We purchased the house across the street from us for cheap. One of the first things we noticed was the basement getting wet when it rained. All of the yard is sloped to where it tends to push water towards the house. What implement would be best to start grading the yard away from the house? The gravel drive also has a hump in it and tends to push water toward the house so I'd be knocking that down also.
Box blade, regular blade or what?
- Thread starter MyMonyPit
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85Hokie
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Lifetime Member
Equipment
BX-25D ,PTB. Under Armor, '90&'92-B7100HST's, '06 BX1850 FEL
The box blade is going to work much better than the straight blade - the box will have teeth in it to help break up the soil/grass - the straight blade will not "cut" much at all - but will push/pull loose stuff. Box will help driveway too.
The big advantage of the straight blade, is that it can angle and roll dirt/gravel/snow in a direction away from the direction of the movement.
You might need to load that box blade down too - to get it to bite into hard soil.
You might need a FEL or hoe in some of those spots too
Make sure you get an accurate sense of the grade. Often times what appears to be a lot is just a little. Before you start know where you want to wind up. If you know someone with a builders transit or a laser level it would be a great help to make that determination. It only takes a small change in grade to affect the drainage.
Appreciate the reminder of a little goes a long way. This house has a large sycamore out front and I would rather not damage any of its roots if I can help it. I am looking at the Everything Attachments box blade because I have heard good things about them and I have got some other jobs I can use it on.
Last edited:
Russell King
Well-known member
Equipment
L185F, Modern Ag Competitor 4’ shredder, Rhino tiller, rear dirt scoop
To assist in evaluating the grade, you can make an A frame level or Burnyip(sp?) level and some landscape flags and mark out the contours.
Search for permaculture swales and berms for good information on these methods
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Search for permaculture swales and berms for good information on these methods
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
We had that situation when we built on a 1200sqft addition. I have a grand L and a woods brand heavy duty box blade with scarifiers (over 500 pounds) and a good FEL.
Even with that, I hired a guy with a small track dozed that cut it down faster better than I could have in much less time. I ended up with a "step" out away from the house because there was still a lot of uphill so I trenched down 6" perf drain tile and put a dry stream bed in with rock. Works great, basement is bone dry since.
Even with that, I hired a guy with a small track dozed that cut it down faster better than I could have in much less time. I ended up with a "step" out away from the house because there was still a lot of uphill so I trenched down 6" perf drain tile and put a dry stream bed in with rock. Works great, basement is bone dry since.
My wife and I talked about having someone else coming over and doing it and we may still go that route. We have a contractor friend coming over today to look at new windows for the place and thought we'd ask him for a referral. While I think a box blade would be good to have around, this would get the job done probable quicker and better as you point out. Thanks Kingcreek!
Yeah, hate to discourage you. You could do it with a box grader blade with scarifiers but it will take you a lot of time, maybe days depending on how much you are moving. a track machine will do that kind of job better.