Service
Grading, drainage and site work in Mansfield, MA
Water decides where a yard is usable and where it is not. Grading sets the fall so runoff leaves the house and the low corner instead of sitting in them, and the same machine work that digs the patio base is what fixes it. It is the first thing done on almost every job, and the least visible.
A wet yard is rarely a drainage system problem. Usually the ground falls the wrong way, or it falls nowhere, and the water has no reason to leave. Fixing it means finding the low spot, deciding where the water should be going instead, and then moving enough soil to give it a continuous path. It is measured work, not guesswork, and it starts with walking the lot after a storm.
The grading on a patio, walk or wall is the same job in miniature. A patio wants a fall of about an inch and a quarter over ten feet away from the house. A walk wants the fall to keep running through each transition instead of stalling at a landing. A wall wants the ground behind it shaped so water goes around the ends rather than through the wall.
When the yard needs more than grading can give, the answer is usually a dry well, a length of solid pipe to daylight, or a shallow swale shaped into the lawn. Which one depends on the grade, the soil and where the water can legally go. On a tight lot that can mean infiltration at the low corner rather than a pipe to the street.
We dig the same way whatever the job is underneath it. Depth, no shortcuts at the house, and the excavation sized for the base the surface needs, not for what fits on the truck.
- Regrading to move water away from the house and the low corner
- Dry wells, solid pipe to daylight and shaped swales
- Excavation and base prep for patios, walks and walls
- Machine work sized for tight backyards and narrow access
Common questions
Grading & Site Work questions, answered
My yard floods at one corner. Can grading fix it?
Often, yes - if the corner is the low point and there is somewhere lower for the water to go. If the whole lot is flat or the neighbour's ground is higher, grading alone will not do it and the answer is infiltration on site: a dry well, a gravel sump or a swale, depending on the soil. We look at the lot after a storm before promising either.
How much fall does a patio or walkway need?
About an eighth of an inch per foot, running away from the house. That works out to a little over an inch across ten feet. Enough to shed water, not so much that the patio is a ramp. The fall starts at the door and follows the layout, which is why the layout gets drawn after the grade is read.
Do you work in backyards with no machine access?
Sometimes it means a smaller machine and sometimes it means more time. A backyard that only opens through a gate or across a lawn changes the job, not the standard. We look at the access before quoting, because it is one of the things that moves the number.
Planning site work?
Tell Bryce about the yard and get a free estimate.