It would take the same amount of time with either piece with someone who knows how to run the equipment and to say a skid steer is the wrong piece for grading is mis-information. To call GPS a crutch is also crazy, there is a reason that a large percentage of new road graders sold have some sort of GPS controls on them. When you "eyeball" anything you run the risk of problems with poor drainage etc. Also, dchall_san_antonio, you should not pay by the hour for construction work, get a lump sum price to complete any job. This is why a 2 hour job would take 2 days, not because a skid steer is the wrong machine to use, it is the correct machine and so is a box blade, it is a matter of preference. weenerdogg- you can grade anything by hand, it just depends on how much you are willing to do and how much time you have. If you do it, go buy a decent, wide aluminum grading rake. It will make the job alot easier.

So we've moved in 3wks ago and the builder came with his excavator and tried to grade the land himself. I insisted he use the laser thing. My dad has one and came to shoot elevations with it prior to. Thus, we already had it figured out for the builder. We thought the best way to go about it would be to drain the water away from the patio and around the side of the house down into the front yard where it would finally drain into the street gutters. The back half of the yard didn't need any work according to my dad and his little laser. Of course, builder refused to slope around the side and use the laser. He said that you have to "eyeball" these sorts of things. My dad said that he'd do it with the builder's excavator while builder was present. (my dad graded his one acre piece of property himself and it drains beautifully) Builder won't allow anyone to drive his excavator except those who work for him. Thus, we let him do what he wanted to do (drain it to the back into a little "ditch" that he claims runs throghout the neighborhood between the backyards) This little ditch that he's referring to is simply a low spot between my property and the people who live behind us because they built their yard up. This low spot is still higher than our yard, so of course draining into there won't work. Even if it would have. I don't want a ditch on the edge of our property line! It was CLEAR even by eyeball that his plan wouldn't work. I asked him what we should do if it still didn't drain. He said that he'd come back and try again. Naturally, it rained that afternoon after he left and here are the results: Now what? He either needs to agree to let my dad do it or hire a professional. It's in the contract that the land has to be graded properly. We don't want things to get ugly yet because there is one final issue that will need to be resolved. We haven't approached him about this yet. The driveway slopes into the carport, so the carport fills with water every time it rains. We are going to have to fight to get more concrete poured ontop of the carport so that it's higher than the driveway. Builder will freak when we bring this up. Thus, we're trying to keep things nice as long as possible.

Hi Autumn, we're in SE WI so we do get a decent amount of snow. I'm wondering how we'd clear snow with traffic bond for a drive but I guess lots of people do it with the number of gravel drives I see around. That must have been tough waiting that long to put in the grass! Its interesting as the landscaper said wait on drive because you need to get all the heavy equipment access to finish grading, put stone base down for patio, moving trucks, etc. He said that will compact the drive base even more. Its a tough call as I have final grade in excavator's bid so they already have all the equipment on site to spread the topsoil. Hi bluesanne, That might be an option for our lab but our kids have no boundaries! lol. Are you thinking put drive in first and wait on grass? Any reason you heard of doing one first over the other?

It's best practice to use perforated PVC (NOT PE black slinky) around the outside of footings/bottom of basement and retaining walls. This pipe is wrapped in a filter sock, clean gravel and protected by thicker geotextile fabric like a burrito. It's best to backfill with clean gravel on top of burrito and against buried walls. This gravel is also protected by fabric. A cap layer of less pervious soil and good slope away from the house redirects surface water, the drainage stuff below is for times of heavy rain and increased groundwater. The perforated pipe transitions to solid pipe as it leaves the gravel burrito at house. It's pitched to drain by gravity, just like downspout drains. Some sites may need to trench 100' or more to drain to daylight. Cleanouts should be provided as needed, same as with waste plumbing. It's also best practice to have a drainage pipe in the slab gravel layer that maintains a consistent slope to daylight, usually requiring a penetration of the stem wall on the downhill side. Very few residential monolithic slabs in our area, but those might need the pipe to go through or under footing. A dry, monolithic slab site may not need a drain if built up well. If basement is a top design priority, and gravity drainage is not possible, then I would specify an airtight sump cover and look into battery backup if in an area of frequent power outages. The wetter and more remote the site, the more nervous I would be without gravity assist. Power failures often coincide with the big weather events that require drainage.