How to regrade garden/yard in order to drain water away from the house?

Question

How to work with soil, sand and gravel during the regrading process? How to minimize effort in digging and moving dirt? Do I need to rent any equipment?

Answer 1

I work for a landscape contractor, and we do lots of this work in Sacramento CA. We also do quite a lot of work fixing what homeowners have attempted to do themselves, and even what other contractors have done. It can be a pretty specialized service. We have even gone in where there have been engineers who didn't recognize what the problem was or know how to fix it. It can be very backbreaking work, depending on how bad the problem is. If you decide to hire out the work, make sure you check the experience and references of whoever you have doing it. Make sure you get references from clients who had problems similar to yours.

The building codes here state that the soil should be 4" below the footings of the house. We often have to grade the soil and remove yards and yards of soil to fix drainage issues. To do this, we use a Dingo which is like a bobcat tractor. We use a laser level to establish the different elevations, as it is almost impossible to determine them by eye and we've had to fix many jobs done by other contractors who attempted it.

If the main part of the yard is higher than the footings of the house, then we may remove some soil close to the house so that the ground tapers from the footings to a low point about 5' to 7' away from the footings, that has an elevation about 10" to 12" below the footings. Then we will taper grade up to the original level of the ground further away from the house. In this trough, we will dig and install a drain pipe with several drains to collect the water along this low point and we will tie in the drainpipes from the roof gutters so the drainpipe can carry away that water also. We can usually build a stream bed using rounded rocks so that this low area blends into the landscape as a feature instead of an eyesore.

Also, we've had several homeowners who wanted us to build a landscape mound with the soil we excavated rather than having to export it offsite, and that usually saves them some money due to less effort involved. That might be something to consider doing to minimize your effort in moving dirt.

Good luck with solving the problem.

Answer 2

Here's what I'd think about.... First, I'd upgrade to 2-inch PVC just due to the length of the run. Next, I'd decide how far down the pipe could come out in the trench. If the trench in back is 5 feet deep, then maybe your pipe can exit the trench 2 or 3 feet below the surrounding grade. Slope the pipe all the way from the house at that grade. Interior pipes need to drop something like 1 inch for 4 feet. Maybe it's 1/2 inch. Check a plumbing book. I'd use that as a minimum. But here's a trick... If you run your sump pump line in a reverse-water trap as it exits the house, the sump pump will in effect be raising the water up even higher, giving you more room for slope. All that really matters is: 1. No back flow into the house 2. It drains eventually so it won't freeze in the winter.

Answer 3

Regrading Yard

Answer 4

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RE:
How to regrade garden/yard in order to drain water away from the house?
How to work with soil, sand and gravel during the regrading process? How to minimize effort in digging and moving dirt? Do I need to rent any equipment?

Answer 5

I'd rent a bob cat if your project is big...
Also Lowes sell special pipes for drainage problems, you might only have to use those. I do for between my side walk and house, also at the point where the gutters come down, just let the pipes leed further off into the yard away from the house. The pipe tops usually have a green grate to cover the begining hole.

Answer 6

Rent a tractor and a grader box. Grew up on a farm. It's definitely the easiest way to do it.