10041 Polk Street NE Minneapolis, MN 55434

Outdoor Drainage Project Example

Grading around House to Send Water Away from Foundation

Real Life Example of a Basement Water Problem We Solved

The Drainage Problem: Water pooling near house & leaking into basement after rainfalls

A homeowner in Golden Valley, a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, contacted us with a concerning issue of water seeping into their basement. The homeowner noticed dampness and small pools of water accumulating in the basement, especially after heavy rains.

Upon further inspection, they found signs of mold and mildew growth, indicating a potential long-term problem. As trusted experts in outdoor drainage, we immediately scheduled an on-site assessment to fully understand the extent of the water intrusion and its underlying causes.

The Landscape Drainage Problem and Symptoms

After heavy spring rains, water had gotten into their basement by coming up through the seam between the foundation block and cement basement slab at the corner of their house. This customer has a finished basement and the water intrusion caused water/moisture damage to their carpet, wood framing, trim work and sheetrock.

After meeting with a company that specialized in interior basement waterproofing, this customer realized that they did not want to install the interior drain tile system that was recommended by the basement contractor, because of the extensive cost associated with both tearing out and repairing the finished portions of the basement as well as the cost of the interior drain tile itself. After doing some additional research, they called us at KG Landscape to schedule an outdoor drainage consultation.

Identifying the Exterior Drainage Problem

During KG’s onsite drainage consultation for this customer, we realized that there were some obvious flaws in the grading around the house that we’ve outlined in the photo above.

The soil elevation against the foundation was very low and actually had a negative grade (a slope sending water back toward the house) in some areas. Also, the yard adjacent to the area where water was getting into the basement was much too flat, which allowed water to pool near the foundation and run into the basement after heavy rains and during the spring snow melt.

Our Drainage Solution Recommendations - Good, Better, and Best

KG Landscape offered this customer 3 options to help prevent water from getting into the house, which covered the range of “good, better and best” solution options.

1) Good - Foundation grading with a swale

2) Better - Foundation grading with a swale + new waterproof landscape fabric and rock in the foundation beds

3) Best - Foundation grading with a swale + new waterproof landscape fabric and rock in the foundation beds + drain tile running below the new swale and underground downspout extensions that would send water from the downspouts directly out to the street.

What did the Customer decide to do?

For this project, the homeowner decided to select: option 2) Better

They Chose: 2) Foundation grading with a swale + new waterproof landscape fabric + new rock around house

This involved re-grading the foundation to provide the proper slope away from the base of the house. To help achieve this, soil was brought in order to build up the soil level along the foundation. We combined the foundation grading improvement work near the problem areas, with a new swale running along the side of the property to get water safely out of the problem areas.

Our new swale completely prevented water from pooling in the side yard, and instead allowed that water to flow directly to the street using the 15” of elevation change the we divided evenly along the length of the swale.

Picture of a newly regraded side yard drainage swale project showing drop in elevation with paint markings and arrows MN

Foundation regrading and side yard drainage swale project showing drop in elevation with paint markings and arrows MN

In addition to the foundation grading and swale work, new poly fabric/new rock was installed within the bed spaces around the house. These solutions combined the practical side of solving the water intrusion issue while also providing a clean finished aesthetic with the new edging and new rock.

Ultimately, through our prompt response and effective drainage solutions, we were able to alleviate the homeowner's water intrusion into their basement and provide them with long-lasting peace of mind about their home's structural integrity.

Below is the Project Scope & Description we Outlined for this Estimate

Drainage Improvement Work Section A

Foundation Grading: Remove the sod/edging/rock/mulch within the spaces marked in yellow below, then install soil to raise the soil elevation against the foundation to allow water to flow away from the house as much as the slope will allow, compact the newly installed soil to help reduce settling, new soil level will be 3” below the bottom of the siding and will be restricted by the height of the window well in places

Swale: Install a swale as outlined below in green to help send water out of the side yard and out toward the street as shown by the blue arrows. KG will dispose of soil/sod removed during this grading work and grade smooth to prep for seeding

Finishing Work: We will rake in new grass within the disturbed swale area and along the side of the house where we did grade work and finally, we will cover all of the spaces we disturbed with straw matting/seed blankets. These seed blankets should be removed by the homeowner in the spring after the new seed reached roughly 2” tall

Drainage Improvement Work Section B

Install new black poly edging where outlined in black, add soil to increase slope away from the foundation in the backyard where shown below within new bed space, in the front bed space we would create a swale within the plant bed space as indicated by the blue arrows that would send both away from the foundation and then into the new side yard swale, then all of the new bed spaces shown below will have non-permeable poly fabric installed (to help prevent water soaking into the ground), (4-5) yards of 1.5-3” river rock would be install in the new bed spaces. Price includes all deliveries need for this work and seed/soil repairs as needed around our work space