grading backyard
Draining issues can be a home owners worst nightmare. Yard grading is definitely something you can take on as a DIY project. With a little sweat equity and these helpful tips, you’ll have this yard grading project knocked out in a weekend.
If you have concerned about the slope of your yard this is the post for you. Learn yard grading techniques now to prevent major water problems later.
The reason for grading your yard is to move the water/runoff from where it’s currently traveling to a different location. In most cases, home owners regrade the yard in order to get thelawnto slopeAWAYfrom the house so that it doesn’t pool next to the foundation and potentially cause flooding and water problems in the future.
How To Solve Negative Drainage With Landscaping
Yard grading is helpful if you have standing water pooling in different areas of your yard. Not only is stagnant water ugly and annoying, it attracts those PITA mosquitoes and other bugs, kills your grass and plants and can even weaken your home’s foundation.
In addition, improper water drainage is often a symptom of much larger problems. So, regrading your yard slope can remedy these larger problems (or potential problems, depending on when you’re reading this).
First, if you already have water leaking into your basement, you should consider grading your yard (as soon as possible… if it’s possible). Proper grading can move the water away from your home so that you don’t get flooding and all sorts of other foundation issues.
Fixing Grade Problems In Your Lawn
In my case, when my home was inspected, there was some concern about the slope of the yard slanting TOWARD the house. While I didn’t notice any water/flooding issues (yet), this is definitely something that I wanted to fix ASAP. It’s best to correct this problem before there is a big issue.
This yard grading project, just like every other project, took a bit of planning. The actual grading of the yardwasn’t difficult at all– except for the mix of 90 degree heatand manual labor. Despite its simplicity, here are some potential items you should address before starting the project.
The pipes that lead to my oil furnace were only coming out of the ground by a little bit. So, when I had my furnace cleaned back a few months ago, I asked Mr. Wally the Furnace Guy to raise these pipes. All it took was a couple fittings to extend the height of the pipes so we wouldn’t bury them, and I could still get my oil.
What You Need To Know Before You Landscape
You can also buy some fittings at the hardware store to extend the pipes yourself. I would be cautious if you don’t know what the pipes and vents do… consult a professional.
Also make sure you won’t be covering any traps, vents or anything else when you fill in with dirt. You don’t want to bury anything important.
I also had a random hole in the foundation… I’m not sure what it was for but it’s definitely not in use anymore. So, before we graded the yard, we filled the hole up with cement to close it off. Problem solved.
Grading & Excavation
All we did wasbuy a window well, and wrap this around the window in a half-moon shape. Then, we filled the dirt around the outside of the window well. The well acts as a retaining wall to hold the dirt away from the window, even though it’s now at ground level.
I get this question a lot. And, I’ll address it a little later when I talk about slope. But, the short story is that if you need tograde your yard slope AWAY from your house, but you can’t raise the soil high enough to be above the highest point of your yard that you need to slope towards, you can’t move forward with regrading. The math/numbers need to work!
Also, you should leave about 6″ minimum (in some places it’s 8″) of your foundation showing in order to ensure that you don’t damage the home’s structure.
This Was Once An Unusable Sloped Backyard…but A Little Grading Made It People Friendly.
Check with your local building officials to be sure. This regulation is part of theInternational Residential Codethat most cities in the U.S. adopt. You canlook it up here(should be in IRC, Chapter 3)
If you plan a lot of DIY projects around the house, you may be interested in myproject planning worksheets. Print new ones whenever you need – they will keep you super organized as you’re working and also serve as a great way to archive your projects when they’re done!
If you can’t see a way to regrade the slope of your yard based on this information, you’re probably wondering how on earth you can fix this problem. My suggestion is toinstall a french drain in order to fix the water issues.
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