If you’ve never thought about grading as a function of the landscaping around your home, it was probably done correctly for your home so you don’t have any problems with it. When grading is not done correctly for the yard around your home, all kinds of issues can arise. For instance, if the grading actually slopes toward the house, water can get into the basement; when the grade is level, water can pool up in the yard and sit there until it evaporates; when the grade is too far away from the house, water has a chance to build up momentum and erode the yard area.
All of these are safety hazards for your home, and can lead to greater problems if not addressed. Thus, it is crucial to see the importance of proper grading around the home. That being said, a method for determining the grading percentage around your home is described below, so you can see if yours is up to snuff.
How to find out if you have good, bad, or okay grading
- Establish reference points – put two stakes in the ground, one at the edge of your lawn where the water drains, and the other right by the foundation of your house. If the distance between these two stakes is considerable, insert more stakes every 10 feet or so, to make measuring easier.
- Create visual grading – tie a string around either the foundation stake or the lawn-edge stake, whichever is higher. Run that string to the next closest string, and pull it tight. Have your helper hold a level on that string while you adjust the string to make it level, and then tie that string off. Repeat this process through all the stakes you’ve inserted in the ground, until you reach the opposite end.
- Take two measurements – First, measure the distance between the two outermost stakes, and then measure the distance from the actual ground up to the point where the string is tied off on the lower of the two outermost stakes.
- Divide to find the grade – now divide the height of the string by the distance between the two stakes. For example, if the height of the string is 2 feet and the distance across the yard is 50 feet, the grade would be 1/25 or 4%. The percentage considered ideal for grading is somewhere between 2% and 5%.
Grading remediation in the Bay Area and Sacramento
If you are experiencing yard problems and need a grading company, contact the excavation experts at Lassiter Excavating, Inc. The professionals at Lassiter Excavating can handle everything from grading to large Bay Area excavation projects, helical anchor installation, and pier drilling. With almost 30 years of experience, Lassiter Excavating is licensed and bonded, and ready to serve clients throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento. Speak with a representative today at (925) 449-3112 or contact us online and we will be happy to help.