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Landscape Design

Foundation Grading - Rerouting Water Drainage - What to Use?

3 years ago

Pretty recently I have had the issue water seeping into my basement(unfinished) on really heavy rain days. Medium and light rain days are fine.

One of the things that I know needs to be done is getting the gutters either replaced or repaired.

I was wondering if anyone would have any sort of tips for grading around the house. I notice a lot of people use top soil but our community has an area where you can get free mud or clay and I was wondering if I could grade around with that? Would that involve me needing to dig out the loose soil to a thicker soil and then placing the mud there or would I be able to place the mud/clay right on top and pack it down?

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Comments (2)

PRO
Rosemont Design
3 years ago
Hi Andrew,

I would avoid using clay here, which tends to be impervious to water. Use of clay around your foundation wall will allow water to pond on heavy rain days, and ultimately be absorbed by the concrete. This would compound the effects of seepage into your basement.

A pervious topsoil that promotes drainage is your best choice. Given your current circumstances, we would recommend digging down to the footing and backfilling with pervious soil. When you get back up to finish grade, make sure the topsoil slopes away from the foundation wall.

Hope this helps!
Andrew Tucker thanked Rosemont Design
Andrew Tucker
Original Author
3 years ago
Thank you for the response!

I hope you don't mind if I ask a few questions.

I'm not that handy and have never run an excavator and right now it is not in the budget to hire someone to excavate around the house.

The house is not large, is it something that could be hand dug? I could only imagine that would take a lot longer.

If I were to just add a pitch on-top of the current soil, might that at least mitigate the problem a bit?

I've checked on rainy days and it doesn't come in when it is a normal rainy day. Heavy rains seem to vary.

I've noticed it to be 2 problem areas where the water comes in from and it was definitely where there are issues with the gutter. We are getting those replaced very soon.

What type of contractor would I look into hiring for this sort of project?

Thank you,
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