To promote proper drainage, your yard and landscaping should have a slope of at least 3% directed away from your home's foundation, and generally between 3-10%, though grades of anywhere from 3% to 25% may be acceptable.
If you measure a drop from 3 inches to 2 feet, you may be able to do the leveling yourself. However, if the drop is greater than that, or it slopes upward, it is highly recommended that you hire a professional to grade the yard. For very steep slopes you may consider planting ground covers or building terraces.
Use Slopes to Achieve Optimal Drainage Conditions
According to the EPA, patio slabs, walks and driveways need a minimum slope of 1/4 inch per foot away from the house with back-fill to prevent settling. The final grade must be sloped away from the foundation by 1/2 inch per foot over a minimum distance of 10 feet.
A properly graded yard should slope away from your building. Lot grading involves contouring your yard by building up sunken areas with fill, compacting existing or adding new backfill soil around your foundation, and digging small channels to reroute water away from the structure, among other strategies.
Lawn Drainage
The minimum slope that we work with is two percent, or 1/4 inch per foot. As an example, the grade at a spot four feet away from your house should be one inch lower than the grade at the house. This will assure that water will be directed away from the building.
Desired slope: To achieve the best drainage solution, you must create an incline in the yard with a slope as small as 3% or as severe as 25%. Distance from the house: The furthest area from the house or building structure should be the lowest point in the lawn to maximize water drainage away from the foundation.
Aerate Your Lawn
This will help relieve the compacted soil left behind from the flood. Deep-tine aeration may also be a possible solution that will help with the drainage through the soil profile.
In general, any time you disturb 2500 square feet of soil or change the grade more than 24 inches (either taking away or adding), you must apply for a permit. The precise rules may vary based on your county or state, but this is a basic rule of thumb.
For example, suppose you go up two feet as you go forward 100 feet. That's a 2% grade. Suppose you climb eight feet as you go forward 100 feet. That's an 8% gradient.
A bubble level is a simple tool that can help you determine if your ground is level. Place the level on a long, straight board and lay it on the ground. Check the bubble to see if it remains centered. Move the board around different areas to identify any discrepancies.
Leveling a yard to improve drainage, combat erosion, or provide a stable base for construction costs an average of $2,176. It can range between $1,023 and $3,338, with larger and steeper areas costing more to level. Most yard leveling costs $1 to $2 per square foot or up to $45,000 per acre.
Wheel Tractor Scrapers
They are the best machine to level ground and haul excess soil.
Type of Soil for Grading Around Your Home
Bagged topsoil is not the best choice (it's usually a compost mixture higher in organic content) and is expensive in volume. The better choice is a screened topsoil off the pile at a local landscape or garden center.
After Aeration Overseed and Fertilize
Immediately after aeration, your lawn is ripe for overseeding and fertilizing. The holes provide excellent soil exposure for seeds and deliver fertilizer directly to the roots of your grass. For best results, use high-quality seed and fertilize with Milorganite®.
Sandy and loam soils don't need regular core aeration because the soils already have oxygen circulating through them. Plus, if you aerate your sandy or loamy soil too often, you'll weaken the soil. Clay soils, for example, need aeration every year or every few years depending on how compacted the ground is.
The Cost of Landscape Drainage
You can generally expect to pay between USD $30 and $1,000 per linear foot of channel drain. However, more complex situations may cost up to $150 per linear foot.
To promote proper drainage, your yard and landscaping should have a slope of at least 3% directed away from your home's foundation, and generally between 3-10%, though grades of anywhere from 3% to 25% may be acceptable.
Dig a Trench
least 1 percent, so the force of gravity will work for you. This means that the drain should slope down a total of at least one inch for every 10 feet of pipe.
The “drainage angle” is the part of the eye that drains fluid from the front chamber of the eye. This drainage angle sits between the front of the iris (the coloured part of the eye) and the cornea (the clear window at the front of the eye).