Dirtwork term
Daylight
also called: daylight out, daylighted
Where a drain pipe or channel exits to the open surface, water has to daylight somewhere it can leave the property.
When a drainage system daylights, its outlet emerges onto the surface in a place where water can flow away naturally. A French drain that doesn't daylight is just a buried pipe full of water. A swale that doesn't daylight is a long shallow pond.
Finding the daylight point is the first question on any drainage job. Sometimes it's obvious, the lot drops off into a creek bottom, the runoff goes to a city ditch, a culvert exits to a downstream pond. Sometimes there's no obvious answer and you have to negotiate easement with a neighbor, pump to a city sewer (rarely allowed), or design storage that holds the water on-site until it can dissipate.
Residential drainage problems that won't solve almost always trace back to no daylight, the water comes off the roof and the lot, and there's nowhere for it to go.
Hiring this done?
Daylight comes up on drainage jobs all over East Texas.
If you're reading up because a project is coming, we'll walk your site and show you exactly how this applies to your dirt. Free estimate, no obligation.
When you need it
When daylight comes up on a job
The word comes up when a drain line or a swale has to actually release its water somewhere lower than it started. Reach daylight and the water leaves on its own; fall short and the line simply fills and backs up.
Services where this shows up
We use daylight on
Related terms
Other words that come up alongside this one
French Drain
A gravel-filled trench with perforated pipe at the bottom that collects sub-surface water and routes it to daylight.
Swale
A shallow, vegetated ditch shaped to carry surface water away from a structure or down a property line.
Culvert
Pipe or box buried under a road, driveway, or fill that lets water pass from one side to the other.
Watershed
The area of land that drains to a single low point, every drop of rain that falls inside it ends up at the same place.
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