Yard grading

[QUACKERS]

I am calling my buddy Brandon tomorrow about that bobcat attachment... That would be absolutely perfect. Give me an hour with that thing and I am done.

better watch him we work together.

[greenheadgrimreaper]

Very few surveyors/engineers will be coming out to shoot site grades with "sticks and ropes" but it is a great way to do it yourself. A full-blown survey would probably be a bit overkill for what you want, but hey, if you insist give us a call!

All you need is two stakes that are better off being a bit too long than too short- to allow for adjustment and a good, firm hold in the ground. Go to lowes and buy some GOOD masonry line, at least 100 feet of it, and a line level. Should run you about 10 bones to buy what you need. Grab a yard stick or tape measure and a hammer and a notebook and pencil.

Hammer the stakes down until they are firmly planted in the ground so line tension won't bow them in and cause the line to sag. Sagging line may throw off your measurements. Where do you hammer each stake? Put one on each end of where you want the water to run towards. If you're wanting to grade the yard off level or build it up/lower it, you can make several of these line levels and buy some paint stirrers or something that is easily pushed over when grading the dirt to your desired slope or even grade.

Once you hammer the stakes in, tie your line to each stake. Tie it very tight. I use a taughtline hitch so I can adjust the tension of the line when taking measurements for multiple slope runs.

Put the line level on. Choose one stake to make your adjustments- to bring the line level to its level position. You now have a level baseline from which to measure the slope and/or elevations along the run of the slope. It's a great way to recon the topography of your yard and possibly come up with a better plan than what you had.

A slope of 1:100 is plenty in situations like you have in order to quickly carry water offsite. Usually you won't have this problem of not having enough slope in a backyard situation. But, if you live in Washington County you just might. The beauty of grade stakes is that you can create a slope. But creating slopes byway of a hand shovel is akin to being gored to death by an angry bull. The only issue ( other than shortening your lifespan) with going against grade in a drainage ditch situation is you must have a final grade or somewhere for the water to go once it reaches the end of the slope. A well made sump is a good alternative, just google them- they're simple concepts that are not expensive to make. Hell you may already be familiar with them. Either way, if you create a slope and/or don't go with the natural grade, and do not end the grade with the natural ground elevation or into a street or into the city drinking water supply, then you will be required to do some cutting and filling along your drainage ditches and find somewhere for your water to go. ALWAYS have somewhere for the water to go. That should be your first priority when devising your plan. Sounds like you got that covered but make sure to take a close look at what the water might do once it hits the street. This is something people overlook no matter which option they choose. They divert water from one place to another and fail to realize that the water that was falling and standing "over there" is now falling, running and standing "over here". And "over here" is right up against the foundation of their neighbor's house.

So you got your line setup. Let's say you want to drain from north to south. Let's also assume you are going to use the natural slope of the ground to run water off of your yard. Let's say your run is 105 feet so we will call it 100 feet. Your south end will fall into a sump. You measure from the ground up to the line on the north (higher elevation side) and get a measure of 24 inches. On the south end you get a measure of 12 inches. You have a slope with 1 foot of rise in 100 feet of run. Of course it won't always wind up this cut-and-dry but you get the concept. Any slope is better than no slope and one thing engineers know is that you can't reproduce the effectiveness of natural slope and topography. It's best to work with it instead of against it- like what faithful retrievers did. Once it gets to another low spot or problem area, setup your grade stakes again and find the best way to run water off with the grade from there. It's a "leap frog" type approach, for lack of a better phrase. Take from point a, to point b, to point c to its destination.

Now all you have to do is keep your digging/grading true to your slope. Whether you want your drain (or site grade if you are grading the site to a slope or even grade with a bobcat) to be 4 inches deep or 40 feet deep on one side or the other- just make sure you keep it sloping true to what you have determined your slope to be and mapped out with your grade stakes. Elevation of the sloping ground is of no consequence (theoretically in this case), it's the relation of your beginning slope elevation to your ending slope elevation. Build it a thousand feet high or a thousand feet low, just make sure it's sloping or is equal. But keep in mind if you even grade your yard to take the washboards out and it has natural high and low spots that those washboards are within then you are going to have to make sure you compensate for that. Just knocking down the little variations won't help the big ones.

Because if you dig your drainage or grade your yard in a washboard pattern or don't keep a good, true grade along your desired drainage path then water will pool up in those spots and probably wind up exacerbating your problem- you have then achieved nothing more than "painting the proverbial terd." Grade stakes take all of the guesswork out of it. If you don't do it right then water and gravity will expose your hard work. Hard work is a noble thing, no doubt, but water and gravity don't give a damn about it. It might do fine for a little while, but over time the two will expose you and silt in or erode, etc all of the places that "used" to be fixed. If you do it right then your problem is fixed for as long as it's your concern, but just make sure your putting that water somewhere where it's not an even bigger problem- like your carport. We deal with horribly designed drainage systems all the time in neighborhoods with very nice homes that are very nice and new. It doesn't take long. We have also been involved in instances where a landowner with good intentions solves his problem with another bigger problem by causing damage to his neighbor's property. One "little ole' ditch" can become one hell of a b... I've seen whole neighborhoods where you cannot walk across the freshly-sodded yards without a pair of rubbers because someone who had no business "designing" the topography of the neighborhood did, and wound up "designing" a swamp. But hey, anyone who has run a level "used" to be a surveyor/engineer. I digress

Find someone with a level and level rod and get them to show you how to use it and the process is much quicker and easier. In 10 minutes someone who knows how to use one can have you running smoothly. Nothin' to it-for situations like this. Of course you could also rent a laser level but those are best reserved for use by women, children and men who drive automatic transmission trucks.

[Northbigmuddy]

Well that'll just about do it. This yard is gonna be a putting green by the time y'all wrap up.

[msbigdawg1234]

Fill dirt ,box blade level on a transit and wide tape mearsure...shoot bout 1 in fall every 10yards and youll be fine...seed and starw and water the hell out of it...my persoanl experience its still too early for planting...if ya wait few months it would be better