Hi all, i might be buying a new house contruction. the builder said the grading in that area is done from back to front. meaning, the land will slope slightly from the back of my lot to the street. there won't be any catch basins in any of the backyards. i'm concerned about this. i've read before that grading should be so that water is directed away from the house. but with this kind of grading, water will be going towards the back of my house. i would imagine that the land at the back of my house will be very soggy and the foundation back there will be wet most of the time. am i concerned for nothing? is this a common way of grading? is there a website that describes each type of grading in detail? i've tried looking but couldn't find any.
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thanks everyone for their opinions and experiences on this. I have emailed someone in the city who has forward my email to the appropriate person for this. i am waiting for a reply back.
thanks,
John
Although your builder should know the bylaws of your location, I strongly urge you to be very familiar with them. The builder really is only looking to make money. Unless you are knowledgable about what they are telling you, you have know way of ensuring they are doing things properly. It is not the builder that is ultimately held accountable - it is the homeowner. Also, having that knowledge can help prevent what happened to us. Which was our neighbors were building raised flower gardens, building sheds, and planting trees which prevented proper drainage. Therefore our yard flooded every spring and during heavy rains. Our bylaw stated that 'daming' is not allowed and that any structure can not impede on the flow of water. No one knew this (including us, until we looked into what could be done about the backyard water issues). Let's just say that we did not have happy neighbors who needed to remove some or all of there raised beds, trees, sheds. We didn't feel good either - however we were not prepared to pump out our yard for ten - twenty days every spring in order to keep the water from going into the basement.
We were in a neighborhood that did not have a swale but rather an easement. IN our case the easement (or city controlled land) was two feet on either side of the back fences.
hope this makes sense and sorry it is so long winded....
It's quite common to grade that way and there will (should be) a swale that goes from the back to the front to take the water away from the back of the house and out to the street.
What you have to be really careful about is what the deal is for grading after the house settles (normally after the first year). With a house I had, if you built a fence, planted grass in the back or did anything the builder would not come back to do the final grading and that meant problems. Meanwhile, new neighbourhood and guess what everyone put up the first year, fences.... It ended up my neighbours yards from behind and beside drained into mine and although part of my swale was fine, the yards were basically a mess because that final grading never got done thanks to the fences and lawns that had been put in too early.
So you live in dirt and no privacy for over a year or forget getting proper drainage once the house settles. I found that hard to take and was glad to get out of that house before water became a real problem.
Velocci, I think you should go back and ask them whether there will be a swale. You may even be able to go to the municipal offices and ask to see the grading plan. You want to make sure that it slopes gently away from the house (not too steeply because it makes your backyard less useable) and that there's a place for the water to go so the grass isn't soggy all the time.
I don't think they can grade it so that the water runs toward the house because I don't think the building inspector would pass it that way. You'd end up with water in your basement and other problems, like spalling of the concrete (where the top layer flakes off).
Good luck!
i have no idea. all the guy told me at the builder's sale's office is that the grading is from back to front. would you buy a house like that?
I think you're right to be concerned if water will be running toward the house -- that's definitely not good. Is it possible that they're going to slope it away from the house to what they call a "swale" (basically a long indentation in the ground) and then up to the street from there? They may also be putting a drain in the swale -- in a former house, our neighbours had one but we lucked out in not having to have one in our backyard.