- Wilmington, DE
Roofing & Exterior Drainage in New Castle, DE — Where the Median Elevation Is Two Feet
New Castle sits at a median elevation of two feet above sea level, on tidal ground behind earthen dikes the city's founders built in the late 1600s. When water leaves your roof here, the question is not whether it drains. The question is where it can possibly go. Rain Drainz exterior water management handles that question from roof to ground: seamless gutters, gutter guards, and engineered exterior drainage designed for New Castle's flat, tidal terrain. One team, one plan, and a single point of accountability for keeping water where it belongs, away from your foundation.
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10+ Years Protecting Homes From Roof to Ground
Rain Drainz solves exterior water problems across Claymont and Wilmington, DE including soggy yards, standing water, and water pooling near the foundation. We design exterior drainage from roof to ground: French drains, yard and downspout drainage, catch basins, and grading. All exterior. Call (302) 488-8377 for a free assessment.
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- Exterior Water-Management Specialists
- Licensed & Insured (DE# 2023700737)
- Family-Owned & Operated
- Free Assessments · Financing Available
- French Drains Installed In-House
Why Water Behaves Differently in New Castle
Most towns sit high enough that rainwater simply runs downhill and away. New Castle does not. A 36-point USGS elevation survey puts the typical ground level at just 2 feet above sea level, with some spots below zero. The land is nearly flat, and the Delaware River, Army Creek, the Broad Dyke Canal, and Miles Creek all rise and fall with the tide, so at high tide there may be nowhere for a drain pipe to empty.
The soil decides the rest. USDA soil survey data shows the old city core sits on sandy Hambrook soil that soaks up 4 inches of water per hour. Step outside the core and it flips: Othello and Mattapex subsoils pass water at just 0.20 inches per hour, and the Transquaking and Mispillion marsh soils near the water barely drain at all. Rain that lands there mostly sits.
That is why in New Castle, the discharge point has to be engineered, not assumed.
Gutter and Drainage Services in New Castle
Roof work comes first here, because everything below the roofline depends on the roof shedding cleanly. Our GAF-certified crews (GAF ID: 1151330) handle roof replacement and repair on the large 1940s roof stock that fills ZIP 19720 — and in the Historic District, to what the Historic Area Commission will approve.
We install 5″ and 6″ seamless gutter installation systems sized for the large 1940s roof stock in ZIP 19720, along with New Castle gutter guards to keep the mature tree canopy along The Strand and Delaware Street out of them.
Where downspouts have nowhere to go, our exterior drainage crews design buried downspout lines, surface drains, and catch basin installation with a surveyed discharge point.
New Castle floods in three ways: the river rises from upstream, the tide pushes in from downstream, or both happen at once.
The four earthen dikes built in the 1600s, Buttonwood, Broad, Gambacorta Marsh, and Army Creek, still stand guard, but they only reach about 8.5 feet. FEMA's flood maps expect a major flood to run higher than that, 8 to 10 feet across most of the city and up to 13 feet along the coast. Even ordinary storms now reach about 6 feet.
Older homes make it harder. Census data shows nearly 2,000 homes were built before 1940 and another 4,588 from the 1940s alone. Many still have their original small gutters and short downspouts that dump water right at the house, and roofs of that vintage are usually on their third or fourth covering. A tired roof sheds more water, faster, into gutters that were already undersized. On soil that absorbs only a fifth of an inch per hour, that water pools around the home, soaks the ground against the outside walls, washes out grading, and turns to ice in winter. Our job is to catch it at the roofline and carry it somewhere it can actually go.
Where We Work in New Castle
In the colonial core, we work on homes that can be 300 years old.
The Historic District, The Strand, and Delaware Street hold roughly 500 buildings dating from 1700 to 1940, where every exterior project needs Historic Area Commission approval and gutters have to suit the architecture.
Down at Battery Park, Bull Hill, Buttonwood, and Booker Circle, the ground runs lowest and the dikes offer the least protection, so drainage design matters most.
Out in the unincorporated 19720 suburbs, Penn Acres, Collins Park, Wilmington Manor, and Cambridge Gardens, we're mostly updating 1940s to 1960s homes with their original gutters, under county rather than city permits.
Every crew dispatches from Wilmington, about 12 minutes up DE 141 or Route 9, so the whole ZIP sits inside our fastest response zone.
How to Reach Us from New Castle
Call (302) 488-8377 for a free New Castle estimate. Crews dispatch from 11 Lewis Circle in Wilmington, roughly 6 miles and about 12 minutes from the city center via DE 141 or Route 9.
Frequently Asked Questions About New Castle Drainage
Why does New Castle flood when it is not raining hard?
DNREC identifies three mechanisms: upstream flooding coming down the Delaware, tidal surge pushing up from downstream, and the two combining. A high tide alone can back water up Army Creek and the Broad Dyke Canal, which is why standing water appears here on days it never rained.
Do the old dikes protect my property?
Partially at best. The four dikes crest at about 8.5 feet, below the 100-year flood level. The Broad Dyke held the north side in recent storms but sustained heavy damage, and it does not protect Bull Hill, the Chestnut Street flooding route, The Strand, or Battery Park. Gambacorta protects industrial areas only.
Who issues my permit, the city or the county?
It depends on which side of the city line you live on. Inside city limits, the City of New Castle Building Department at 220 Delaware Street (302-322-9813) issues permits, including for earth-moving in the floodplain. In Penn Acres, Collins Park, or Wilmington Manor, it is New Castle County Land Use under the Chapter 12 Drainage Code.
I live in the Historic District. How long will approval take?
All work in the Historic District requires Historic Area Commission approval before it starts, and applications must be filed at least 15 days ahead of the monthly meeting. Practically, your project runs on the HAC calendar, not a normal contractor lead time.
Where can drainage water actually discharge in New Castle?
Honestly, sometimes nowhere by gravity. At a median elevation of two feet, with subsoil passing 0.20 inches per hour and a seasonally high water table, a pipe that simply runs downhill may have no outlet. We survey the property, find or engineer a legal discharge point, and design the system around it.
Water Has to Go Somewhere. In New Castle, We Decide Where
In New Castle the question is not whether water leaves your gutters. It is where that water can go at a median elevation of two feet with the tide running and the dikes cresting below the 100-year flood line. From the roofline to the property edge, we design the whole path.
Rain Drainz LLC
11 Lewis Cir, Wilmington, DE 19804
(302) 488-8377