soil grading for basement moisture

3490 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by joan smith, Jul 16, 2009

jpenns

Discussion Starter · Jul 15, 2009

I live in a neighbourhood of of tightly spaced, narrow 2 1/2 story houses. My neighbours' house is about 5 feet away from mine. I have basement leaking and want to grade the soil at the side of my house so that it drains away from my house, but obviously I can't just slope it into his basement. Is it possible to slope the soil the length of the house (about 35 feet) so it drains to the front and rear of our houses or do I need to install some kind of drain?

Also, there's very little sunlight between the houses so there is no grass growing, just soil. Once I put new soil down, do I need to seed grass and hope it might grow? I'd prefer to leave it as soil if that is fine for water.

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TooledUp

· #2 · Jul 15, 2009

I would slope it both ways and also install a drain tile underneath it. You could run that both ways with a pop-up release at the end of each tile. The mechanism pops out of the ground when the water pressure gets high enough and the water will run out on your lawn.

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jpenns

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jul 16, 2009

thanks for the reply. that sounds incredibly complicated for my level of handiness. is it hard to install?

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Bondo

· #4 · Jul 16, 2009

Ayuh,... All you have to do is create a shallow V shape in the soil, pitching whichever way between the houses you want it to Go...
The water will follow the swale...

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joan smith

· #5 · Jul 16, 2009

A great grass seed for shade is creeping red fescue, grows only in shade usually. It is a very soft fine grass and doesn't get very tall like regular fescue, the kind you want to wiggle your toes in. Can be found at most places that sell grass seed. I use it under trees and in shady areas, kids love it.

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