Grading and Landscape Prep in the Catskills & Hudson Valley

What Does Grading Around a House Actually Do?

It moves water away from your foundation and off the places where you walk, park or plant. Good grading slopes the ground away from the house, commonly about six inches of drop over the first ten feet, then carries that water to a swale, ditch or drain where it can leave without causing trouble. A lot of wet basements start with ground that slopes the wrong way.

Rough grading comes first: cutting high spots, filling low ones, and setting the overall shape with the machine. Fine grading comes after, bringing the surface to its finished level so seed, sod or pavers sit on a smooth, even base.

How Grading and Landscape Prep Goes, Step by Step

It starts with a walk. Justin looks at where water goes now, where it pools, where the downspouts dump, and how the property sits against the road and the neighbors. Then the topsoil gets stripped and stockpiled so it isn't buried under fill.

Fill goes in lifts, a few inches at a time, each one compacted before the next. Fill that's just dumped and driven over will settle for years, and whatever you build on it settles too. Clay is common near the river around Catskill and Hudson, and it's solid once compacted but miserable when wet. Working wet clay smears it and seals the surface, so it's better to wait a few dry days than to push it.

Once the subgrade is shaped, topsoil goes back on, typically four to six inches for a lawn, and gets fine graded. Seed or sod should follow soon, especially on slopes. Bare dirt on a slope is an open invitation for the next storm to carve gullies in it.

Steep Lots, Stony Till and Spring Washouts

Mountain lots bring their own problems. On a steep, wooded property, cutting a flat yard means a steep bank somewhere, and a bank that's too steep won't hold grass and slumps after freeze-thaw. Sometimes the answer is a gentler slope over more distance. Sometimes it's a retaining wall. In glacial till, stones keep surfacing during fine grading, and they need to be raked out before topsoil goes on.

Spring is when grading gets tested. Snowmelt on frozen ground can't soak in, so it all runs off at once. If your yard has washed out before, it will again unless the water gets a path. That's why grading usually goes hand in hand with drainage and erosion control: swales, culverts, curtain drains, and stone-lined channels where water moves fast.

How to Get Ready, and What to Avoid

Know what's going on the finished ground: lawn, patio, garden beds, a shed or a parking area. Each needs a different base and a different finished height. Tell Justin where your septic tank and field, well line and irrigation lines are, and move cars and outdoor furniture out of the way.

Then avoid the usual mistakes. Don't grade toward your neighbor's property; the water becomes their problem, and then yours. Don't bury stumps, construction debris or topsoil under fill, because they rot or compress and leave dips. Don't cover up a window well or the bottom of your siding with dirt. And don't pour a patio or set pavers on fill that hasn't been compacted in lifts.