Grading and Regrading in Roseville, CA

The slope of your yard decides where every winter storm ends up. When the ground near the house is flat or tilts inward, water collects against the foundation, soaks the crawl space and stands on the lawn for days. Regrading fixes the slope itself, and it is often the simplest drainage repair a home can get.

Signs your yard has a grading problem

Most grading problems show up during or just after a heavy rain. Walk around the house while it is raining, or within an hour after it stops, and look at where the water goes. That one walk tells you more than any drawing.

Soil around a house should fall away from the walls. A common guideline is about six inches of drop over the first ten feet. Over time that slope tends to flatten or even reverse, and the water follows it.

• Puddles that sit against the foundation or along a side yard after rain
• Damp or musty smells in the crawl space, or standing water under the house
• Soil splashed up onto siding, stucco or the bottom of the garage door
• Patio slabs or walkways that tilt toward the house
• Mulch and bark washed into one low corner of the yard
• Lawn areas that stay soggy for days while the rest of the yard dries

What usually causes it

On newer homes, the most common cause is settling. The soil backfilled against a foundation during construction is looser than the ground around it. Over the first several years it compacts, and the strip right next to the house sinks. What started as a slope away from the wall becomes a shallow trough along it.

On older homes, the grade changes a little at a time. Someone adds a raised planter bed, piles bark against the wall, pours a patio, or puts in a lawn that sits higher than the original soil. Each change seems harmless. Together they can turn a side yard into a channel that carries water toward the house.

Downspouts play a part too. A downspout that empties at the base of the wall drops a whole section of roof runoff onto one spot. If the grade there is flat, that water has nowhere to go but down along the foundation.

When regrading is enough, and when it is not

Regrading works best when the problem is the slope right around the house and there is somewhere lower for the water to go: a street, a swale, a lower part of the yard. In that case, reshaping the soil so it falls away from the walls is often all that is needed.

It is not enough on its own when the whole lot is flat, when the lot sits lower than the neighbours, or when the soil is so dense that water cannot soak in. Water needs an exit. If the yard has nowhere downhill to send it, we pair regrading with another fix, such as a French drain, a channel drain across a patio, a dry well, or extending the downspouts underground.

We also check for things grading cannot solve. A broken irrigation line, a leaking hose bib or a downspout pipe that has come apart underground can all look like a grading problem. Regrading over a leak only hides it for a while.

Be careful about one thing: raising the soil too high against the house. Soil should stay below the weep screed on stucco walls and well below the siding. Piling dirt up to create a slope can trap moisture against the framing and cause new problems. Sometimes the right move is to lower the ground away from the house rather than raise it next to it.

Grading in Roseville

Roseville gets most of its rain in a few winter months, often in short, heavy storms after a long dry summer. Ground that has baked hard for months does not absorb water quickly at first. That means more of the early-season rain runs across the surface, and the slope of the yard matters more than it would in a place with steady, gentle rain.

Much of the soil in the area holds a lot of clay. Clay drains slowly when wet and shrinks and cracks when dry. Those summer cracks along the foundation can channel the first winter rains straight down next to the footing. A good grade sheds water before it reaches those cracks.

Many Roseville neighbourhoods are built on tight lots with narrow side yards between houses. Those side yards are where we see the most trouble. They are often flat, shaded and fenced, with downspouts emptying into them from both homes. Regrading a side yard usually means shaping a gentle swale down the middle so water moves toward the front or back instead of sitting against either house.

Back yards with patios, pools or raised beds added after the home was built are another common source. The original builder's grade was designed for bare soil. Later additions can block the path the water used to take.

What a visit involves

We start by walking the property with you and asking where you have seen water and when. Your memory of the last big storm is useful, and photos are even better.

Then we measure. We check the fall of the soil away from each wall, the height of the soil against the siding or stucco, and where the water can actually leave the property. We look at downspouts, patios, planters and the crawl space vents if your home has them.

From there we explain what we found in plain terms. You will hear whether regrading alone should handle it, or whether it needs to be combined with a drain or downspout work. If we do not think regrading will help, we will say so.

The work itself usually means removing or setting aside plants and bark near the house, cutting down high spots, bringing in fill soil where needed, compacting it in layers and shaping the final slope. We then finish the surface so it holds, with bark, rock or new turf, depending on what you want there.

Keeping the grade working

A new grade is not permanent if the yard keeps changing around it. A few habits help it last.

• Keep bark and mulch thin near the house so the soil line does not creep up the wall
• Check that downspouts still discharge where they should after gutter cleaning
• Watch new planter beds and edging so they do not dam water against the foundation
• Walk the yard during the first big storm each winter and look for new puddles
• Let us know if a low spot returns. Fill soil can settle a little in the first season, and a touch-up is simple