# Raising a Problem Area



## LawnBossLady (Jul 13, 2018)

Hi everyone! This is my first post on this forum (or any lawn forum for that matter). I'm a lawn newbie; my husband and I just bought our first house in February. And boy, I've had to do a lot of work to rectify the yard! Summer has been wonderful with the yard drying out, however, in winter and early spring it is very wet (we live in NW Wash. state... and have a creek in the backyard).

We have an area at the back of the house that sits at the bottom of a slope, rarely sees sunlight, and gets very muddy and waterlogged. This problem area kills the grass and in turn, kills me :lol:

So, my question...I want to raise the level of the lawn here to avoid standing water. It will probably need to be raised 5.5" to 6" in some places. When is the best time of year to do this? I will be aerating in fall and overseeding so I thought I could bring in dirt and plant at this time too. Or, do I just worry about getting things raised and settled and seed this area next spring?

Also, what type of soil is best to do this project? And I will happily take any advice about this kind of project as I've never had to do anything like this before! It's a bit daunting (especially when your husband wants nothing to do with it).


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## Ecks from Tex (Apr 26, 2018)

Welcome!

My thoughts:

1. I would caution you against putting dirt down, leveling it out, and calling it good. You will eventually have to re-do it.

2. My concern would be that even if I raise the surface that water will still pool or if you are able to move it it will just pool at a new location in the lawn. One way to help solve this is to understand where the water comes from when it's raining and install some drainage before you level the lawn out. Then you are 100% guaranteed to fix your problem.

3. After you've figured out where the water comes from, you need to figure out where to send it (without sending it to your neighbors)

- Does it collect from out in the yard and roll back close to the house? Corrugated pipe underground + adding soil to make a grade away from the house will get you there. But caution, if you do not have grade all the way to a drainage point, you'll just move standing water elsewhere in your lawn.

- does it roll off your roof on the other side and then flow back around the corner to the problem area? Easy, install gutters and pipe the drainage underground to the street.

4. To figure out where to send it, you can either eyeball your property or if you want to ensure accuracy, rent a transit (cheap) and do some basic grade calculations in the areas. Do not be intimidated if you are unsure how to use a transit, there are YouTube videos that will get you there. You and your husband go out and just take some measurements and calculate the drop away from your house you moving the measuring stick about 3-4 feet farther away at a time and taking measurement. Then you will be able to use a string line to tell you exactly how high the dirt needs to be at the house to successfully move water off your property (or to a drainage point). In my own personal projects I have tried to get a 1/8 inch per foot slope in the grade. That will move the water.

5. As far as what topsoil to use, that largely depends on how much you determine you need to add and what your existing soil is like. Local nurseries should sell bulk soil of various kinds. I would look for something that is a blend of dirt, sand, and compost, sometimes called 3 way or at least a blend of dirt and compost. But not landscaping 3 way, which has mulch.


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## Ecks from Tex (Apr 26, 2018)

Also note there are ways of cheaply piping the water off your property without adding dirt. You could easily install something to collect the water near your house and dig a shallow trench to lay basic pipe bought at your local big box. I prefer using drainage and soil leveling together as it is what a professional would most likely do.


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## LawnBossLady (Jul 13, 2018)

Ecks from Tex said:


> Also note there are ways of cheaply piping the water off your property without adding dirt. You could easily install something to collect the water near your house and dig a shallow trench to lay basic pipe bought at your local big box. I prefer using drainage and soil leveling together as it is what a professional would most likely do.


Thanks for the advice! Some good things to think about. I suppose I get so excited about changing the appearance of it all I forget I should address the source of the problem. I'm too eager to throw down some grass seed haha
I have considered putting in a French drain around the corner along the fence line which leads down to the creek, that will probably fix my issue in this area as that's where most of the water is coming from. Suppose it's time to save $$$ for that!


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## Ecks from Tex (Apr 26, 2018)

LawnBossLady said:


> Ecks from Tex said:
> 
> 
> > Also note there are ways of cheaply piping the water off your property without adding dirt. You could easily install something to collect the water near your house and dig a shallow trench to lay basic pipe bought at your local big box. I prefer using drainage and soil leveling together as it is what a professional would most likely do.
> ...


Then what you need to do is just install what is called a catch basin on your gutter downspout and then pipe the water off your property. This will require labor but it's not very expensive of a project.

Likely the source of your water is the gutter


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

What are the black squares in the foundation? basement windows?

Which way does the downspout water goes?

There should always be a slight grade away from the house. I would try to get a level (4ft or longer) and see if you have a grade and in which direction.


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## Jconnelly6b (Mar 4, 2018)

As all have said and G-Man just hinted at... you don't want to change the grade so the water runs toward the house. If you raise the lawn that is consequently what will happen. Then you increase the hydraulic pressure against the foundation and you will get water inside - do you have a crawl space or basement?

Focus on finding where all the water is coming from (roof/gutters, or coming downhill from another location) and then make changes to handle the quick removal of it (via French drain, underground basin, etc)

There is a product out there called Rain Tank, and now subsequent knock offs, that you can dig a square hole in the yard, put a liner in the bottom, and install the rain tank. If you put a pump in the bottom you can use the water for your yard and landscaping when you need it, or empty it to the street/sewer when it gets full.


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## LawnBossLady (Jul 13, 2018)

I do have a downspout from my gutter that runs into the ground and shoots out into the creek, so any runoff from the roof is taken care of. As you may be able to see in the first picture the highest point of ground is at the fence and slopes down right into the house. So rain water (and it rains here a ton)flows directly into the foundation. That's one reason I would like to raise the grade so the slope isn't as pronounced and hopefully not as much water will sit near the foundation, compact the soil and ultimately kill the grass.
Those little black holes in the foundation are just ventilation for the crawl space. Ideally I would raise the soil just underneath those so they aren't blocked. 
Maybe a French drain and adding soil to made a better grade from the house would work?


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

I think you have an inch or so to the vents in the crawl space. I think you best option is to remove the soil from the back of the yard so it slopes from there away from the house. You could rent a sod cutter, to remove the sod to remove the soil and place the sod back down.


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