Advice on re-grading land to slope away from house?

9/16/2014 at 12:40:40 PM

Hi Brett,

You should definitely use limestone screening to level you patio stones of at least 6" compacted every 2 inches.

The idea is to get the water away from the house, so "A" gravel or 3/4" gravel are not a good idea as the substrata will not facilitate water flowing away from the house but rather allow water to filter through,

Laying down a trap is not a good idea, as it will allow the substrata to move, it needs to be in contact with the ground.

There are small excavators, but if you don't have experience with them, I don't recommend them so close to the house.

Since this is attempting to prevent a flooding problem, I don't recommend doing it yourself, you might consider doing some of the preparation work, moving stones, digging up dirt yourself and then let the experts do the rest.

Good luck!

9/16/2014 at 1:34:01 PM

Thanks Alex.

Do you think it's necessary to excavate the existing soil base or just add the limestone screening on top? It will probably require at least 2-4" of screening added to bring it to the level it should be. It would be easier to add to it but I want to make sure that won't compromise the quality of water flow.

5/27/2018 at 1:30:40 PM

Hi,

I am wondering how things worked out with your regrading? I am mostly wondering if you used limestone screening and if you did how is that working? Also I'm wondering how you went about doing this.

I would greatly appreciate your input as we are considering using limestone (1/4 down) beside our house and I'm curious to know how porous it is. Does it actually become solidified allowing water to flow overtop?

thx

5/27/2018 at 1:53:49 PM

I re-graded and used the limestone screening. The ground now visibly slopes away from the house and the good news is that it has worked perfectly. After multiple floods, we haven't had any water come into the basement in the past 3 years. I highly recommend following this approach.

5/27/2018 at 10:09:29 PM

That's great!

What are the steps that you used? Is important to add water and compact the crushed limestone with a packer or compacter.

5/28/2018 at 8:16:54 AM

I didn't add water to the limestone. I poured it, leveled it to the slope I wanted and then I compressed it with a stamper (not sure what that tool is actually called - heavy square that you slam down). I had patio stones over the limestone that I had to remove and replace so that might be different for you.

5/28/2018 at 12:12:03 PM

Thank-you so much for the info-this is very helpful!