walked site is the one that holds.

A good quote makes all of this plain, and the specialist who explains the run, the discharge and the reinstatement is usually the one to trust. If a quote comes in well under the rest, ask what it takes for granted, since a cheap quote that skips the proper point of discharge, undersizes the pipe, or leaves reinstatement out costs more in the end. Value in drainage is water reliably carried away to a legal outlet, with the site left tidy, not the lowest headline number. That is the standard worth holding any quote to before you book.

Blocked Drains vs New Drainage

It is worth separating a blocked drain from a drainage that is simply inadequate, because they are different problems with different fixes. A blocked drain is an existing drain that has stopped flowing, through tree roots, a collapse, grease or debris, and the fix is clearing or repairing the existing line rather than building a new one. Inadequate drainage, by contrast, is a property that has never had enough drainage for the water it receives, and the fix is new drainage to handle the volume. Telling the two apart is the first step to the right solution. The two look the same from the puddle but call for opposite fixes. Naming the real problem is what stops money going to the wrong one.

Blocked drains have their own specialist solutions that do not involve new drainage. Clearing a blockage, inspecting a line with a camera, and relining a damaged pipe from the inside are the tools for an existing drain that has failed, and they restore the line you already have. Where tree roots or a collapse have damaged a pipe, relining can repair it without the dig of a full replacement. A blocked drains and drain cleaning service, or pipe relining and drain repairs, addresses the existing line rather than adding new drainage.

Knowing which problem you have saves money and frustration. A property that floods because its drains are blocked needs clearing, not a new system, while one that floods because it has no real drainage needs new drains, not repeated clearing of a line that was never enough. A good specialist diagnoses which it is before quoting, because the wrong fix wastes money on the wrong problem. Where the existing drainage is sound but blocked, repair it, and where it was never adequate, the answer is the new drainage this guide describes.

What to Look Out For

Start with the point of discharge, because that is where a stormwater job is won or lost. A genuine drainage specialist confirms where the water will legally go, the kerb, a council main or an easement, before designing the system, and is clear that it cannot simply be sent onto a neighbour. An operator who is vague about where the water ends up, or who proposes discharging it over the boundary, is setting up both a flooding problem and a legal one. Asking where the water will discharge, and whether that is the legal point, is the single most important question. A specialist who answers it precisely has already thought the system through. One who cannot is quoting a drain with no proven end.

Be cautious of the quote that skips the licensing for regulated work. Stormwater connected to the council system is licensed drainage work, so an operator offering to connect to the stormwater system without the licence to do so is a warning sign, however cheap the price. The same applies to anyone who waves away the council requirements for a connection. An operator who is upfront about what is licensed, and who holds or arranges the right licence, is the one doing it properly. The honest operator names what is licensed rather than hoping you will not ask.

Watch for the quote that leaves out the unglamorous essentials. The geotextile wrap on a French drain, the correct fall on a pipe, the locating of services before digging, and the reinstatement of the surface afterwards are all easy to omit to make a price look sharp, and all matter to whether the job works and leaves the site tidy. A drain without the fabric silts up, a pipe without fall does not drain, and a trench not reinstated scars the yard. Confirming these are in the scope turns a headline price into a real comparison.

Beyond the specifics, the ordinary signs still apply. A clear written quote, a walk of the site, a confirmed point of discharge, the right licensing for regulated work, public liability insurance, and reinstatement included all point to a professional, while pressure to commit, a price far below the rest, or vagueness about where the water goes point the other way. The consumer protections that sit over the work are administered by the ACCC and the Queensland Office of Fair Trading. Knowing the rules and choosing carefully keeps a drainage job sound. The marks of a careful operator are much the same as on any trade. Trusting them is what keeps a wet yard from becoming a recurring expense.

How to Get Useful Quotes

A useful drainage quote starts with a clear description of the water problem. Where the water pools or floods, when it happens, how bad it gets and where you think it comes from all help a specialist understand the job before they visit, and a description of the symptom is often more useful than a guess at the cause. Photos or a short video of the area during or just after heavy rain are genuinely valuable, because they show the specialist exactly what the water does. Seeing the problem in action helps far more than describing a dry yard. A short video in the rain tells a drainer more than a page of description.

Be clear about the site and any history you know of. Whether the ground is clay or sand, whether there is an existing drainage system, where the downpipes go, and whether you know the legal point of discharge all shape the quote, so share what you can. If a wall is involved, a yard is being landscaped, or paving is going in, mention it, because drainage is best coordinated with that work. The more the specialist knows before quoting, the closer the price lands to the final cost.

Getting several quotes is sensible, and one post lands in front of a number of Queensland drainage specialists at the same time. When the quotes come back, compare what each one actually includes, the length and type of drainage, the point of discharge, any council connection, the locating of services, and the reinstatement, rather than only the bottom line. The cheapest figure often turns out to skip the discharge point, the fabric or the reinstatement, and the gap is usually explained the moment you ask what it covers. Through The Quote Yard the job reaches a number of specialists together, so identical questions to each make the quotes comparable. The cheapest number is often the narrowest scope rather than the best value. Asking each the same questions is what makes the comparison fair.

Warranty, Insurance and Australian Consumer Law

Warranty on drainage work is mostly about the workmanship, since drainage is more about how it is built than the products in it. A drain laid to the right fall, with the right materials and a proper connection, should carry water for many years, and the contractor stands behind that work, so a drain that fails through how it was built is theirs to put right. For licensed drainage work, the statutory protections that come with licensed building work also apply. Keeping the quote, the invoice and any plans or council documents together protects you, and it is the record that matters if a problem appears.

Insurance matters more in drainage than many trades, because the work involves excavation and buried services. A reputable drainage contractor carries public liability insurance, which covers damage during the work, and that matters when a dig can strike a service or affect a neighbour's property, so an established operator answers the insurance question without hesitation. A reluctance to discuss insurance, on a job involving machinery and trenches, is a real reason to look elsewhere. Cover like that is part of a professional's overheads, and it is part of what sets an established business apart from a casual one.

Australian Consumer Law covers the work either way and cannot be signed away. What that protection requires is a service carried out with due care and skill and goods of acceptable quality, so drainage that fails to do its job is not simply your bad luck. If it cannot be sorted out directly, recourse runs through the Queensland Office of Fair Trading and the national consumer regulator, with the framework published by the ACCC. The full range of drainage options across Australia sits on the national drainage hub, and tradespeople looking for work can find paid job leads on the Queensland tradie job leads board and at drainer jobs. Understand your rights and choose a licensed specialist who drains to the legal point of discharge, and that is what keeps a property dry for years.