u/Squirrelled_Studio

So for context, we need to do some regrading around our 30-year-old house because water was pooling up right next to our foundation. We have an actual professional coming to do this in the next couple of months, but just for our peace of mind during heavy rains, we tried to do a temporary regrading job ourselves along about 10 inches of our foundation where water collects the most.

The goal was just to move the water a few feet away from our house to minimize damage over the next couple of months. We scarified the existing clay a few hours after rain, stepped on it to remove air pockets, placed down a Timberlane topsoil that we were told was okay for small regrading jobs, and finished by tamping it into shape. Afterward, the slope wasn't perfect, but it was enough to get water away from our foundation by one foot.

So what's the problem? Well we did all this while our clay-heavy soil was still wet. And as we now know, working wet clay reduces its ability to have water infiltrate.

In the past, even though we had a puddle of water close to our foundation, it would still disappear within 30 minutes or so. But now the water sits and pools up, it doesn't even go away after 12 hours of sitting. So even though the ground slopes water slightly away from our house, it gets more water close to our foundation.

What we want to know: is there a way to fix this ourselves before the regrading work gets done? We're thinking about getting a garden fork to poke and wiggle the clay to loosen it (when the ground is dry!!!). Would this work? Or is there a better way to fix this?

And when the guy comes to do the final regrading, should we ask him to do anything to the area we worked on like redoing it (or would this make it worse)? The contractor will be raising the regrading by our foundation by about 6 inches, and we don't want to have a shelf of poorly compacted wet clay causing water to pool under the new soil and against the CMU foundation for days without a way to drain. We will be building a new deck in this area so we want to get this fixed before it becomes inaccessible.

Many thanks!

We’re doing some major regrading on our 30-year-old property to fix our slope, and we’re stuck on what material to actually use. We’ve heard conflicting advice from contractors, so we’d love to get some outside advice.

Context:

• Foundation: Unpainted/unsealed exposed cinder block (2 blocks exposed currently).
• Depth Needed: Adding about 6 inches of dirt against the foundation to establish proper slope.
• There are two different zones: Open lawn (where we want healthy grass to grow). And where we want to put a deck (no grass needed, purely about drainage and stability).
• We live in a state that's already pretty grassy and that has soil with a naturally high clay content

Problem:

Contractors have mainly suggested topsoil, fill dirt, and clay.

Topsoil is obviously ideal for our lawn, but we’re worried about it holding moisture directly against our bare block foundation.

Clay / fill dirt sheds water great, but might not be great for getting our grass to grow later.

Layering clay on the bottom with topsoil over it has come up as another option, but we aren't sure about the depth of each layer.

What we want to know is if there's single soil/dirt type or blend that works for both zones to keep things simple/cheap, or should we use two different materials?

If we layer different soils, how many inches of topsoil do we need minimum for grass to thrive without compromising the slope/drainage underneath?

What are your thoughts?

We’re doing some major regrading on our 30-year-old property to fix our slope, and we’re stuck on what material to actually use. We’ve heard conflicting advice from contractors, so we’d love to get some outside advice.

Context:

• Foundation: Unpainted/unsealed exposed cinder block (2 blocks exposed currently).
• Depth Needed: Adding about 6 inches of dirt against the foundation to establish proper slope.
• There are two different zones: Open lawn (where we want healthy grass to grow). And where we want to put a deck (no grass needed, purely about drainage and stability).
• We live in a state that's already pretty grassy and that has soil with a naturally high clay content

Problem:

Contractors have mainly suggested topsoil, fill dirt, and clay.

Topsoil is obviously ideal for our lawn, but we’re worried about it holding moisture directly against our bare block foundation.

Clay / fill dirt sheds water great, but might not be great for getting our grass to grow later.

Layering clay on the bottom with topsoil over it has come up as another option, but we aren't sure about the depth of each layer.

What we want to know is if there's single soil/dirt type or blend that works for both zones to keep things simple/cheap, or should we use two different materials?

If we layer different soils, how many inches of topsoil do we need minimum for grass to thrive without compromising the slope/drainage underneath?

What are your thoughts?

We’re doing some major regrading on our 30-year-old property to fix our slope, and we’re stuck on what material to actually use. We’ve heard conflicting advice from contractors, so we’d love to get some outside advice.

Context:

• Foundation: Unpainted/unsealed exposed cinder block (2 blocks exposed currently).
• Depth Needed: Adding about 6 inches of dirt against the foundation to establish proper slope.
• There are two different zones: Open lawn (where we want healthy grass to grow). And where we want to put a deck (no grass needed, purely about drainage and stability).
• We live in a state that's already pretty grassy and that has soil with a naturally high clay content

Problem:

Contractors have mainly suggested topsoil, fill dirt, and clay.

Topsoil is obviously ideal for our lawn, but we’re worried about it holding moisture directly against our bare block foundation.

Clay / fill dirt sheds water great, but might not be great for getting our grass to grow later.

Layering clay on the bottom with topsoil over it has come up as another option, but we aren't sure about the depth of each layer.

What we want to know is if there's single soil/dirt type or blend that works for both zones to keep things simple/cheap, or should we use two different materials?

If we layer different soils, how many inches of topsoil do we need minimum for grass to thrive without compromising the slope/drainage underneath?

What are your thoughts?

For context, our house is 30 years old and in desperate need of regrading. We're looking to raise the ground all around our house by about 6 inches. The foundation already has an asphalt coating below grade from when the house was built, but there are currently two layers of exposed CMU (cinder blocks) above grade that do not have any protective coating.

Before we regrade, we want to know if it would be a good idea to apply an asphalt coating to the bottom layer of exposed CMU before it gets buried.

We want to add any extra water protection we can to our house. We’ve dealt with water damage in the past and want to minimize the chances of it happening again.

At the same time though, we don't know if this is overkill. We've heard some people say it's necessary, but other who say it's not. We'd like to hear what you all think.

For context, our house is 30 years old and in desperate need of regrading. We're looking to raise the ground all around our house by about 6 inches. The foundation already has an asphalt coating below grade from when the house was built, but there are currently two layers of exposed CMU (cinder blocks) above grade that do not have any protective coating.

Before we regrade, we want to know if it would be a good idea to apply an asphalt coating to the bottom layer of exposed CMU before it gets buried.

We want to add any extra water protection we can to our house. We’ve dealt with water damage in the past and want to minimize the chances of it happening again.

At the same time though, we don't know if this is overkill. Adding an extra layer of water-proofing sounds like the right choice, but we'd like to hear what you all think.

For context, our house is 30 years old and in desperate need of regrading. We're looking to raise the ground all around our house by about 6 inches. The foundation already has an asphalt coating below grade from when the house was built, but there are currently two layers of exposed CMU (cinder blocks) above grade that do not have any protective coating.

Before we regrade, we want to know if it would be a good idea to apply an asphalt coating to the bottom layer of exposed CMU before it gets buried.

We want to add any extra water protection we can to our house. We’ve dealt with water damage in the past and want to minimize the chances of it happening again.

At the same time though, we don't know if this is overkill. Adding an extra layer of water-proofing sounds like the right choice, but we'd like to hear what you all think.

For context, our house is 30 years old and in desperate need of regrading. We're looking to raise the ground all around our house by about 6 inches. The foundation already has an asphalt coating below grade from when the house was built, but there are currently two layers of exposed CMU (cinder blocks) above grade that do not have any protective coating.

Before we regrade, we want to know if it would be a good idea to apply an asphalt coating to the bottom layer of exposed CMU before it gets buried.

We want to add any extra water protection we can to our house. We’ve dealt with water damage in the past and want to minimize the chances of it happening again.

At the same time though, we don't know if this is overkill. Adding an extra layer of water-proofing sounds like the right choice, but we'd like to hear what you all think.