The longer answer
Step 1: figure out whose water it is. Watch the yard during (or right after) a hard rain. Water fanning out from near the house is usually roof water from short downspouts — a typical KC roof sheds over 1,000 gallons per inch of rain. Water arriving from uphill or a neighbor's lot is surface flow. Water that just sits in a low spot for days is a grading/percolation problem — KC clay holds it like a saucer.
Step 2: pick the right tool:
- Buried downspout extensions ($300–$700 each) — move roof water 15–25 ft to a daylight or pop-up outlet. Fixes a surprising share of "yard flooding" because the yard was never the source.
- French drain ($1,500–$3,800 for 40–80 ft) — intercepts water moving across the yard before it reaches the low spot or the house.
- Catch basin + solid pipe — for a defined puddle spot: collect it and pipe it out. Often paired with a French drain run.
- Dry well ($800–$2,200) — when there's no downhill outlet, store the surge underground and let it soak slowly.
- Regrading — when the ground slopes toward the house or has settled into a bowl.
What doesn't work in KC: spike-in surface extensions that pop off, "drainage rock" dumped in a wet spot (it fills with clay fines), and planting your way out of a hydrology problem.
We diagnose the water path on a free in-person walk and give you a written, line-itemed quote — and if the honest answer is a $400 downspout burial instead of a $3,000 drain, that's what we'll tell you. Details: French drains & drainage and downspouts & extensions.