How is a yard regraded so water drains away from the house?

A yard is regraded by reshaping the soil so the ground falls away from the foundation on every side, then sending that water to a place where it can drain or soak in without harming your house or your neighbors. The Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District recommends that the ground around a house slope away from the foundation walls, ideally at least a 5% grade for ten feet, which is a drop of at least six inches over those ten feet.^[1]

Why the grade next to the house matters

Ground that tilts toward the house is called a negative grade, and the district calls it an undesirable condition.^[1] Water then runs to the foundation instead of away from it. The district notes that most wet basements are a result of water problems outside of the house,^[2] and it lists gutters that need cleaning or are undersized, downspouts and sump pump pipes, and poor grading around foundation walls as possible causes of wetness and erosion near the walls.^[2]

Roof water adds to the load. When it rains hard, an average sized home can experience hundreds of gallons of runoff coming from the roof.^[3] Regrading works best together with gutters and downspouts that carry that water well clear of the walls, so a good contractor looks at both.

What a regrading job involves

The work is more than pushing dirt around. A contractor will usually:

• walk the property in or just after rain to see where water travels, pools and leaves
• find the low spots, the places soil has settled against the foundation and any slope that runs toward the house
• strip or loosen the surface, then add fill where the ground needs raising
• use clay-rich fill rather than sand near the house; the district says fill soil used to fill depressions near a foundation should have high clay content and not too much sand^[1]
• compact the soil in layers so it does not settle back; Fairfax County's flood program says regraded soil must be mechanically compacted to prevent settling^[5]
• shape the ground to the target slope, which that program describes as at least 0.5 inch per foot for at least 10 feet^[5]
• reseed, sod or mulch the bare soil so rain does not wash it away

A small tracked loader, a skid steer or a mini excavator does most of this on a typical lot. The finished soil should stay clear of siding, wood trim, vents and window wells.

Where the water goes

Tilting the ground away from the house only moves the problem unless it has somewhere to end up. The district puts it plainly: "Whenever you are redirecting runoff, you must send it to a suitable outlet."^[4] It describes a suitable outlet as land that can receive redirected runoff without erosion or sogginess, such as a rain garden, dry well, existing swale or gently sloping vegetated land that does not lead straight onto a neighbor's property.^[1] Redirecting runoff without soaking it into the soil can harm neighboring properties.^[4]

Fairfax County's flood program adds that regrading should aim to reestablish the grades on the approved site plan, and it notes that the county's Zoning Ordinance bars changing the existing contours of land in a way that obstructs, interferes with or changes its drainage.^[5] Check your own locality's rules before reshaping a drainage path.

Permits, utilities and protected land

Regrading counts as digging. Virginia's utility damage prevention law defines excavation to include grading, trenching and digging,^[6] so a locate request is needed before the machine arrives; see do I need to call 811 before digging in Virginia.

Large jobs also fall under erosion control rules. Virginia's erosion and stormwater law defines land disturbance to include the clearing, grading, excavating or filling of land.^[7] Outside Chesapeake Bay Preservation Areas, the erosion control requirements apply to any activity that disturbs 10,000 square feet or more, and the locality may reduce that threshold to a smaller area.^[8] In a Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area, the threshold drops to 2,500 square feet.^[8] The law also exempts minor land-disturbing activities, including home gardens and individual home landscaping, repairs and maintenance work,^[8] so whether a given regrade is covered is a question for your locality. Montgomery County, for example, requires a land disturbing permit when disturbing more than 10,000 square feet of land, including clearing, grading, excavation, transporting and filling.^[9]

Near streams, wetlands and floodplains the rules tighten. Land disturbance is highly restricted in Chesapeake Bay Resource Protection Areas,^[2] and disturbing a jurisdictional wetland in Virginia is prohibited without a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers Norfolk Office or the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.^[1]

If your home is in a newer development, ask before you pay anyone: in a new development under bond, the builder may be responsible for fixing drainage problems that arise as a result of inadequate grading.^[2]

When to call a licensed pro

Hire one for anything beyond filling a small low spot by the downspout: a slope that runs toward the house, standing water, water in the basement or crawlspace, a large area, a steep lot, a drainage path that crosses a property line, or a lot near water. Virginia's Board for Contractors defines a landscape service contracting specialty that covers altering a land area by excavation, clearing and grading, including removing stumps and roots below grade.^[10] Check the licence on DPOR's License Lookup before you sign.^[11]

Ask for a written scope that says which areas are regraded, the slope you are aiming for, where the water ends up, how the soil is compacted and the lawn restored, and who calls 811 and pulls any permit. For what it costs, see how much yard grading costs in Virginia. If the yard floods even when the grade is right, read why a yard floods when it rains.

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